Osafo Maafo, one of the leading presidential aspirants of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has discounted claims that he is fronting for other presidential aspirants and would not pick up nomination forms to contest the flagbearership of the NPP.

He described the claims as untruth which “could only have been concocted” and that his nationwide tour of constituencies to campaign for support clearly indicates that he is far ahead of his would-be competitors.

“If you talk about people who have served the party very well from the beginning to now, I am one”, he declared, insisting that “in my going round I am also totally convinced that I am extremely popular within the NPP, extremely popular.”

Speaking on Joy FM’s Supper Morning show programme on Monday, the former Finance Minister intimated that the NPP delegates think that he has proven leadership qualities, expressing the belief that he could easily beat Prof. Mills in the general election.

Prompted by host, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah that delegates would say the same to all the candidates and therefore one could not bank his hopes on what assurances delegates give, Mr Osafo Maafo said the assurances he received from the party’s delegates were not lip service.

“I’m aware that the delegates, because they want to be nice to everybody, say that they will vote for you. That’s true (but)… I have my network and I’m sure about what I’m talking about”, he stressed.

According to him, the NPP delegates believe that the next election is so crucial because “we have served the eight years and the NDC has also served constitutionally eight years, even though on the whole they have served about 19 years and therefore this election is like a 2-2 draw and we are in penalties. Therefore we need a candidate that by and large, majority of the population also want and that is very important.”

Osafo Maafo said he represents that person who could, apart from the support of NPP followers, win floating voters and possibly NDC sympathisers.

The NPP presidential aspirant also advocated a change in national development plans, saying after 50 years of nationhood, Ghana must shift from extracting raw materials into an era of harnessing advantages she has, relative to her neighbours for national development.

“The way things look, it is time for a change. It is time for a change because our initial development was based on the extraction of raw materials like timber, gold and bauxite”.

He maintained that “our timber is getting exhausted and the others we did not process them much in this country and the contribution of it to our development is not as significant as it should be”.

“Now you will notice that there are many countries that have no raw materials of any type but they are developing very well”, he noted, asking: What are the advantages that we have?

“Number one is the human resource base of this country and the nature of the people. Ghanaians are considered very nice people and people are able to tell a Ghanaian from other West Africans by just talking to them or dealing with them even when they are outside this country”, he said.

Other advantages, according to Mr Osafo Maafo, are the country’s economic stability, which he described as ‘very important’, explaining that "today your currency is stable and therefore people have confidence to deal in your currency”

Again, he said Ghana is perhaps the most stable nation, politically, in the sub-region and that given her unique position at the centre of the sub-region; accessible by land, sea and air, the country obviously deserves better for her development.

“If you put all these things together, then if you examine what is happening at the moment, then it is time for a paradigm change, it is time for us to think outside the box to put all these things together for the benefit of the people”, he submitted.

For him, what is new is that the NPP government under President Kufuor has done an excellent job in managing the economy, in good governance, in safety and that Ghana has now become very attractive to its neighbours in West Africa.