“Criticism comes to everyone. In fact, the more you are admired by some, and the more successful you become, the more visible target you are for critics. So don’t withdraw just because you have been rejected . Determine that you are going to keep going through as many rejections as necessary until you find the love you need.” --- Alan Loy Mcginnis, in Confidence

This quote fits perfectly the state in which His Excellency President Mahama finds himself, with constant negative propaganda of the opposition, even in the Diaspora, from different angles-left, right and center. These barrage of criticism that he faces come without authentic proves, but mere speculations. However, the more they criticize the president, the more he soars in prominence and popularity, winning the hearts of myriad of voters, by virtue of his charm, character and charisma. They characterized our successful programme as, “tasty” promises of a “Better Ghana Agenda” , a booklet they never care to read, which out-lined the positive progress made toward the successful implementation of this agenda. It is very glaring in the agenda that, the achievement made so far toward this end, was far beyond what the NPP had made during their eight years in office. And it is rather the NPP which is making “ tasty” promises of its utopian SHS and NHIS policies, that could not be achieved within their stipulated period. A clear cut irony of a pot calling a kettle black. It is very clear to Ghanaians between Nana and Mahama who looks more presidential and who fits perfectly to rule Ghana. They can now tell clearly who relies only on rhetorics and empty promises. And whose government is tried and tested, and who can take us to the promised land. This piece attempts to enumerate some achievements made towards the implementation of the Better Ghana Agenda, as against the mess created by the NPP-Kufour led administration. Below are some facts and figures, highlighting the achievements made as part of fulfillment of our promises thus far: As indicated in our BETTER GHANA AGENDA Booklet, sub-titled, "Top 50 Achievements of the Professor Mills led Government in his first two years in office.", we were able to sustained reduction in inflation rates over the last 3 years consistently, and the trend has continued into October 2010. From a high level of 18.1 in December 2008, before the defeat of the NPP, which lost the elections due to its poor management of the economy. However, by virtue of the pragmatic and practical approach adopted by the Mills-Mahama led administration, the rate of inflation as at October 2010 was at 9.38% and is currently at a single digit. The National Youth Employment Programme(NYEP) provided jobs for 110,796 persons across the country(as against 108.04 records of the NPP between 2006 and 2008) and also formulated a Strategic Plan to ensure the smooth implementation of its programmes and activities, as a result, 457.577 youth were employed between 2009 and 2012. The management and administrative systems of the NYEP were also restructured. 5,000 ghost names(an handi-work of the NPP cronies and cordinators) were expunged from the list of beneficiaries, thereby making room for an equal number of unemployed youth to be engaged. To give meaning to our(NDC) Social Democratic Credentials, our government fulfilled a campaign and manifesto promise of reducing the duration of SHS (formerly SSS) from 4 to 3 years. That extension itself had no strong technical basis and the NPP government failed to put in place infrastructure development plans that will ensure that the needed classroom, dormitory, library, dining and assembly hall etc in place for the implementation. And if these structures were not in place how can the NPP provide free SHS education? Another promise we fulfilled was reducing the number of Ministerial appointees and running a lean government, the number of ministers has significantly been reduced from 87 during the NPP regime to 73 in the Mills-Mahama led administration. It is projected that approximately GHc 8 million is saved annually by this bold decision to run a lean government. The hundreds of Special Assistants, Presidential Staffers and Spokespersons of NPP at the castle are also a thing of the past. In the area of health, the National Health Insurance Scheme has registered 15,555,816 members as at 30th June 2010 representing 66.4% of the population. After formal accreditations in 2009, 2,685 healthcare facilities have been formally accredited. The new Clinical Audit Division Audit Division has been able to recover over 14 million GHc as a result of abuse and error in claims payment during the NPP administration. In fact, we can go on and on with various case studies where the NPP messed up and mismanaged state resources, which finally took the intervention of the Mills-Mahama led administration to bring sanity and security into the system. The NPP gurus themselves know it does not make sense to descend on president Mahama within a short span of time that he took over the mantle of leadership, with grossly exaggerated and outrageous allegations of financial misappropriation, losing sight of their eight years in office, which was replete with gigantic and gargantuan cases of corruption and embezzlement. Ghanaians still remember what even former President J. A. Kufour did, as well as some of his former ministers such as Dr. Richard Anane, Dr. Charles Wuraku Brobbey, Mr. Kudjo Mpianim, Kennedy Agyapong and even Nana Akufo Addo himself, regarding issuance of diplomatic passports to their party members, when he was the foreign minister. It was Buddha who said that, "Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living." This NPP-USA Public Relations Committee's propaganda is a constant blow below the belt, because Ghanaians are not buying it. Besides, it is very vivid and clear in their minds, this rife and rampant spate of corruption that Ghanaians observed under their very noses, which was unprecedented in the political history of the country. But the NPP will continue unabated to castigate and vilify the president and will never see good in anything he does for the interest of the nation. It is fair to say that, the NDC is inundated with so many constrains, some of which are; the 24/7 bitter criticism from our opponents, the death of our flagbear, couple with the internal wrangling that led some of our members to form a party. All these appear to make our progress a beat murky and gloomy, but we know we are on the right track and have the best policies and programmes for the socio-economic advancement of our mother Ghana. And God willing, will shall overcome these difficulties as we drive inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi of India who once said, "Divine guidance often comes when the horizon is the blackest." We could clearly see that God is turning our problems into prosperity in disguise, by making our dear president Mahama the most popular and preferable candidate among all others, as we are moving slowing but surely, on our way to victory come December 7th, 2012.

Husseini Y. Baba Alwaiz, Press Secretary, NDC New York