The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) raised the political temperature of the country over the weekend with the launch of its election 2012 campaign and adoption of its manifesto for the upcoming December elections.

At a massive rally at Mantse Agbonaa in Accra on Saturday to round up the party’s annual delegates’ conference, the NPP presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who had been nicknamed ‘Nkosuohene’ or development chief, made a passionate appeal to the good people of Ghana to get rid of President John Dramani Mahama and his ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), describing them as incompetent.

Most of the other speakers asked Ghanaians to show the NDC the exit because of the rampant corruption in the country at the moment, citing the Woyome saga and inflated contracts as well as blatant pilfering from national coffers.

The event was attended by key and influential members of the party from all the 10 regions of the country, including former President John Agyekum Kufuor and his Vice, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, former Ministers, Members of Parliament, national, regional and constituency executives, delegates and party supporters.

This was after an earlier event at the Dome of the International Conference Centre at which the party moved and adopted its manifesto for the general elections.

The numbers were such that the police had to block certain roads for diversion whilst the venue was awash with the red, white and blue colours of the NPP.

Nana Addo mounted the platform to a spontaneous applause and cheers from the charged crowd, some of whom had climbed on roof tops to listen to him. He said, “Let us use the occasion in December to move the people; the non performers, the non achievers, the incompetent, inept administration of the National Democratic Congress.”

This, according to him, was because the NDC was running Ghana into a ditch in spite of the country’s rich natural and human base.

For him, “the upcoming elections is about the future of Ghana, so nobody should take it lightly, because we all know the level of hardships that exist in the country today because those in charge cannot deliver on the goods. They are ruling the country with insult and lies but that is not how I am going to run the country when voted into power, because I am bringing a good government that would create wealth, jobs and wellbeing of the people.”

“God”, he said, “did not put us on this rich land to be poor, it is poor leadership that is keeping us backwards”, asking Ghanaians to stay strong and courageous to help move the country forward by voting for the NPP.

“Let us move them out of the way and bring a team of people who has the capacity to bring progress to our nation; that is what the election in December is about- ‘who has the key to the progress of our nation’,” he noted.

Economy

The NPP presidential candidate was of the strong belief that “Ghana has the capacity to be a first-world nation if we belief in ourselves and we have belief that we are capable of doing it”, whilst posing a rhetorical question to the crowd, “Can we not do it?” with the crowd responding in the positive, “We can do it.”

In view of this, he said “we are coming to revamp the economy by strengthening the cedi that has been weakened and that is why I asked Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to come and assist me to achieve this aim and create more jobs.”

He appealed to the conscience of the people, saying, “Let us all unite around the programme of the NPP and push our country to the next stage of development which the people of Ghana so richly deserve.”

About the elections, Nana Addo said, “You know the kind of people we are going into this elections with. They are good in using ways and means and cutting corners. So all of us must be vigilant with our eyes wide open, to ensure that nobody rigs the election.”

On his free secondary education promise, Nana Addo had this say: “I have sat with my elders to make calculations and we have come to the conclusion that the free secondary education is achievable to enable our young men and women to go to school…that is why we are bringing free secondary education to every young child- boy or girl- in Ghana.”

“They (referring to the NDC) were initially going round saying we cannot do it but now they have come to realize that we can do it,” he noted, urging Ghanaians to vote for him to prove his case.