Bawku, (U/E), Nov. 22, GNA - Mr Mahama Ayariga, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate for Bawku Central has said he supported the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and would, therefore, work to ensure its successful implementation in the Constituency when voted into office.

He said as a member of the team that drafted the legal framework of the scheme, it was incumbent on him to ensure that the scheme became active in order to provide quality health care delivery to the people in the Constituency.

Mr Ayariga stated this at a forum organised for parliamentary candidates in the Constituency on Sunday.

The forum, which was organised by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the USAID, aimed at offering opportunity to the candidates to outline their visions with the electorate and also direct their campaign activities on issues affecting the people. It also aimed at offering the electorate the opportunity to assess the candidates and make informed choices during the elections. Four other candidates, including two independent ones participated in the forum.

They were Mr Amidu Mahumudu Sisala for People's National Convention (PNC); Mr Tiaban Kundiima for Convention People's Party (CPP); Mr Amadu Sadat an Independent Candidate and Mr Gabriel Abubakar Ustaz, also an Independent.

Madam Hawa Yakubu the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency and New Patriotic Party (NPP) Candidate, however, did not attend. No reason was given for her inability to attend.

Mr Ayariga said one of his priorities would be to ensure peace and security in the area by initiating programmes that would bring all the ethnic groups in the Constituency to dialogue to find amicable solution to their problems.

He would also initiate programmes to ensure good sanitation to prevent malaria in the area and also initiate projects that would provide employable skills to the youth to prevent them from engaging in acts that could lead them to contract the HIV/AIDS virus.

Mr Sisala pledged to initiate programmes to equip the police in the area to enable them to maintain law and order.

He said he would constantly liaise with the people to know their problems and to help find solutions to them.

Mr Sisala said he would initiate cleanup campaigns in the area and use part of the Member of Parliament's share of the District Assemblies' Common Fund (DACF) to buy mosquito nets for the people as a way of preventing malaria in the Constituency.

Mr Abubakar Ustaz, an Independent Candidate, said his main focus would be the promotion of good governance and democracy at the grassroots level by ensuring that the decentralisation process became meaningful to the people.

He said he would initiate programmes that would promote agriculture and food security and to create job avenues for the people. Mr Ustaz said he would intensify education on the National Health Insurance Scheme and HIV/AIDS to enable the people to change their sexual behaviour.

Mr Amadu Sadat, also an Independent Candidate, said his priority would be on the promotion of quality education and health of the people by initiating programmes that would enhance preventive healthcare and HIV/AIDS education.

He would also work with all opinion leaders in the area to promote peace and unity among the people.

Mr Kundiima pledged to work with all interested groups in the area to promote peace, unity and development of the people. Dr Baffour Agyeman Duah, Associate Director of CDD, said the programme aimed at promoting grassroots participation in the governance of country. He urged the people in the Constituency not to regard the elections as war but a means of choosing a person, who would serve the interest of all the people in the area. KOM