NPP Giving Nation Over-Dose Medication - Mills

Professor John Atta Mills, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential Candidate on Thursday said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was giving an "over-dose medication" approach to solving the nation's problems.

He said just as a patient would die when he or she was administered with excessive prescriptions, so would the NPP's "bite the bullet" approach could kill the people. "Solution to the nation's problem should not be done in a way to impose excessive hardship, which could lead to the death of its citizens. Dosage is administered on correct prescriptions".

Prof Mills was reacting to President John Kufuor's Third State of the Nation's Address. Prof Mills who was ushered out of the Chamber of Parliament by NDC MPs who were in mourning clothes singing "Do something new in my life" said the song called for the need of a change in the life of Ghanaians.

The NDC members said they were in those attire because of the grief in which the country had been plunged after the almost 100 percent increase in fuel prices and led their flagbearer out of the House.

Prof Mills said Ghanaians actually needed a change because the positive change the NPP promised them has turned into "deception and suffering. Utility and fuel prices have been increased out of proportion leading to untold hardships with endless promises that remained unfulfilled."

Prof Mills said the NPP government would have now realised that promises were easier made than fulfilled. He said he was surprised that wages and salaries determination in the public sector would no longer be subjected to national debate as the NPP had promised.

"We are now being told that 70 percent of total revenue goes into emoluments in the public sector."

He said the understanding was that the determination of wages and salaries would be subjected to national debate. The President in his address said it was near impossible to have any appreciable increase in salary levels without dramatic increase in revenue and that salaries would be increased when the revenue base was expanded.

Prof Mills said he was however, happy that the NPP government was implementing development projects the NDC initiated and packaged some of which the President said in his address were to be commissioned soon. He said the NDC was being accused of doing nothing and yet the Redevelopment Project for Old Accra, which was a government and UNESCO project and was to be launched this month, was initiated by the NDC.

He said the admission of the President that there was a gap between the time the project was announced to begin and the actual time it began was because of hold-ups of donor inflows the NDC suffered. "It has now fallen on the NPP government to commission those projects which should have been commissioned before the new government came to power," Prof Mills added.