Ladies and Gentlemen of the media we welcome you to this morning press conference organized by the Northern Regional Secretariat of the New Patriotic Party. 

We use your platform this morning to draw the attention of Ghanaians and Northerners in particular to some essential concerns the people of Northern Ghana share about the Mills-Mahama presidency. 

The three Northern Regions have been regarded as the safe havens for the NDC since the inception of the fourth Republican constitution which paved the way for multiparty democracy in 1992. From all indications northerners have vowed that never again will they be deceived by the propaganda machinations and deceits of the NDC. 

And therefore are prepared to vote massively against the NDC come December 7th. 

Apart from the fact that NDC made numerous promises to Northerners in the 2008 election some of which included the introduction of SADA, the construction of the Fufulso-Damongo-Sawla Road, the introduction of one time health insurance premium, all of which the Mills-Mahama government has not been able to fulfill, it appears they will not stop there. Rather they have continued to lie to northerners about things they claim they have done all which points to nothing but lies. 

It is even more worrying when these lies, machinations and veiled propaganda are championed by non-other but President John Dramani who should know better and ensure that Northerners are not taken for granted. 

The conduct of our president demonstrates the belief or thinking that northerners cannot read in between the lines. And therefore anything we are told we just accept it hook, line and sinker. He and the NDC should know that Northerners are wide awake and informed about all the things happening around them. Since the NDC assumed office in 2009 it is clear to all Northerners that not a single land mark project can be pointed at as being the achievement of the Mills-Mahama Administration in the North. 

The social intervention policies introduced by the NPP which brought huge relief to Ghanaians and for that matter Northerners have all seen derailment in the NDC Government. The NHIS, School Feeding Programme, Free Maternal Health Care, LEAP have all nose-dived under the NDC.

The least the NDC can do is to stop the propaganda and deceit so that Northerners will make a more informed choice come December 7th. President Mahama has continued to lie to Northerners since he became vice president and now president. Ladies and Gentlemen I draw your attention to the following:

• President Mahama claimed to have commissioned a Shea -nut processing factory at Buipe since last year 2011. Apart from the fact that the so called Shea nut factory was solely a private initiative, as we address this press conference not even a single nut has been processed by the so called factory.

• He made the promise to Yagbon –Wura and the people of Damongo that by 2012 everybody will, drive, ride or walk on a tarred road from Fufulso to Damongo to Sawla. Part of the promise was that if this road was not constructed he and the NDC were not going to campaign in Damongo in 2012. It is turned out to be another lie as the NDC campaigners are busy campaigning and distributing largesse of all kind.

• He looks at Northerners in the face and tell us that free education is not possible when indeed he John Dramani Mahama is a beneficiary of free education. Hypocrisy and double standards at its best. The NDC are not committed to the improvement of education in the North in any way. As we speak, feeding grants that are supposed to be paid to heads of Senior High Schools (SHS) are in several terms of arrears. 

• Under John Dramani Mahama presidency, private business initiatives are now being turned into Government achievements. A case in point is Abnash a rice milling factory established at Nyankpala. The factory has nothing to do with SADA. But that is the claim of JDM. Unfortunate indeed

Ladies and Gentlemen, let us now turn attention to just happenings in the last couple of days.

As the December elections are just a few weeks away, there is every indication that the NPP and its Flag bearer Nana Akufo -Addo are poised for victory. A victory that will salvage this nation and its people from the clutches of a bitter Ghana that President Mahama and his mentor, late President Mills, have presided over the last four(4) years. Akufo-Addo’s message of hope, and the belief Ghanaians have demonstrated in his message has become evident. 

Across the length and breadth of this country, Nana Addo’s message of free, quality education right from Kindergarten to SHS; the message of transforming the Ghanaian economy which will lead to expanded jobs and opportunities; and of salvaging the NHIS, which is at the brink of collapse as the World Bank has indicated, have all resonated well with the Ghanaian people. 

All they are waiting for is December 7th to show the NDC the exit and put this country into the hands of the able, competent, dynamic, courageous hands of Nana Addo and Dr Mahamud Bawumia to steer the affairs of this country.

It is therefore not surprising that as defeat stare John Mahama and his NDC in the face they are stopping at nothing to carry on what they know best. That is the politics of lies, propaganda, deceit, diversion and indeed falsification. 

The Northern Region NPP want to assure all Ghanaians that northerners have not fallen prey to the rather ethnocentric remarks of the NDC presidential candidate John Dramani Mahama in his recent tour of the three Northern Regions. And have unequivocally vowed that never again will they be deceived by the propaganda machinations and deceits of the NDC. Northerners will vote massively against the NDC come December 7th. 

After realizing that the NPP presidential candidate has continued to tower tall far above him, in President’s Mahama’s desperate attempt to hang on to power at all cost, he has continued to urge his surrogates and babies with sharp teeth on. Now they pick on a tangential issue of whether or not Nana Addo attended Oxford University.

Since when has the schools attended by our leaders become an issue? And since when has every school that one attends find space in a CV?

Northerners and for that matter Ghanaians are not going to be detracted from the germane development issues that confront them. That is the rising cost of living, a collapsing health insurance scheme, increasing unemployment and joblessness, increasing spate of arm robbery and insecurity and an annihilation of the national currency relative to the Dollar and other major currencies. 

Instead of bowing their heads in shame over their disappointing and abysmal performance, the best the NDC and President Mahama does is to focus on mundane issues of whether somebody attended a particular school or not. 

Be that as it may we want to find out from the NDC if it is so prudent to highlight every academic record on one’s CV, we have followed the schooling history of the President John Dramani Mahama as well since he is a northerner and was born and bred in the Northern Region. 

The NDC should provide us answers to the following questions concerning the educational history of their presidential candidate

• The President in his book, entitled ‘my first coup d’état’ indicated that because of free education up north, his father brought him and his siblings from Achimota primary school to Ghana Senior High School in Tamale in 1971. Meanwhile the information we have picked up indicates that the president actually attended Bishop Middle school between 1970-1971. 

So at one point did he go to Achimota primary and had to leave the same Achimota primary in 1971?

• What is the reason for the president failure to indicate this in his CV? And rather he has told all Ghanaians that straight from Achimota he came back to the North and attended Ghana Senior High School.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the president’s recent campaign tour of the Eastern Region, he claimed, that Nana Addo has been to Bole-Bamboi to campaign AND was not met with the opposition he met in Kyebi. But let me put on record that since John Dramani Mahama became Flag bearer of the NDC, Nana Addo has not been to the Bole-Bamboi constituency to campaign. 

Nana Addo will be expected to visit the constituency in his last leg of the campaign in the Northern Region. JDM and the NDC must get their facts right and stop fanning tribal sentiments.

We are committed to peaceful elections. But there are worrying signs ahead of December 7th. The NDC is aware that they are losing these elections and they have resorted to all manner of desperations to hang on to power. 

I urge all polling station agents, elections monitors and all Ghanaians to be alert and police the ballot to ensure that the elections results are the true verdict of Ghanaians.

THANK YOU FOR COMING.


…………..SIGNED………………………


ABUDU ABDUL-GANIYU

NORTHERN REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR