NPP presidential ticket is the nation's safest bet for progress - Kufuor

Kumasi, Sept. 10, GNA - The ruling New Patriotic Party's (NPP) presidential ticket for the 2008 poll is the nation's safest bet for continued progress and prosperity, President John Agyekum Kufuor said in Kumasi on Wednesday.

He therefore called on the electorate to vote massively to retain the party in power.

Introducing Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, the man hoping to take over from him on January 7, 2009, to NPP supporters in the Oforikrom Constituency at Ayigya, President Kufuor said Ghana could not afford to allow the solid socio-economic foundation laid within the last eight years to be destroyed.

Nana Akufo-Addo is in Kumasi with his running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, for an 11-day campaign tour of the Ashanti Region. He had earlier on arrival on Tuesday been introduced to the party's followers in the Bantama, Manhiya, Subin and Kwadaso Constituencies by President Kufuor.

Security personnel had hectic time controlling the huge crowd that lined the streets to give him a big welcome.

Clad in NPP "T"-shirts and other paraphernalia, they did the kangaroo dance as his convoy snailed its way through. President Kufuor, who said he was confident of Nana Akufo-Addo's victory in the election, asked voters to give to the party between 90 and 95 per cent of the votes in the Constituency. Nana Akufo-Addo pledged to focus on wiping out illiteracy in the country, if voted to lead the nation.

"We have to wipe out illiteracy here, if we are to move forward," he said, adding that they would provide equal opportunity for all children, irrespective of social background, to go to school. He said the sterling performance of the Kufuor government in the last eight years showed the NPP had better policies than all the other political parties, citing among others, the National Health Insurance Scheme, capitation grant, school feeding programme and good roads. The NPP candidate re-affirmed his party's aversion to politics of divide and rule and violence.

Mr Allan Kyerematen, a leading member of the party, said with the expected drilling of the country's oil and the production of aluminium from Ghana's own bauxite through the re-launch of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO), opportunity had been created for the opening of more job avenues for the people.