Nana Addo mobbed by NPP supporters
Residents of the Prestea-Huni Valley constituency of the Western region, mobbed Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) last Sunday amid shouts of “Nana yaafe wo! NDC yaamutu! meaning “Nana we have missed you, NDC is dead.”
This took place when Nana Addo visited Bogoso as part of his ‘Listening Tour’ to the Western region.
People came from the churches, markets and homes to the Bogoso main lorry station, singing and drumming spontaneously with shouts of “All die be die.”
There was a stampede on the road from Nsu junction to Bogoso lorry station, as everyone wanted to shake hands with him and hug him, thereby causing a traffic jam for almost ten minutes.
Some taxi drivers at the station exclaimed “Uncle Atta adaada hen” to wit “Uncle Atta has deceived us.”
The drivers told DAILY GUIDE that were disappointed in the ruling government because prices of spare-parts, tyres, petrol and even liquefied gas had gone up in contrast with what the sitting president told them when he was campaigning before the 2008 general elections.
“Let election day come and our thumbs which decided against Akufo Addo will this time decide for him. We shall try Nana because he did not even give us vain promises. We, taxi drivers, have already made up our minds and there is no turning back,” the group said.
Nana Addo, on his part, reaffirmed his promise of making secondary education free for Ghanaians.
He said the NPP attached great importance to education because most children from rich homes were able to make it to the tertiary institutions, while the children from poor parents end up at the basic level.
“We cannot continue to let brilliant children in the poor families suffer because of lack of funds. We as a government must help them unearth their God-given talents through free secondary education for all,” he added.
He said the NPP government would not allow “galamsey” operators to be brutalized by police and military men, but instead fashion out a legal frame work to streamline or regularize their operations. He added that this will be done by proper registration and acquisition of licenses in order to form cooperative small scale gold mining companies, adding that that was the only way to offer employment to the teeming youth.
He observed that the cocoa spraying exercise introduced by the NPP administration was no longer working effectively as many cocoa farmers complained of being non-beneficiaries.
The NPP presidential candidate also reiterated his promise of instituting Cocoa Farmers’ Pension Scheme, in recognition of their hard work and contribution towards the national economy.
He said farmers were also suffering because a bag of fertilizer which cost GH¢14.70 during ex-president Kufuor’s era now sells at almost GH¢30.00.
He urged the electorate to register when the time was due for the general registration, adding that “if you fail to register, you fail to exercise your civic responsibility as a voter.”
“Use you thumbs to secure your freedom from hardship in December 2012. Ghanaians have weighed water and alcohol to ascertain the heavier of the two liquids. You have tasted the governance of NPP and are tasting that of NDC now, so you are the best judges,” Nana stated.
He introduced Anastasia Wiredu Mensah, a professional teacher and Girl-Child coordinator for Sunyani Municipal Education Directorate, and a native of the Huni Valley as the aspiring parliamentary candidate for the Prestea – Huni Valley constituency.
From Sam Mark Essien, Bogoso