NPP TO LAUNCH MANIFESTO IN AUGUST (PAGE 13)

THE Chairman of the Communications Committee of the Nana Akufo-Addo Campaign, Dr Kobina Arthur Kennedy, has disclosed that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) manifesto will be ready by the end of this month or early August.
He said the Manifesto Committee of the party had finalised the draft for it to be launched in August
At a day’s media outreach and communication workshop for the party’s foot soldiers in the Brong Ahafo Region and attended by a section of media practitioners in Sunyani, Dr Kennedy stated that the election was between Nana Akufo-Addo and Prof John Evans Atta Mills, the NDC flag bearer, saying, however, that a vote for the latter was a vote for the third term of former President Jerry John Rawlings.
He, therefore, urged the electorate to reject Prof Mills.
The workshop was aimed at exchanging information and sharing ideas with the frontliners and the media.
Dr Kennedy explained that the reason a vote for Prof Mills would be for former President Rawlings was that Prof Mills was nowhere near politics when President Rawlings, in 1996, brought him in to be his running mate, and then came the infamous Swedru Declaration by President Rawlings that Prof Mills was the flag bearer of the party for the 2000 general election.
He, therefore, noted that any vote for Prof Mills was a vote for the third term of President Rawlings, since the NDC was founded on the principles and ideals of the former President and there were indications that Prof Mills was not his own man.
The Chairman of the Communications Committee also debunked the assertion by the NDC that it started the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on a pilot basis.
He said in 1996, the NDC promised, in its manifesto, to begin the scheme on a pilot basis but it never materialised, saying it was one Dr Bossman who began the scheme in Nkoranza in the Brong Ahafo Region, not the NDC, as the party claimed.
Dr Kennedy reiterated the promise made by Nana Akufo-Addo that the NHIS would be free for all children under 18 during his regime, saying that the NHIS was one of the laudable policies and programmes introduced by the NPP government.
He, therefore, called on media practitioners, especially hosts of morning programmes on radio stations, not to allow themselves or their stations to be used as propaganda outlets for lies to be perpetuated by the NDC. Instead, they must ensure that all political parties presented their arguments based on facts and accurate statistics.
Mr Owusu Afriyie, popularly know as Sir John, a member of the Communications Team and Director for the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions, urged the front-line soldiers of the party to arm themselves with facts and figures, as well as the achievements of the NPP government, in order to debunk the lies being peddled about the government by the NDC.
A three-member vetting committee, chaired by Mr C.K. Tandem, a member of the Council of State, has been set up to help select a running mate who will partner Nana Akufo-Addo for the December 2008 general election.
Other members of the committee are Madam Ama Busia, another member of the Council of State, and Prof Ofosu Armaah.
The committee is to vet the seven individuals who are currently being considered as the possible running mate for the NPP flag bearer.
Mr Gabby Otchere-Darko, a member of the Communications Committee of the Akufo- Addo Campaign and Director of the Danquah Institute, disclosed this.