I will not call my predecessors names - Mills

Professor John Evans Atta Mills, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential Candidate, on Friday reiterated that when he becomes the president of Ghana with a four-year mandate, he would not waste it on calling the predecessor government and his political opponents names. He told Ghanaians in Atlanta, US that he would spend the time in making positive changes in the lives of Ghanaians and that his foremost vision would be to build a new and united Ghana that would give equal opportunities to all and not skew opportunities in favour of only a selected few. "The laws of the land would work and it would not take Atta Mills to decide how the laws should work so my job would be to focus on giving Ghanaians a meaningful change and restoring hope and confidence in them rather than abusing the mandate I would have been given, by chasing imaginary enemies", the Presidential Candidate said. According to a statement issued on the tour of the US by NDC Presidential candidate for Election 2008, Prof Mills had also brainstormed with the prestigious Horehouse School of Medicine on health delivery and the concept of leadership to students of Bauder College in Atlanta before meeting with Ghanaians and was the guest of the renown Carter Center. He told the Ghanaians, "Our motherland is very much polarized as I speak to you and I am sure even from a distance, you are aware of what I am talking about." "An Atta Mills government would bring all shades of opinion on board and would not ask for one's ethnic origin or one's political affiliation before deciding whether to give the person a hearing or not. "Once you are a Ghanaian and have the ability and potential, the doors would be opened for you to put your shoulders to the wheel for us to develop our nation. Ghana's agenda would be first; and not any political or ethnic agenda." He said he would not engage in vindictive and divisive politics that would see him asking all top civil servants who have served under the Kufuor administration to "proceed on leave and for seven years, keep them at home". "The country invests a lot in training our civil servants and so if we keep sacking them for no apparent reason, we would not only be causing huge financial loss to the state, but it would get to a point where we would not get competent people to work for the nation because they would be afraid of not having a secured tenure," Prof said. On the issue of ROPAL, Professor Mills said as he has said time without number, he had made it clear that the NDC has never, and would never, underestimate the contribution of Ghanaians in the Diaspora towards the development of the country. He said the NDC was "not against the law in principle except that considering the way the NPP government is employing its unacceptable "let the opposition have their say but we would have our way" line of thinking to stampede the process, it portends danger for the country. According to the NDC Presidential Candidate, even back at home, the electoral system has not been perfected and so his party's position was that, the nation must tread cautiously with ROPAL so that, “we don’t wake up one morning to a non-existent country because we are killing each other over questionable election results". Prof. Mills cited the case of the Pru Constituency, where in the last elections, per the first count, the Electoral Officer declared President Kufuor the winner in the presidential race by 1,000 votes but upon the insistence of the constituents that there was no way he could have won in that constituency, a second count proved the people right as he (Atta Mills) was declared winner by a whooping 10,000 votes. "Can you imagine the number of Prus that happened and how such happenings can lead to serious disputes?" the NDC Presidential Candidate asked. He said, "That is why we need to be extremely careful and make sure that all the ground rules have been agreed upon by all before implementing the law because we all know how electoral disputes have been the cause of raging conflicts all over the world and I am very convinced that those of you here want to have a home called Ghana and not wake up to find that you have lost your kith and kin back home because of conflict arising from the votes that you cast here." At the Carter Centre the discussions centred mainly on how the Carter Center, well-known for its role in democratic governance, could continue to "keep an eye" on Ghana and continue to have a stake in the growth of Ghana's democracy. Prof. Mills also thanked the Center for the very vital role it played in helping in the eradication of the guinea worm disease years ago and hoped that even though since 2001 the disease had resurfaced in unacceptable proportions, the Centre would once again lend its needed support to help eliminate the diseases in Ghana. The Cater Centre, represented by the Vice President John Stremlau and David Carrol, Director of the Democracy Programme, lauded the former Vice President of Ghana for his leadership style and promised to keep Ghana on its "tracking system" both in the area of its democratic progression as well as in the area of guinea worm eradication. Prof. Mills entourage comprised Professor Kwaku Danso Boafo of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Dr. Cadman Atta Mills, formerly of the UN and World Bank and brother of the Presidential Candidate, as well as Mr Koku Anyidoho, who is in charge of the communications outfit of Atta Mills.GNA