PNC, CPP unity talks on going — Mahama

The flag bearer of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Dr Edward Mahama, has disclosed that unity talks between the PNC and the Convention People's Party (CPP) is on-going.
"We are working on that and I believe in the unity of the Nkrumaist family", Dr Mahama assured a gathering on Thursday when he took his turn at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) programme, dubbed "An Evening Encounter with the flag bearers".
The programme is a collaboration between the IEA and the Ghana Political Parties Programme (GPPP), in association with Joy FM and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.
Answering a question as to whether the two parties could come together to contest this year’s election, Dr Mahama said the parties were working on that.
He however admitted that they did not handle the alliance deal the two parties reached some few weeks ago.???
He explained certain things happened which did not have to, and mentioned the voting??? that took place during their last meeting as something which was never discussed.
In that meeting the two parties agreed that Dr Ndoum became the flag bearer whilst Dr Mahama was made the running mate.
He, however, insisted that though the balloting went in favour of Dr Nduom, the two parties’ chairmen were mandated to issue a joint statement reflecting the exact mood of the meeting.
This, he regretted, was never the case as laid down procedures were not duly followed, creating problems for him and the PNC.
"As a democrat that I am, I accepted my party's final view on the purported alliance deal" he stated.
He said that since he never served under the NPP, he thought he was a better placed person to challenge the NPP but I accepted to be the running mate for the sake of Nkrumaist unity."
On his view on assets declarations, Dr Mahama said he was in favour of political office holders declaring their assets before assuming political office.
He, however, noted that in Ghana assets declared were not made public but indicated that if the freedom of Information Bill was passed ,among others, then political office holders could be made much more accountable.
Dr Mahama described corruption as a bane to Ghana's development, and gave the assurance that a PNC government would fight it from a personal perspective as well as the President through the legislative and governance levels.
He said "the era of do as I say and not as I do would be a thing of the past, and that he would provide leadership by example for all to follow".
He said under a PNC Government, they would outdoor a Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) to give full complement to the NHIS.
The PNC flag bearer said HMO would focus on strategies to keep Ghanaians healthy so that the NHIS was not over utilised.
The HMO, he said would incorporate all current public and preventive medicine approaches such as immunisation, maternal and child health into an active health promotion effort."
He said under the HMO a Medical Intelligence Unit would be established to assess the national health and predict emerging disease patterns, yearly physical examinations for the detection of early silent disease like hypertension, diabetes and cancer.
The unit would also have an epidemiological data collection functions to warn the nation in advance as to the trend of the pattern of diseases so that preventive steps could be taken ahead of the outbreak of diseases.
He said the Ministry of Health would be empowered to perform monitoring and evaluation functions more vigorously while devolving implementation of programmes to the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.