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President John Evans Atta-Mills has asked members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to �spare the government their sanctimonious and self serving effusions and statements about the economy of the nation.� Addressing the eighth National Delegates congress of the National Democratic Congress in Tamale on Saturday, he said: �The country that we took over was certainly not a country which had seen eight years of Positive Change�. Admitting, however, that the government has not been able to please everybody, the President said �but we are certain that with unity, cohesion singleness of purpose, we shall succeed.� The President noted that at the time the government was taking over, if there has been candor on the part of the NPP �I believe that people�s expectations would not have been as it is now. �But we are not daunted because we are guided by what we can do in order to help lift the standards of the people,� he said, and added, �this is our pre-occupation, the raison d��tre, the reason why we were voted into power. This is the yardstick by which our success or failure should be judged.� President Mills urged the party faithful to work extra hard in order not to give the �doomsday prophets �their due. �Let us not allow the media to set on agenda for us.� The President said he had had the privilege of having served under ex-President Rawlings from 1997 to 2001 and therefore cannot pretend that I am not aware of what it takes to be able to get a team together to fulfil the promises that we have made.� He said amid loud applause: �This is the second year of our mandate and I known that so long as we listen, act and persevere, there is nothing that we cannot do and the people of this country will renew our mandate in the year 2012.� President Mills advised the rank and file of the party to close their ranks and help the government to push the �Better Ghana� agenda forward in the right direction. He said the NDC won the 2008 elections because God was unhappy about the NPP style of governance. President Mills therefore called the party�s supporters to be thankful to God for the blessings bestowed on them and rally behind his administration to fulfill all the promises made to the good people of this country. He said only god knows what would have happened to them if the NDC had lost the 2008 general elections. �I want all of us to ponder over one question. Where would we have been if we had lost the last election? I know where I will have been. Do you know where you will have been?� President Mills asked. That, he said, should be in the minds of every follower of the NDC in conducting themselves in every opportunity available to them.