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It is beginning to look like this administration thrives on misinformation and naked lies. The other day, when the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said in Hamburg, ...Germany, that a research conducted by Gallup, the reputable American research company, had indicated that Ghanaians were poorer under the �Better Ghana� agenda of President John Evans Atta Mills, a Government hatchet man, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, in his capacity as Deputy Minister of Information, issued a statement, alleging that the research company had rather made the startling discovery that Ghanaians were poorer during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime of ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor. Following this statement, the NDC-supported media have gone to town attacking the NPP flagbearer for what they termed �intellectual dishonesty�. The Chronicle is amazed at how a whole government machinery could be used to lie and propagate falsehood in the name of scoring cheap political points. The research being talked about was published in The Chronicle in two installments. On Thursday May 12, The Chronicle published the first installment thus: �As many as 12.7 million people, out of a population of 24 million of this country, are unable to afford the cost of food in President Atta Mills� Better Ghana.� It was a report from the Gallup poll of 18 African countries conducted in 2010. In Ghana, the report found that 53 percent of the population could simply not afford the prices of food items on their incomes. In the second story that hit town on Friday, May 13, 2011, Gallup conducted a series of research in Ghana for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, as part of an African poll. In 2007, Gallup established that 20 percent of the population of this country lived comfortably on their incomes. Thirty percent of Ghanaians told Gallup that they were getting by on their incomes. Thirty one percent said they were finding it difficult to live on their incomes, while eleven percent said they were finding it very difficult to eke out a living on their incomes. In 2008, the research company found that 11 percent of Ghanaians were comfortable on their incomes. Twenty-five percent were getting by, and thirty five percent were finding it difficult to live on their incomes, while 18 percent, at the bottom of the ladder, were finding it very difficult to manage on their incomes. In 2009, the first year of the �Better Ghana� agenda, the percentage of Ghanaians living comfortably on their earnings had dropped to 10 percent. Only 15 percent were getting by on their incomes. Those finding it difficult to live on their incomes had ballooned to 44 percent, while 29 percent of the population was finding it very difficult to get by on their incomes. In 2010, the percentage of Ghanaians comfortable on their incomes had dropped to only four. Twenty percent of the population was getting by on their incomes, 41 percent was finding it difficult to manage on their incomes, while a whopping 34 percent of all Ghanaians found it very difficult to manage on their incomes. The research, conducted in 18 sub-Saharan African countries, established that only 19 percent of Ghanaians, representing 4,560,000 out of a population of 24 million, said they operated a bank account, and this was in 2010. Any Ghanaian could visit www.gallup.com to verify things for him or herself. From all indications, Ghanaians are poorer under Atta Mills� administration than we were under the New Patriotic Party regime, if the research by Gallup is anything to go by. The Chronicle is disappointed that statistical data that should aid this administration to plan for the future has rather become a tool for lies, propaganda, and maligning of political opponents. The relevant part of the Gallup poll is published in our center spread (page 8) for the perusal of readers.