Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference
His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was sworn into office on 7th January, 2017, as the 5th President of Ghana’s 4th Republic.
He has been a prominent champion of human rights, rule of law, justice, freedom, and democracy in Ghana. Indeed, as a lawyer, he undertook many of the most important constitutional cases of the modern era in Ghana, protected the independence of the judiciary, the right of the citizen to demonstrate without police permit, and the right of equal access of all political parties to the State-owned media.
President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is hoping to build a “Ghana beyond aid” through the use of the country’s own resources for development. “We want to build an economy that is not dependent on charity and handouts, but an economy that will look at the proper management of its resources as the way to engineer social and economic growth in our country,” the President had said.
African countries that gained independence in the 1950s and 60s were faced with many challenges—infrastructural deficit and lack of skilled labour, among others. To accelerate their development, the newly-independent African countries relied so much on assistance from their development partners to fund their development needs. Ghana falls among that group of African countries that have relied on foreign aid to fund its development since 1957, in spite of the country’s wealth in natural resources— cocoa, gold, timber, oil and gas, bauxite and manganese, among others.
A Ghana Beyond aid—can this be mere rhetoric?
What happened to vision 2020. They politicize it and make sure it never succeeds. Where is (NDP) National Development Plan? they should spare us the story.
This is just mere rhetoric. These resources have been there since Adam and many presidents have plunged the country into more poverty over the years. It doesn’t look like anything is going to change anytime soon.
It’s not about the Government, it’s about our country Ghana & we should distinguish between the two. We may not agree with them on how to achieve that goal & can criticize their policies, but we should also want good things for Ghana that make us stronger & more prosperous.
It’s funny how our leaders all talks and no actions. They set goals and make plans and fail miserably to follow through them. I am done with them.
Ghana beyond Aid” should be a national aspiration as it would mean self sufficiency & prosperity but it is not achievable during the 2 years left of this govts term, it’s essentially a medium term goal & therefore the effort to get there should be bipartisan & inclusive