Paulina Patience Tangoba Abayage
The outgoing Ghanaian envoy to Italy, Paulina Patience Tangoba Abayage, was last week feted by the Ghanaian community in the northern Italian city called Bergamo, which is an industrial hub close to Milan.
The send-off was organised by the President of the Council of Ghanaian Nationals Associations in ltaly (COGNAI) in collaboration with the Ghana National Association of Bergamo.
The envoy was accompanied to the event by Mr. Jonathan Magnusen who is the Deputy Head of Mission and also Head of the Consular Section of the Mission.
The impact the ambassador has made during her short stay in Rome was recounted by one of her compatriots.
Members of the Ghanaian community in Bergamo said they were sad that she was leaving so soon but were equally happy that she had been promoted to the office of a minister.
On his part, the President of the Association Kofi Azaletey expressed mixed reactions to the transfer of the envoy.
He said: “We were bracing ourselves towards a solid collaboration and working relationship between Cognai and the Mission on all fronts for the benefit of our people. Let me, however, emphasize that it is the first time an event of this proportion has been organized to send off an envoy here in ltaly. H.E. sent a strong signal to show she meant business by inviting Cognai, various associations, head of Ghanaian churches and opinion leaders to Rome to chat with her so that she could listen to their problems and chart a roadmap for her future activities.”
On her part, the outgoing envoy expressed gratitude to her hosts as she recalled the success story of the door-to-door passport service and the various interactive meetings between the mission and the Ghanaian associations in Italy. She added it had yielded positive results of togetherness and closer collaboration among Ghanaians in Italy.
She assured her hosts that she was going back home with the same zeal with which she performed her duty as Ghana’s envoy to Rome.
She told her hosts: “My commitment is to serve the president, government and the good people of Ghana with diligence, humility and fairness and I pledge to do that in whatever capacity I find myself in. I thank the President H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the opportunity given me to serve him in Italy and the greater confidence he’s reposed in me by nominating me to come home and serve him as the Upper East Regional Minister and pledge to do my utmost best to justify that confidence reposed in me”.
In less than a year after taking up her appointment, she had travelled to 12 out of the 20 regions in Italy, Serbia and Slovenia during which she interacted with Ghanaians living in those countries.
She was also Ghana’s permanent representative at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquartered in Rome.
By A.R. Gomda