President Akufo-Addo with a despondent Arafan Kabine Kaba (left), the outgoing ambassador. Picture by Gifty Ama Lawson.
Outgoing Guinean Ambassador to Ghana, Arafan Kabine Kaba, on Wednesday shed tears as he bade goodbye to President Akufo-Addo. Arafan went to the Jubilee House for a short but a colourful farewell ceremony with his other colleague ambassadors from India, Shri Birender Yadav, and Olifemi Michael Abikoye from Nigeria, after a five and- a-half-year duty tour of Ghana.
The fact that he was leaving Ghana for Switzerland where he had been assigned as the Guinean Ambassador to that country and representative at the United Nations office in Geneva was not enough to compensate for his feeling of sadness for leaving Ghana.
“The reason why I am sad is that since I came here I have been learning. When I say I am proud of you, it is not a diplomatic word but very proud of what I am seeing here. My stay here was like a school and I learnt a lot and since then I am trying to push people from my country to come here and see what is going on in Ghana,” he noted whilst shedding tears.
He said the reason why he pushed Guineans to come to Ghana was not about the learning of English but because of the historical relations between Ghana and Guinea and also how the people of Ghana were developing with self-confidence, adding that Ghanaians are hard working and patriotic.
“I am a professional diplomat who has travelled all over the world, but what I have seen here, if I could send more people to come, see and learn, I will do that. This is my personal experience. I want you to tellthe people here that you have a new ambassador because wherever I am, I consider myself as a Ghanaian ambassador,” he said.
On his part, an obviously delighted President Akufo-Addo thanked the Guinean envoy for his compliments, touting the relations between the two countries as dating back to first Presidents of Ghana and Guinea, Nkrumah and Sekou Toure.
He said Ghanaians do not consider Guineans as foreigners, but brothers and sisters, especially the outgoing ambassador who was very assiduous in cementing the relations between the two countries. The President wished him well in his new assignment and expressed confidence that he would excel in that position.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent