President Akufo-Addo welcoming Benjamin Mkapa to the Presidency
Former President of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa, has congratulated the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on his election to the highest office of the land.
He urged the Ghanaian leader and the country to continue on the path of democracy, and be the ‘star of Africa.’
Mr Benjamin Mkapa made this remark yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on President Akufo-Addo at the Flagstaff House on his way to deliver a lecture at the University of Development Studies in Tamale.
“The last time we met, you were a prospective candidate, but you have finally made it. More importantly, you have made it in a peaceful, serene election; the results were unquestionable, which place you in a position of authority to lead your country,” the former Tanzanian president said.
He also congratulated Ghanaians on the seriousness with which they undertook the civic responsibility of electing their leaders.
“Continue, therefore, to be a shining example to the people of Africa.”
The former Tanzanian leader noted that the current President of that country, John Magafuli, has focused on industrialization and the addition of value to raw materials. “Additionally, agricultural development is a major preoccupation of his. I have learnt that agricultural development is a major preoccupation of yours, and I hope that you succeed,” Mr Benjamin Mkapa declared.
President Akufo-Addo, on his part, thanked the former president for his visit, and for the collection of autographed books given to him in 2014 during his time as presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
President Akufo-Addo told Mr Benjamin Mkapa that he had the privilege of meeting the new President of Tanzania at this year’s AU Summit in Addis Ababa “and discovered that we have very similar programmes. It is good for all of us that we have woken up to the realization that there is no future for us in being exporters of raw materials.”
He continued, “If we are going to give jobs to our people, we can only do so in a modern, industrialised economy. So that is very much the focus of what we are doing here in Ghana. We have a very ambitious programme. We have committed ourselves to establishing small and medium scale industries in each of the districts in our country over the next four years.”
On agricultural development, the president told Benjamin Mkapa about the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme, launched in Goaso a week ago, which, he explained, would affect the lives of 200,000 farmers in the first year, with some 2.5 million farmers benefitting at the end of four years.
“We are living in a country that has everything. We have the land, and yet we find ourselves importing plantain from Cote d’Ivoire and tomatoes from Cote d’Ivoire. We are saying to ourselves that within the next 24 months, all these things will be a thing of the past,” he assured.
President Akufo-Addo stated, “We continue to wish that Tanzania, like Ghana, continues down the path of orderly development, and that we will see countries which have living presidents like you who are still contributing to the lives of their people, once they are out of office. It is an inspiration for the rest of the continent, and it is an inspiration that people do not have to hang onto power for 30 to 40 years to be relevant.”