President Akufo-Addo U!
The United Nations (UN) has commended President Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration in the country for initiating developmental projects in the country to improve the lives of Ghanaians.
President of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces recently said, “I have heard of your idea of ‘One District, One Factory’ or ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’, ‘Free Senior High School,’ ‘Affordable Housing; everything that you are doing to improve the lives of the people of Ghana really needs to be commended Mr. President.”
She disclosed this when she paid a courtesy call on President Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House last Friday.
She commented: “There is something which really even makes me happier- your idea, your commitment of having a Ghana that goes beyond aid.”
“I think this is real…I was telling your ministers, that’s the way I see a second independence of the country; self-reliance but of course working hand-in-hand with the international community in partnerships. I think that that is exactly what needs to be done,” an elated Garces said.
Her comments come at a time when the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been criticizing the current administration.
The President of the UN General Assembly said, “I can tell you that your country gives us hope.”
President Akufo-Addo thanked Garces for her insightful observations about the country, promising to do more to alleviate the plight of the Ghanaian people.
He expressed heartfelt gratitude to UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres for the confidence reposed in him by extending his mandate as Co-Chair of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Our goal is a straight forward one, 60 years after independence, it’s time that we put behind us the Ghana of problems and poverty and non-performance; I think we have decided now to make a concerted effort to break the bonds of poverty in our country and bring our nation and its people up to a world and join the prosperity that is spreading across the globe, and it’s a decision that is encapsulated in the mantra or slogan of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid.”
Essentially, President Akufo-Addo said “we believe we have both the resources in human and material terms to be able to pull ourselves up by our own energies.
“But we want to do so not on the basis of our hands out seeking charity, seeking hand out, but as a well-organised state that is in control of its own economy, that is managing its economy intelligently, above all honestly making sure that the basic needs of our people are addressed in education, in health and in social infrastructure.
“So this is the goal that is animating us, and we look for friendships across the world, countries like your own and others with like-minded attitude towards progress…so that we can all-together rise up and join the nations of prosperity,” he added.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent