[ 2014-09-28 ]

African leaders have huge responsibility - President Mahama
Boston, Sept. 27, GNA - President John Dramani
Mahama on Friday said African leaders had a huge
responsibility of putting in adequate measures for
future generations to triumph.
"This responsibility has to do with scaling up
information and communication technology,
education, health facilities and other amenities
that would empower them to perform better than our
generation," he said.

President Mahama said this when he delivered a
lecture on: "Economic Governance in Unchartered
Waters," at the John F. Kennedy Junior Forum of
the Institute of Politics at the Harvard
University in Boston.

The lecture, which attracted hundreds of students
and academia, gave President Mahama the
opportunity to explain certain issues pertaining
to the African Continent as opposed to those in
the developed world.

President Mahama said although some former African
leaders ended up becoming dictators, their
positive roles towards the attainment of
independence and establishing basic democratic
structures could not easily be swept under the
carpet.

"We are currently building upon the foundation
that they put in place, notwithstanding some of
the black decades recorded in the past by some of
our leaders," he said.

On Africa's over dependence on the Bretton Woods
Institutions for the stability of their economies,
President Mahama said every sovereign nation,
including African countries, cherished freedoms
but the capacity to harness natural resources were
insufficient to make them independent.

"We have a lot of natural resources and produce a
lot, but our inability to add value to process
into finished goods has been partly responsible
for that dependence.

“For almost 60 years that Ghana gained
independence, she has been mining gold, yet unable
to establish a single gold refinery forcing her to
continue exporting gold in its raw form to the
international market," he said.

On decentralization, President Mahama said Ghana
had advanced where district assemblies were given
money (District Assemblies Common Fund) to
undertake social development projects of their
choice.

"What Government is currently pursuing to amend in
the Constitution about decentralization is the
election of the District Chief Executives which
would make them more responsible and efficient in
grassroots democracy," President Mahama said.

Answering a question on airline connectivity in
Africa, President Mahama said although it was
still not the best, it was improving compared to
the past decade where travelers moved out of the
continent before reconnecting to other African
countries.

He said African economies needed stability with
much capacity to process available raw materials
to become fully independent.

Source - GNA

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