Former President John Agyekum kufuor has said that he is trying to set up a centre in Accra for the study of leadership, governance and development.

 “I also wish to come and sit not only to do my biography but also to write something on leadership, governance and development and put down my views on this matter. I will be able to share my ideas and values”.

Asked what he had been doing since he retired as president of Ghana, Mr Kufuor said “I am trying to resettle myself but I have flooded with invitations internationally. The past 10 or 11 months since my stepping down from the presidency, practically I found myself accepting to go to some places outside Ghana, it is part of this that I am here on the invitation of the World Food Programme (WFP) to observe what Kenya is doing with the programme here creating food security, school feeding programmes”.

He urged the political classes (African Leaders) to be tolerant saying that “tolerance is a big virtue in all human affairs, but more so in the political leadership and governance. Especially if across the border everybody is exercising democracy then they should know that democracies central virtue is tolerance, as you want to express yourself and opinion”.

“Allow people to express themselves, make decisions through dialogue, ”Mr Kufuor pointed out.
On challenges facing Africa and how to overcome them, the ex president said  Africa has been disadvantaged from way back through colonialism, slavery and then some of the geographical issues like arid lands. We have suffered hunger, disease, illiteracy …. Just many things.”

Fortunately for now, he noted that “all the countries of Africa are independent and through the African Union we are all seeking to unearth the wealth of Africa which is in a mess. If we are talking about mineral wealth, I don’t think there is any continent you can compare with Africa, and now oil is gushing out and yet we have so many people on the continent living in abject poverty”

Explaining further, he said, ”We have got powerful rivers that could be harnessed for energy to supply the whole of Africa  and beyond but most of the places are in darkness. We can use energy for industrialisation. Now, I know that all the countries are determined but we begin to start unleashing our worth to better our conditions and also to enable us to interact with other races of t he world on equal footing”.

African Union, he said was trying to get its leadership and also the private sector to shape up and face anyone in the world.

Mr Kufuor charged African government to support the private sector to help create wealth for Africa to “become the owner of the God given wealth that the continent has in abundance, which so far has not been used for the first before our partners”.

Source: Ghanaian Times

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