Rise up to meet challenges of today, Akufo-Addo urges African Youth
The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has charged African youth to ensure that the promise of prosperity and freedom materialises for the mass of the people.
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According to him, though the African continent might have achieved political liberation, for having liberal democratic governments in place in many parts of the continent, the struggle for rapid economic development was very far from being won.
The NPP flag bearer bemoaned the fact that while hundreds of millions of Asians were being taken out of poverty because of successful governance, millions of Africans living on the world’s richest continent in terms of natural resources continued to wallow in abject poverty as a result of poor governance.
“It is time, therefore, for the current generation to rise to meet the challenges of today. You have to help banish the disgraceful spectre of young Africans dying in the Mediterranean, seeking greener pastures in Europe” he said.
He continued, “Your generation has to ensure the fulfilment of the statement made almost 70 years ago in 1949 to the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly by Joseph Boakye Danquah, the father of modern Ghanaian nationalism, that “the two things go together, economic freedom and political freedom. And we must have the two together in this very age, and in the shortest possible time’”.
Nana Akufo-Addo made this known, on Thursday, May 5, when he delivered the keynote address at the 2016 graduation ceremony and a speech indicating his acceptance of the honorary Doctor of Laws Degree conferred on him by the prestigious University of Fort Hare, one of the first and oldest institutions of higher learning on the African continent.
Highlighting the importance of the work of his compatriot, Kwame Nkrumah, the NPP flag bearer stressed that African unity, through the political and economic union of the continent, remained the most effective context to maximise the collective power of the African peoples, to achieve the continent’s full potential.
“Others have done so in America, in Europe and in Asia. We must do the same in Africa. We cannot continue to be either the pawns or the victims of history. We have a huge, unique contribution to make to the growth of world civilisation. It is time for us to step forward,” he added.
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Extraordinary Experience
Describing the conferment of the doctorate degree by the university on him as an extraordinary experience, especially as it coincided with the centenary celebrations of this famed university, the NPP flag bearer indicated that he was “so proud to be part of such a seminal moment.”
Africa’s progress, he said, would be decided by the quality of, among others, her entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, thinkers, researchers, industrialists, farmers, workers, artists, public servants and political leaders and others.
According to Akufo-Addo, the men and women who passed through the gates of Fort Hare, particularly in its early years, believed in themselves and in the African race, when all around them said they counted for nothing.
“Fort Hare created the atmosphere that challenged the status quo of the time. Fort Hare told the young people who came to study here that they had the same capabilities as every other young person of every colour, language or race. This is the institution that moulded the thinking and values of many of the great leaders of our continent,” he added.