Zuma, Jonathan, 10 Others Storm Ghana For Mahama's Swearing-in Ceremony
SAN FRANCISCO, January 07, (THEWILL) - President Jacob Zuma of South Africa,President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and 10 other African leaders,Monday, stormed Accra, the Ghanaian capital, for the swearing-in of Ghanaian President, John Dramani Mahama, for a fresh tenure of four years, following his success in the general election held last December.
The chairman of African Union (AU) and president of Benin Republic, Yaya Boni, who spoke on behalf of other African leaders at the ceremony, extolled Ghana’s democratic virtues and promised that other African countries would work hard to support and emulate the country's shining examples.
At the event which held at the Independence Square in Accra and witnessed by a mammoth crowd of enthusiastic Ghanaians,President Mahama pledged to improve the quality of education, create more employment opportunities and provide good health services to the Ghanaian people, including those who did not vote for him and do not share his religious conviction.
In a speech he delivered at the occasion, the newly-sworn in president appealed to the opposition to accept his victory as infinite political triumph for the entire country,, saying the success or failure of Ghana is in the hands of the citizenry.
In a veiled referece to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which boycotted the event,alleging that Mahama stole the mandate,the president urged the opposition to see his victory from the "limitlessness of the potentials of Ghana and not from powerlessness of their defeat."
It would be recalled that President Mahama who came to power following the sudden death of the former president, John Attah Mills, last year contested against the NPP of former President John Kufuor.
Speaking further at the occasion. Mahama stated: "In the last 55 years, Ghana has made tremendous progress but also there is no denying the fact that Ghana is still a young country and every young country goes through its share of instability and difficulties as it struggles to find direction towards prominence.
"Over the course of the last four years, a tremendous amount of work has been done and there is still a tremendous amount of work still to be done. More jobs must be created, more roads must be built. Bridges, schools and hospitals must be built. Infrastructures that have been established must be strengthened.
“Equipment must not be the only that is the state of the art in our institutions. Systems, procedures and staff must be brought up to standard. Best practices must be implemented. We need to look beyond temporary fixes to find lasting. solutions for the complications we have experienced with power, water and sanitation.
" We must continue to invest ion our agriculture sector and grow our economy so that it lifts the bulk off our most crippling financial burdens especially among the poorest of our population.
“A country’s most valuable resource is its human resource and that is why it is imperative that our citizens have access to good health care. These issues and concerns are all works in progress. They are realistic goals that have been set and are within our capabilities to be met in a timely fashion.
“I have just taken an oath that as the president of this nation, I will work hard to place us in the right path and I will lead us over the hurdles and pass the obstacles that might threaten to keep us from meeting our goals.
" The promises that I have made are promises that I intend to keep.Change does not happen over night and sometimes what ever progress we make, it will appear to be darkest before the dawn of a new day makes that progress feasible.
"In such times, I would be counting on you to maintain the faith and the trust that you have placed in me as the president and I promise I will not let you down.Every society has its own fair share of people who would rather talk and complain about what is wrong that devote their times and efforts to do what it takes to make things right. At every opportunity, they will tell us all the things we cannot achieve and all the reasons why we should not even attempt to achieve them.
" The choice is ours to believe or not to believe. We can look within ourselves and choose to believe the lies of our powerlessness or we can see the unlimited horizon of our potentials."
Speaking on Ghana as an oil producing country, the president said, “Ghana is on the course of enormous transformation. We are moving forward at a rapid pace. New resources are at our disposal, new alliances are being formed.
"These new opportunities could result in self-sufficiency that was always imagined and desired but was never a realistic occurrence in our foreseeable future not in the way it is right now.
" It is true that other countries have made adversities while trying to make the most of such prospects as we have before us but those countries are not Ghana.
" They do not have the benefit of our history or the examples of our heroes. We have been the best before, we have been a success story, we have blazed the trail before for others to follow and we can do so once again. I believe that with God and in Ghana, all things are possible."