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. �It will be a centre of study, research and of writing and inviting people with information and experience and track record to come and share views,� he explained in an interview with Capital FM in Kenya.
The ex-President said that he was in Kenya at the invitation of the World Food Programme (WFP). �I also hope to come and sit not only to do my biography but to also 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 been flooded with invitations internationally. The past 10 or 11 months since my stepping down from my 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 democracy�s central virtue is tolerance, as you want to express yourself and opinions.�
�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 geographic issues like arid lands. We have suffered hunger, disease, illiteracy�just too 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 industrialization. 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 the world on equal footing.�
Africa 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 governments 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 benefit of us first before our partners�.
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