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Tag: Ghana

  • Nigeria, Ghana battle for supremacy

    The battle for the leadership position in the ongoing ICC World T20 Africa Qualifier gets hotter today as Nigeria confronts Ghana in the second match of the day.

    Earlier in the day, third and fourth place teams – Sierra Leone and Gambia will slug it out as the two teams are yet to win any match in the competition.

    Nigeria is topping the table after their emphatic victories over Sierra Leone and Gambia.

    On Sunday, Nigeria continued its good run, overcoming The Gambia by 55 runs, at the Tafawa Balewa Square Cricket Oval in Lagos.

    In a statement by the ICC Tournament Director, Kuben Pillay, the Nigerians again batted first, and they piled on the runs, eventually notching a formidable 176 for five in their 20 overs. The star for the home side was Ademola Onikoyi, who blazed an undefeated 75 off just 55 balls. There were two massive sixes and nine fours in the free-spirited knock, as the number three took Nigeria to a place of comfort. Skipper Chimezie Onwuzulike continued his fine form, with a quick-fire 34 off just 18 balls.

    The total was always going to be a massive test for The Gambia, who had lost their opening match to Ghana by 58 runs. They again breached the 100 mark, thanks in main to a belligerent knock of 29 off just 16 balls by PA Hassan Faye. He struck three sixes for good measure.

    Nigeria sits on top of the standings, but is joined by neighbours, Ghana, who also made it two from two matches on Sunday. The Black Sticks were pushed by Sierra Leone after they batted first and racked up a total of 140 for eight. Simon Ateak was the mainstay, striking a composed 57 off 42 balls.

  • ACA board member calls for regular regional cricket competitions

    Gabriel Gomez, a board member of the African Cricket Association ( ACA ), on Monday canvassed for regular regional championships to improve the profile of the sport in West Africa.

    Gomez a former Sports Minister in Gambia made the remark in an interview with the newsmen on the sidelines of the ongoing ICC World Twenty Qualifier A, holding in Lagos.

    He stressed that regular competitions in the sub-region would help countries in West Africa to raise their game to the next level.

    “The only way to develop cricket in the region is by having regular competitions among West African countries.

    “The competitions may not necessarily be for our national teams, but we can have under age competitions to groom budding grassroots talents to fruition,’’ he said.

    He, however, noted that inadequate funding was militating against the growth of the sport in the region.

    Read Also: ACA : 70 and counting

    The board member added that the ACA should reach out to the Economic Community of West Africa States ( ECOWAS ) to fund some of its programmes.

    “Getting funds to participate in regional competitions are expensive, in my country, the government provides support for cricket and that is why we can attend the ongoing qualifiers in Nigeria.

    “We can tap sports funds from the ECOWAS Sports commission to run programmes in the region, and I believe that the Nigerian Government can help being a power house in the region,’’ he said.

    The newsmen reports that Nigeria has recorded a convincing 55 runs victory over The Gambia in its second match played on Sunday, the country posted 176 runs for loss of five wickets in 20 overs.

    Ghana also eased past Sierra Leone in its second match of the qualifiers, to set up the much anticipated showdown against arch rivals Nigeria.

    NAN

  • $2.5b Eurobond: Nigeria faces higher debt service cost – Fitch

    Nigeria’s issuance of $2.5 billion Eurobond in the first quarter of this year is expected to raise the country’s debt service cost and refinancing risks, Fitch Ratings, said on Wednesday.

    In a report titled:  Sub Saharan Africa Sovereign Debt Steadies but Refinancing Risk May Rise, the global rating agency said borrowing in foreign currency in international markets also exposes sovereigns to foreign exchange refinancing risk and a potentially higher debt service/Gross Domestic Product (GDP) burden in the event of local currency depreciation.

    “Thus although it can appear cheaper if domestic interest rates are high, as in Nigeria, which used the proceeds of its February issue to refinance more expensive naira-denominated debt, it generally involves a net increase in risk, in Fitch’s view,” it said.

    It said weak Public Financial Management (PFM) could increase the challenge of transitioning from concessional to commercial funding, and of managing the associated risks, such as exposure to tighter global monetary policy and the capacity to navigate interest rate and currency risks.

    It said SSA Eurobond maturities are spread out over the next decade, but weak Public Finance Management still means there are risks associated with them. Weak PFM also means that upward pressure on government debt will persist, as it limits the capacity to implement consolidation plans and to contain spending and mobilise domestic revenue sources more fully.

    It hinted that Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) sovereigns, including Nigeria, are making greater use of international debt market financing. This continued in first quarter of this year with issues from Kenya ($2 billion), Cote d’Ivoire (EUR1.7 billion) and Nigeria ($2.5 billion). Ghana’s parliament last month approved plans for a Eurobond issue.

    Read Also: Nigeria’s population now 198m, says NPC

    It said that tapping international capital markets can be an important financing option where liquidity in local funding markets is low. “Long-dated international issuance can extend repayment schedules (Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire’s 1Q18 deals both featured 30-year tranches). Market access that allows for opportunistic international debt issuance is therefore beneficial for SSA sovereigns,” it said.

    It however, said that the rise in debt since 2011, growing use of commercial funding, and in some cases currency depreciation have increased debt servicing costs in some countries.  It said seven of the 18 Fitch-rated SSA sovereigns had general government interest payments/revenues above 15 per cent last year, the highest since at least 2000.

    The SSA sovereign debt levels are stabilising following their recent sharp increase, but growing use of the international capital markets may increase refinancing risk as the amount of international debt coming due rises, Fitch Ratings says. Maturities appear manageable in the near term, but public financial management (PFM) in the region is often weak, meaning that capacity to manage refinancing risk is an important factor in our SSA sovereign credit assessments.

    “We expect median SSA general government debt to be broadly stable this year at 52.6 per cent of GDP, following a rise of over 20 percentage point in the preceding six years. This reflects improved commodity prices and fiscal consolidation in some countries, including those with International Monetary Fund programmes

  • Like Nigeria, Ghana, The Gambia …and now Sierra Leone

    The train, which took off in Nigeria with opposition candidate winning the presidential election, has berth in Ghana, Gambia and Liberia. Sierre Leone joined the league on Wednesday with opposition leader Julius Maada Bio being sworn in as president.

    Sierra Leone’s opposition challenger Julius Maada Bio secured his first term in office as a civilian Wednesday when he was declared the winner of a controversial presidential run-off, which his opponent, Samura Kamara, vowed to contest the result.

    With this feat, Bio has joined a trend which started in Nigeria. Then opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari defeated Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. The trend soon spread to Ghana. The Gambia and Liberia are also now in the hands of hithertho opposition parties.

    Bio, a former soldier who briefly led a military junta more than two decades ago, won 51.81 per cent of ballots in last month’s election, according to official results.

    He beat former ruling party candidate Kamara, who secured 48.19 per cent of the vote, ending a decade in power for Kamara’s All Peoples’ Congress (APC) in the poor West African nation.

    Cheers and songs erupted among thousands of supporters of Bio and his Sierra Leone People’s Party, who were gathered in the capital Freetown on Wednesday evening. Shortly after the announcement, Bio was sworn in as president, handed a symbolic command baton by the country’s top judge.

    The official results of the vote had been delayed by a dispute over the method of tallying that left ballot papers from 11,000 polling stations uncounted.

    The campaign was characterised by ugly verbal exchanges and sporadic violence with Bio accusing the APC of using police intimidation against his party.

    Police reported a string of attacks on candidates and supporters on both sides since the first round on March 7 – which Bio narrowly won – after which Kamara declared that “the safety and security of Sierra Leone is in our hands”.

    Bio, a straight-talking retired brigadier, has blasted the government’s closeness to China, while Kamara had presented himself as a continuity candidate.

     

    Observers ‘satisfied’

     

    Although international observers reported some “issues” during the March 31 second round that saw heightened security measures, the monitors declared themselves “satisfied” with the overall conduct of the poll.

    Earlier Wednesday, Kamara supporters marched in Freetown, tearing down Bio posters and alleging “foreign meddling” in the vote, an AFP reporter said. Security forces erected a cordon around Bio’s SLPP party headquarters, where hundreds of supporters had already begun celebrating victory ahead of the expected official results.

    A total of 3.1-million people were registered to vote in the first presidential poll since a 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak that killed 4 000 people. Kamara’s party’s term was also marred by a mudslide that struck Freetown last year, killing hundreds of people.

    One of the world’s poorest nations despite huge mineral and diamond deposits, Sierra Leone is recovering only gradually from war and disease. Its economy remains fragile, with corruption widespread in the former British colony.

    Political loyalties are often divided along ethnic lines and traumatic memories of the 1991-2002 civil war run deep.

     

    U.S. Embassy greets new president

     

    The U.S. Department of State congratulated the new President and Vice President of Sierra Leone.

    A statement by its embassy said: “The National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone has declared Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio and Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh of the Sierra Leone People’s Party the winners of the run-off election. As a longstanding friend, the United States congratulates the people of Serra Leone on their active and peaceful participation in the presidential elections held on March 31, which is a testament to the strength and resilience of Sierra Leone’s democracy. We look forward to working with President Julius Maada Bio to further strengthen our bilateral relationship.

    “We commend the National Electoral Commission for administering an orderly, well-managed process. We also recognise the important role Sierra Leone’s political parties and civil society organisations played in these elections, and we welcome the statements by international and domestic observer missions affirming the credibility of the election. Now is the time for all leaders to demonstrate their continued commitment to the constitution, Sierra Leone’s democratic institutions, and her people. “Finally, we would like to recognise President Ernest Bai Koroma for his commitment to an orderly and timely political transition.

    “We are committed to working closely with the Government of Sierra Leone and we look forward to advancing our longstanding mutual interests in economic development, trade, health, and the strengthening of democratic institutions.”

     

    Losing party intends to

    challenge vote results

     

    But hopes for a smooth transition were soon thrown into doubt after Kamara said he was rejecting the National Election Commission’s results.

    “We dispute the results and we will take legal action to correct them,” Kamara said in a televised address, calling on his supporters to stay calm. The results, he added, “do not reflect the party’s many concerns about massive ballot box stuffing, supernumerary votes and other irregularities.”

    He said his APC party intends to take “appropriate legal action.”

    Any registered voter has seven days to petition the Supreme Court over the results.

     

    The man Julius Maada Bio

     

    Bio (born May 12, 1964) is a Sierra Leonean politician and the fifth and current president of Sierra Leone since

    As the candidate of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party, Bio defeated Samura Kamara of the ruling All People’s Congress party in the runoff in the 2018 Sierra Leone presidential election. Bio succeeded Ernest Bai Koroma as president, who was constitutionally ineligible for the presidency because he had served the maximum two five year terms.

    Bio is a retired Brigadier in the Sierra Leone Military. He was the military Head of State of Sierra Leone from January 16, 1996 to March 29, 1996 under the National Provisional Ruling Council.

    He was the SLPP presidential candidate in the 2012 presidential election, having won the nomination at the July 31, 2011 SLPP national convention held at the Miatta Conference Hall in Freetown.

    Bio led a military coup in Sierra Leone on January 16, 1996, ousting his close friend and the leader of the NPRC junta government, Captain Valentine Strasser, following a division within senior members of the NPRC junta.

    In his first public speech after the coup, Bio justified his actions as a means to return Sierra Leone to a democratically elected civilian government and end the Sierra Leone civil war.

    He fulfilled his promise to return Sierra Leone to democracy; and he handed power to Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of the SLPP following the latter’s victory in the 1996 presidential election.

    After retiring from the military in 1996, Bio moved to the United States, where he earned a Masters Degree in International Affairs from American University in Washington, D.C. He also served as the president of International Systems Science Corporation, a consulting and investment management firm based in the United States.

    He is an ethnic Sherbro and a native of Bonthe District in Southern Sierra Leone. Bio is a practicing Roman Catholic Christian. His wife Fatima is a practicing Muslim, and an ethnic Mandingo from Koidu, Kono District in eastern Sierra Leone.

     

  • Ghana as America’s latest neo-colony?

    From the latest reports coming out of Ghana, and also carried by reputable international news outlets, the Ghanaian parliament has ratified a military cooperation agreement with the United States that would allow the US to station its troops and equipment in the West African country. What this means is that Ghana would permit the US to establish a military base (or bases, as the case may be) in its territory. In international relations and international law, a treaty or an agreement, once ratified by parliament, automatically becomes an integral part of a country’s law, and the obligations arising from it are binding and cannot be willfully derogated. Now that Ghana’s national legislators have ratified it, that military cooperation agreement now has the force of law and it is binding on Ghana. Unfortunately as is always the case in the relations of developing states with the great powers of the world, Ghana is the one holding the short end of the stick. Without question, Ghana has become America’s latest colonial enclave!

    Since the establishment of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) by President George W. Bush in 2007, Washington has been surreptitiously encroaching on the defence establishments of most African states. Though Nigeria initially stiffly resisted the overtures to accept basing US troops on its soil, it was the abduction of nearly 300 teenage Chibok girls that forced it to acquiesce to some form of US military assistance. In spite of this assistance and the often secretive presence of thousands of its troops in numerous African countries, the US has been unable to persuade any of them to agree to host the headquarters of AFRICOM, which up till now remains in Stuttgart, Germany.

    In the column I wrote for the Nigerian Tribune (June 17, 2014), I made it known with evidence that there was a gradual but surreptitious US re-colonization of Africa through a strategic military lockdown of the entire African continent. I had mentioned the establishment of AFRICOM and the existence of American military bases and US troops (both secretive and openly acknowledged) in no fewer than 35 African countries. Well, that figure has just increased with Ghana joining the ranks.

    Though most of the finer details of the agreement are not yet well known, the reality from the little that is already in the public domain proves that Ghana has knowingly mortgaged a substantial portion of its sovereignty to the US, effectively making the independent country a modern-day, 21st Century colony. Nigeria at independence had a similarly one-sided defence agreement with its former colonial master, i.e., the infamous Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact, but had to unilaterally abrogate it in January 1962 under sustained domestic opposition and massive pressure from the mass media, students, the labour unions and the intelligentsia, thus saving it from what was a carefully packaged neo-colonial entanglement.

    Ghana has of its volition joined the ignoble company of America’s neo-colonies in Africa. How does this sound to the hearing of proud Ghanaian intelligentsia who are familiar with Kwame Nkrumah’s articulations in his Neocolonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism that “a state in the grip of neo-colonialism is not a master of its own destiny.” Is Ghana therefore on the way to becoming the headquarters of AFRICOM which no African country had been willing to host? Though the full details and implications of this agreement are not yet known, but reports indicate that it would, amongst other things, give the US troops “unimpeded access to agreed facilities and areas to U.S. forces, their contractors and other related services.”

    These facilities “for the exclusive use by U.S. troops or to be jointly used with their Ghanaian counterparts” will include “a runway that meets the requirements of United States forces,” free use of Ghana’s radio spectrum, and exemption of payment of taxes “on equipment to be imported into Ghana.” Well, since these equipment are exempted from taxes, they are also automatically exempted from Customs inspection! Wow! Additionally, Ghanaian authorities would have neither access to nor authority whatsoever over those military facilities or what goes on in there. In reality, Ghana will be host to a foreign army of occupation for the promise of a mere $20 million to be spent for training and equipping Ghana armed forces personnel. Donald Trump was probably not far off the mark when he referred to African states as shitholes! What other self-respecting country except a shithole would so casually exchange its hard won sovereignty for a mere promise of $20 million dollars, a fat chunk of which will end up in American pockets anyway.

    Unfortunately, Ghanaians would not even know if and when the Americans are bringing in and stockpiling dangerous weapons in their country, nor if their country is being used for dangerous military experiments or their people as guinea-pigs for developing, testing and storage of chemical, biological and other weapons of mass extermination. Before I am accused of fear-mongering, it is a known that America has always used people of colour across the globe, even African-Americans and Indigenous Americans, as guinea-pigs for offensive chemical, biological, bacteriological, pharmaceutical and radiological weapons research and experiments. A reputable American scholar and professor of international law, Francis Anthony Boyle, who has published several books on the subject of biological warfare and terrorism, has even insinuated that the US may be directly culpable in the outbreak and spread of a genetically modified version of the Ebola virus, which ravaged West Africa from 2014 to 2015.

    Once the virus began to spread uncontrollably at the time, troops from Fort Detrick in Maryland, USA, a known US facility for biological weapons programme, were swiftly deployed to West Africa, ostensibly to offer assistance! This is in addition to several US-funded secretive bio-weapons research laboratories in a number of severely exploited African countries like Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone where American researchers have been testing all manner of viruses and biological agents for years.

    It is without question a sad turn of events, a dangerous and frankly repugnant development that Ghana, the once proud Black Star of Nkrumah’s era, the first truly Black African country to gain political independence in 1957 and gave Black Africans their pride in the community of nation-states, has become America’s latest colonial enclave in West Africa. And guess what: it is not by direct military conquest but by an insidious bilateral agreement ratified by Ghana’s own parliament that would make the country host to a foreign army of occupation! If anything, it stands as a tragic irony that this happened the same month Ghana celebrated its 61st independence anniversary.

    Pray, who has bewitched the once proud and pace-setting Ghanaians into this obviously sinister neo-colonialist enslavement? Is this the land of the Ashantis who so courageously resisted colonial conquest before they were finally subdued by superior British military firepower? Was it not for the liberation of this same Ghana from colonialism that Nkrumah and several other patriotic Ghanaians had to go to jail? Can this be said to be the same Ghana of the intrepid of Kwame Nkrumah which shook the African continent in the 1960s, or a mere hideous doppelganger, a monstrous apparition? How times change and how quickly are memories erased!

     

    • Prof Fawole is of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

  • Kenya, Ghana seek Visionscape partnership on waste

    Environmental utility firm Visionscape recently engaged by the Lagos State Government for refuse collection, has got offers from Kenya and Ghana for partnership in waste management and power generation.

    It was learnt that the firm performance  in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Dubai, recommended the firm for consideration.

    Directors of the firm have held series of meetings with Ghanaian officials led by the minister of environment in Lagos and Dubai while Governor Mike Mbuyi Sonko of Nairobi, Kenya expressed his preference for the presentation made on behalf of Visionscape by GIL Capital.

    A detailed presentation, source said, will be made later on the governor’s request in his quest for a one-stop shop management solution to waste in the Kenyan capital.

    The Lagos State Government signed a contract with Visionscape with the responsibility of residential collection of waste.

    Private Sector Participants (PSP) operators were given the responsibility for evacuation of waste generated from commercial areas. The PSPs which also wanted to retain residential collection of waste, however, withdrew their services in protest and went to court.

    Recently all the parties in the crisis agreed to an amicable resolution. The court last week gave parties a two-week ultimatum to resolve the issues.

  • Nigeria – Ghana: The imperative of unity

    It is 59 years since Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s historic visit to Nigeria – in 1959 – in those heady days after the first All African People’s Conference, which Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe hailed as the beginning of a Federation of Independent West African States. Noting that Ghana and Nigeria’s struggles were identical in many respects, Dr. Azikiwe had declared that, “The very diversity of our peoples, and customs and languages, means that we have much to contribute to each other.” He looked forward to our two countries becoming “models of honest and democratic government” capable of giving hope to all of Africa.

    Typically, when we hear of a ‘special relationship’ between nations, it is with regard to Britain and America; and as the Reagan and Thatcher era showed forth, these are relationships that outlive governments. Ours, too, is a special relationship, which should outlive us and be a reference point in Africa. The onus and leadership rest on us. What we do now, lays the basis for the continent’s future.

    Here then is the imperative of unity between our two nations and in the region. With unity and democracy as standard, we can lay the groundwork for good governance and development. We are thus presented with the opportunity to work for democracy, using the instrumentality of parliament.

    If Africa is to be fully integrated into the global economy, its constituent nations must be governed by the rule of law, and we have to commit to making the required adjustment now. The strength of democracy starts with the strength of parliament. It is our responsibility to instil in the body politic the time-honoured principles of participation, transparency and accountability, and to fight corruption, always making the space for stakeholder participation. This is the modern model of governance.

    Parliaments are a stabilising force in democracy, especially with regard to oversight responsibility. We must be courageous; even when some of our initiatives fly in the face of special interest, ours is to do what is right for our people. To do this, we must defend democracy. We have seen for ourselves the beauty of democracy in its infancy. That should give us the inspiration to steer it to a level where it can compete favourably with older democracies in the developed world.

    As a community of democratic West African States, ECOWAS makes it that much easier to build consensus; and the organisation can serve this purpose very effectively on security and the economy. As many regional challenges indicate, our people suffer when the needed policies are not in place. In Nigeria, Boko Haram insurgency and Herdsmen-and-Farmers conflicts come with regional dimensions – further aggravated by porous borders that advertise the weakness in trans-national security, while facilitating irregular migration and human trafficking. There is a need to strengthen our security apparatus so that together, we can fight terrorism. It is a threat to government, education and economic development.

    We have much to build upon. Trading relations between Nigeria and Ghana have begun to peak. Collaboration between the Nigerian film industry – Nollywood – and Ghanaian actors, directors and producers, remind us that age-old competition in football and even music – for who can forget the glory days of E.T. Mensah and his co-travellers in Highlife? – all of that, can be channelled in truly great and creative directions.

    We are the richest continent in resources and yet we are the poorest, because we have allowed ourselves to be pigeon-holed as the supplier of raw materials to the world. The leaders of our two countries are clear in their stance on the raw materials pivot of our economies. President Muhammadu Buhari has said that, “Our vision is for a Nigeria in which we grow what we eat.” And President Akufo-Addo is unequivocal: “We must add value to [our] resources, we must industrialise and we must enhance agricultural productivity.”

    The two leaders have identified this flaw in our economies, and we in parliament must support them with appropriate legislation in order to realise their vision. African parliaments have to come together to cross-pollinate ideas about how to move the continent forward.

    It is unacceptable that Africa’s trade with Europe far outstrips that between African nations. British foreign investment in Africa totalled $54.1 billion in 2014. China had an estimated 2,650 projects ongoing on our continent in 2015. Meanwhile, Africa’s share of the global trade stands at 3 per cent, inter-Africa trade is 11 per cent. We must devise an economic model that produces and manufactures primarily for the African market, and then use that as a basis upon which to engage with the wider world.

    I strongly believe that our people’s talent for innovation and enterprise makes them our most valuable resources – it is our role therefore, to give them opportunities to translate these into going concerns. This will create wealth and enable us to compete globally. Africa cannot afford to lag behind. We must work to make the sub-region a place of investment. We must generate wealth for the people of Africa.

    It is incumbent on us to make clear promises and to deliver on them. Our two nations can forge ahead by sharing experiences, building upon valued discourses about the way the world works, and how to make our people beneficiaries as well as contributors to the great leaps of this century.

    We must invest in primary, secondary and tertiary education – up to the 26 percent of the national budget recommended by the United Nations. It must be mandatory for every child to go to school; we should ensure that there are incentives for those that send their children to school, and penalties for those that do not. We have to pull every one of our citizens out of the cycle of poverty and ignorance, and education is the means by which to do so.

    My vision for Africa is an optimistic one. I am very upbeat about the continent, I am very upbeat about the future. Greater educational, scientific and technological interaction can lay a basis for our part of the world to match the rest of the world. Democracy is not just about elections; it is about putting knowledge at the disposal of a people determined to take their future into their own hands.

    If the African continent is to be a success story – or even the African Union (AU) for that matter, ECOWAS must play a key role. And for ECOWAS to lead the charge, Ghana and Nigeria must step up to the plate, and fulfil their leadership role on the continent.

    • Excerpt of speech delivered by the President of the Senate to the Parliament of Ghana on March 5, 2018.

     

     

  • President Buhari’s full speech during his visit to Ghana

    President Buhari’s full speech during his visit to Ghana

    SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, MUHAMMADU BUHARI, PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 61ST INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA, 6TH MARCH, 2018,

    On behalf of the Government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria I am honoured by the special invitation extended to me by His Excellency, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on this auspicious occasion of the celebration of the 61st Independence Anniversary of the Republic of Ghana. I am delighted at the warm reception accorded me and my entourage since our arrival in this beautiful city of Accra.

    Your Excellency,

    I would like to pay special tribute to all leaders of the Republic right from the era of the late first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to date. We must acknowledge their various contributions.

    In the words of Kwame Nkrumah “those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved would do well to remember the depths from which we started”. No words can sum it up better as we are all familiar with our colonial era journey and its ups and downs. My tribute also goes to all those who have paid the supreme sacrifices in the cause of nation-building.

    Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

    May I extend my personal congratulations to President Akufo-Addo on your successful one year in office with special note on the strides recorded by your administration within a space of just 365 days.

    From Nigeria, I have watched closely your achievements, ranging from your ingenious approach to creating jobs for the teeming youths through various initiatives, including the repositioning of agriculture for modern farming, ‘Farming for Jobs and Food’, Senior High School (SHS) free education, One-District-One-Factory, and One-Village-One-Dam as well as the improvement being recorded in the Republic’s macroeconomic indicators.

    All these efforts, I am aware, have made Ghana to become a good destination for foreign direct investment just like Nigeria. Accept my congratulations!

    Your Excellency,

    My tributes to you and the people of Ghana will not be complete without acknowledging your efforts at tackling corruption, which has eaten into the fabrics of our societies.

    I congratulate both the government and the Parliament for the quick passage of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act and its signing into law. Your Excellency can be assured that you have a good partner in me as I look forward to any form of collaboration between Nigeria and Ghana in tackling the menace of endemic corruption. Given all these public policies, it becomes reassuring that with the right leadership, Africa’s drives to eradicate poverty and to entrench democracy is on course.

    Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

    Nigeria and Ghana share close cultural and historic ties, which have continued to shape our bilateral relations. Once again, I note with pride that our common colonial experience, as well as parallel socio-economic and political development and the patriotic vision of our leaders have helped greatly in shaping this unique relationship not only in West Africa sub-region but in our collaborative actions internationally.

    It is therefore my strong desire that we owe it as a duty to ensure that our good peoples continue to live in each other’s countries unhindered. Our newly rejuvenated Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation has already provided us with good platform in resolving any differences while focusing on our main developmental objectives.

    Your Excellency,

    Permit me to put on record, Ghana’s untiring efforts in brokering peace in Togo, by bringing all the warring parties to the negotiation table. I am appealing to the opposing parties in Togo to please come together and resolve their differences so that Togo will move forward.

    In the same vein, I wish Nigeria and Ghana to continue to provide the impetus in realising the objectives and ideals of the founding fathers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to ensure security, peace and development of our region.

    Your Excellency, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

    On behalf of the Government and people of Nigeria, I join other well-wishers to congratulate the Government and the good people of Ghana on this momentous occasion of your celebration of freedom.

    Long Live, the Republic of Ghana,

    Long Live, the Federal Republic of Nigeria

    I thank you all.

  • Photos: Buhari in Ghana

    Photos: Buhari in Ghana

    President Mohammadu Buhari at the 61st anniversary of the Republic of Ghana.

    .

  • HFN begins Camp in Kaduna

    HFN begins Camp in Kaduna

    The Handball Federation of Nigeria ( HFN ) has opened camping for Under-18 and 20 players ahead of the African qualifiers for the International Handball Federation competition coming up in Niger Republic.

    Our reporters,  reports that the camp commenced from March 5-30, 2018 at the Murtala Mohammed Square in Kaduna.

    Emeka Oko,the under U-18 coach said ” selection would be on merit. If you play well we will pick you and if you don’t we will drop you. We want to field the best for the country. ”

    Technical Director, Nigerian Handball federation, Ferdinand Emana, expressed confidence that the talents at their disposal would do the nation proud.

    “There is no doubt in my mind that this group of talented young players will spring  surprises in Nigeria as they were carefully selected from previous competitions last year.”

    A cross section of coaches said final selection of players would be tough because of the pool of talented players in camp.

    Read Also: AHCN rues govt’s disposition to NHF

    Chairman Kaduna Handball Association, Ahmed Abubakar expressed gratitude to the federation for starting the camp early, stressing that it would boost the confidence of the players.

    “The confidence is that the players will get to know each other and it will foster team spirit and cohesion and its a good development for the game”.

    Our reporters, reports that 28 players each for the under U-20 and U-18 teams are in camp out of which 14 players will be selected for each category.

    Nigeria is pitched in zone 3 of the IHF qualifiers alongside Ghana, Siera Leone, Burundi, Togo, Benin Republic and host Niger.

     NAN