My support is for country, not party - Ghana’s President tells Jagdeo

My support is for country, not party – Ghana’s President tells Jagdeo

Jun 14, 2019 News

The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, met with Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Tuesday, during his brief visit to Guyana. And during that visit, he pledged to help Guyana’s fledgling oil and gas industry develop, by sending a team of experts with Ghana’s wealth of technical experience.
The only thing that Guyana would have to do is to find accommodation for that team.

President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, after being conferred with the Order of Excellence

Director General Joseph Harmon informed reporters of this during a luncheon at State House, just hours before President Akufo-Addo’s meeting with the Opposition Leader.
Jagdeo said that during the meeting, he expressed thanks to the President for the offer to help.
But the Opposition Leader seemed to be unsure whether that offer extends, even if the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) wins the next General and Regional Elections.
So he took it upon himself to remind President Akufo-Addo about the relationship Guyana has with Ghana, particularly when the PPP interacted with former Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah in the ‘50s to “help overcome some of the ethnic tensions in that period,” Jagdeo said.
He also spoke to the President about democracy, and the history of shaken democracy that both countries have in common.
“I related our similar circumstances in Guyana of three decades of undemocratic rule here. And the President made a statement. He said ‘I support democracy. Democracy is the basis for stability in any country.’”
The President then asked Jagdeo about his perspective on the political situation, as he must have been briefed on the No Confidence matters. So Jagdeo said he pointed out that the timing of elections depends on the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) next week.
At that, Jagdeo said that he asked President Akufo-Addo, ‘Should the PPP emerge [victorious], we would like to work with Ghana and we would like to take up the offers that you made at the State Luncheon about sharing experience with the fledgling oil and gas industry.’
In response, Jagdeo said, President Akufo-Addo explicitly stated “The promise I made was not to an individual or to a party. It was to the country. So whoever prevails at elections, we will be happy to work with.”
Jagdeo said that he is happy the Ghanaian President took time out of his very brief visit to sit with him; that “we can only benefit from leaders around the world coming to our country, learning of our challenges.”
For Ghana, in particular, he said that that relationship is crucial because “a lot of our people have come from Ghana in the period of slavery.”