Enviable Achievements

It should not be surprising that President Kufuor was given a rousing welcome when he arrived back home from Addis Ababa, where he was unanimously elected the African Union Chairman.

Within the past six years that President Kufuor assumed the highest position in the country, he has won enviable honours for the country which have pushed it to its rightful place in the comity of nations.

The latest honour done the President and the country is primarily due to his exemplary performance as Chairman of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS), as well as the role he played when he chaired the Peace and Security Council of the Commission.

The contributions Ghana made towards peace-keeping operations since the attainment of independence in various parts of the world, including the African Continent, cannot be forgotten.

President Kufuor has shown the way in good governance, respect for human rights and the rule of law in the country. All well-meaning people on the continent have taken due cognisance of these.

It is coincidental that President Kufuor is assuming this high post, when Kofi Annan, one of Ghana's illustrious sons, has just retired as the United Nations' Secretary-General, after rendering a 10-year meritorious service to the world body.

Perhaps, it was these individual and collective performances by Ghanaians that have influenced organisations to elect or select Ghanaians to high positions of trust.

It appears President Kufuor has come to continue the unfinished works of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, first President of Ghana.

Critics of the President's activities, especially foreign travels are put to shame.

We wonder how the President could have clinched those achievements had he remained in Ghana, and did not attend those important conferences.

The other day when the President attended an important conference in China, he had the opportunity to discuss Ghana's energy crisis with the Chinese authorities.

It was through that discussion that assistance for the construction of the Bui Dam was won.

Similarly, it was at the just-ended two-day Eighth African Union Summit that President Kufuor and his Nigerian counterpart discussed the solution to Ghana's energy problems.

We wonder where those important discussions would have been held, had the President not attended those conferences. All those ideas would have remained untapped.

In such a case, not only the President would have lost; the country and indeed, the entire African Continent would have the losers.

therefore, urges all Ghanaians to support the President and the Government to work and achieve more for the country.