Clare Short Picks Award

President John Agyekum Kufuor has conferred one more honours on another distinguished personality, barely two weeks after the national awards.

Yesterday, a former British Cabinet Minister, Clare Short, who could not make it to the ceremony at the Accra International Conference Centre, had her turn.

She was decorated in the office of the President at the Castle, Osu, with the Companion of the Order of the Volta.

The honour was to show the state's admiration for Ms Short for her outstanding contribution to the country's advancement in the field of development partnership.

The former British Cabinet Minister played a very important role about eight years ago when there was a lot of debate about whether or not the nation should be declared a Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC).

Before being decorated with the sash and badge, Hon Short said she was impressed by the achievement Ghana had chalked in the past years.

She remembered how the people of Ghana were not ready to tell the world that they were poor and needed a debt relief. “Ghana has a special quality, dignity of pride from government officials to the ordinary people.”

Even though the poverty rate of Ghana has reduced from 52 percent to 26 percent, Ms Short said there is still “a lot to do”.

With the discovery of oil, she advised that the country puts in place structures to ensure that it reaps the maximum benefit from the find.

President Kufuor responded that the country was positioning itself to learn from the mistakes of other oil-producing countries “so that we can set examples for others to follow”.

When the President mentioned that the government has been able to secure some funds to put up a residency for the President which is almost at a completion point, Hon Short asked, so there would be “no more HIPC Junction?” referring to the President's private home which he now uses as a residency.

The place was named HIPC during the years when she was in Ghana.

About two weeks ago, some 244 distinguished sons and daughters of the land as well as some foreign nationals were decorated with national honours in various categories at a colourful ceremony at the Accra International Conference Centre.

By Emelia Abbey