Multi-million JAK foundation unveiled
A ground breaking ceremony took place yesterday at the University of Ghana for work to commence on the John Agyekum Kufuor Centre of Leadership, Governance, and Development project.
The ceremony which was witnessed by a large number of people from all walks of live, with high profile intentional personalities such as ex-German President, Horst Kohler, Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa, Nana Akufo-Addo, NPP flagbearer, and former President Rawlings in attendance, was followed by a public lecture and the official launch of the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana.
The lecture which was delivered by Horst Kohler, former President of Federal Republic of Germany, was under the theme: Walking the Tightrope: Balancing State, Market and
Society.
A similar groundbreaking ceremony is expected to take place today at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region for the construction of a Presidential Library and Museum.
The former German President said he was particularly honoured to be part of this great initiative and was full of praise for ex-president John Kufuor. He also commended Thabo Mbeki who he said has been very instrumental in this laudable project of Africa renaissance.
The ceremony was preceded by a courtesy call on Vice President John Mahama who paid a glowing tribute to ex-president John Kufuor over his leadership training project.
Mr Mahama, in expressing government's support and approval for the project, expressed gratitude to African leaders, including Mr Kufuor and Thabo Mbeki for their readiness to share their experiences with the current crop of leaders on the continent.
He was optimistic the JAK Foundation would churn out great African leaders who will entrench the ideals and tenets of African Renaissance, espoused by the past African leaders.
The main vision the JAK Foundation, according to Mr Kufuor, is to educate people on leadership, governance and development; how to be a good leader and engineer good governance. He believes with good government, the framework, economy and social infrastructure development of a country moves on well.
According to former President Kufuor, the Foundation will not only benefit the Ghanaian youth but will be a symbol of his legacy.
“I believe that there is a trend that I may describe as 'nova'; this is when former presidents and heads of state are expected to set up a foundation, perhaps, as a mark of their legacy in their respective countries. You can say that I am following that trend. The foundation is an umbrella institution I am setting up to pursue projects that I would be conferred with; helping improve the quality of leadership, governance and development generally, in Ghana and beyond,” he explained.
Former President Kufuor's decision to set up the Foundation at the UG and KNUST is premised on the basis that the two universities because it “provide education to students from all walks of life, different regions and different countries”.
According to him, he did not chose the two universities out of discrimination but as a result of their stature and the courses they offer, stressing that both facilities will be opened to students from all other universities in the country.
Former President Kufuor is remembered for his good governance, exemplary leadership and the massive socio-economic and infrastructural development that took place in the country under his tenure.
In the words of NPP flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, Mr Kufuor's “eight year stewardship of our nation gave the Ghanaian people a welcome, solid taste of the meaning of development in freedom. The rapid expansion of the economy that took place under his watch, now universally acknowledged even by his fiercest critics and detractors, bringing in its wake a marked improvement in the living standards of the Ghanaian people, together with the enhancement of the culture of democratic governance that his era witnessed, leaves many Ghanaians wondering how far down our development journey we would have been had the other post-independent governments worked with the same efficiency and zeal as his did”.
The prudent economic management of the Kufuor administration led to the quadrupling of the size of the economy from US$3.9m in 2001 to US$16.3m in 2008, thus ending his tenure with GDP growth rate of 7.3%.
Between 2001 and 2008, with the introduction of mass cocoa spraying exercise coupled with the persistent good policies in the cocoa sector, the nation's cocoa production increased from 350 metric tonnes in 2000 to over 750 metric tonnes in before the end of his tenure. This feat alone moved Ghana from the 4th position to the 2nd position in terms of the world's leading producers of the product.
Mr Kufuor's administration also implemented unprecedented pro-poor policies, such as the NHIS, School Feeding Programme, Capitation Grant, Free Maternal Care, among others which impacted positively on the lives of the people.