Nigerian University awards President Kufuor Honorary Degree

Accra, March 31, GNA - The University of Benin, Nigeria, has conferred an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Law (Honoris Causa) on President John Agyekum Kufuor.

General Joshua Hamidu (Rtd), Ghana's High Commissioner in Nigeria who received the award at the 2002/2003 Convocation of the University on March 19, this year, presented the award to President Kufuor at the Castle, Osu, on Thursday.

In a citation, the University said: "President Kufuor is the archetype of the modern African leader, a credible emblem of a changing continent, an articulate champion of the idea that African countries should establish a profile of autonomy and self-reliance in their development process.

"President Kufuor is a tried and tested advocate of regional integration, a democrat of persuasive credentials, an apostle of peace, the authentic voice of Ghanaians."

The citation said in Ghana, President Kufuor had attracted the gaze and gratitude of posterity by giving a new direction, a new hope and a new reality to public and political life.

In West Africa, in particular and in Africa as a whole, the citation said, President Kufuor had fostered a broader outlook and perspective and aroused a new confidence in the capacity of the black person to lead well.

"He is a trusted friend of our country, faithful to the fraternal bonds imposed by history and disposed to construct bridges of closer cooperation in the framework of a common community of aspirations.

"His dream is to call a New Africa into existence to redress the inequalities of the old continent, using as his chief weapon the Abuja-Accra interface."