EDITORIAL: Let's Make Accra AU Summit a Success

AS OUR august visitors, prior to the Accra Summit of Heads of State of the African Union, begin to arrive for the preparatory sessions, it should now dawn on us that this historic summit should be devoid of politics.

The foundation of the Accra Summit was laid on June 25 when the 14th Ordinary Session of the AU Permanent Representative Committee (PRC) opened in Accra.

The PRC will deal with a number of outstanding issues of administrative, legal, political and economic nature that confront the AU Commission and the African Union in order to make appropriate recommendations for the 11th African Union executive Council meeting on June 28th.

The Accra Summit should not be clothed in political garb. The Summit should be seen as a victory for all Ghanaians and the recognition of our founding fathers especially Osagyefo, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, whose African Union Government message is now being vigorously pursued after propounding that theory for many years.

It is also a feather in the country's cap to have President John Agyekum Kufuor, at this historic moment, as the Chairman of the AU.

Ghanaians should realise that not all of us can have access to the National Conference Centre to participate in the deliberations of the Heads of State and government.

But to this paper, all Ghanaians have a role to play to make the summit a success. And this is where The Chronicle will admonish and plead with our countrymen and women to be each other's keeper and obey and abide by any security measures that will be put in place for a successful Summit.

For during the period of the Summit, certain roads may be closed and this is where our drivers, both commercial and private, have to co-operate with the Police and other security agencies for the maintenance of discipline, law and order.

Certain streets also have to be cleared of the itinerant hawkers while sanitation should be upper most in our minds. What is about to happen is our cake which we should all enjoy and this is where we have to show our proverbial Ghanaian hospitality to our foreign guests and visitors.

It is a big credit to us that since Nkrumah's Convention People's Party played host to then Organisation of African Unity conference in 1965, out of which the AU metamorphosed, another government opposed to the Osagyefo's ideas is now in power. This shows the beauty of democracy that this country has embarked upon to the admiration of the whole world.

As a pace setter on the African continent, we should all be proud of the Accra Summit and give it the necessary support to make it a big success for the benefit of the entire country.