Mahama: Ghana is Trail-Blazer in Africa

President John Dramani Mahama has stated that Ghana had over the years become the trail-blazer in Africa on account of her leading role in all the political moves of the continent.

He said Ghana under the Nkrumah regime witnessed the struggle for independence from colonial masters that was replicated in most African countries for freedom.

"Unfortunately, Ghana also took a leading role in the declaration of coup d'etats in Africa that was again emulated by other African countries and now the democratization of Ghana since 1993 has set the agenda for others."

President Mahama said this when he addressed Black Solicitors network in London on: “Ghana Politics and Economic Growth: A Journey to success."

The programme was attended by a great number of Solicitors from all African countries and from the Carribean countries.

President Mahama said although Ghana was part of the coup d'etats that he described as the lost decades, Ghana recovered swiftly after holding its first general election in 1992.

He said: "In the first general election after the coups, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won power for eight years and lost power to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2000, who also held power for eight years before losing in 2008 to NDC again."

The smooth transfer of power from NDC to NPP and its transfer back to the NDC in 2009, he said had become enviable to other countries, which were now thriving to replicate such achievements in their democratic dispensations.

He said with all those achievements, Ghana unfortunately took a nose-dive in its economic stability in the revolutionary days that compelled them to seek the support of the IMF and other Bretton woods institutions that was again replicated by other African countries.

President blamed the status of Ghana and other African countries as mass producers of raw materials to the type of economies that they inherited from Britain their colonial master and gave the assurance that such measures needed changes to transform the economies.

"That is why this time around, we are taking up measures to become processors of finished goods especially in the areas of cocoa, gold and timber that we have relied on for the past decades."

He said it was unfortunate that Ghana imported all kinds of goods including goods such as tomatoes, oil, poultry, timber and cocoa products that it had the prospects to produce for both domestic consumption and for export.