President grants audience to Kaunda

Accra, Sept 22, GNA - President Jerry John Rawlings on Wednesday painted a gloomy political picture for Africa and said there is "too much politics of back-stabbing on the continent".

He said some politicians, out of entirely personal motives, paint people in leadership black, tell lies about them and even go to the extent of discrediting their countries to the outside world in order to make governments they are opposed to unpopular. "Africa lacks political maturity.

We should give credit when it is due and condemn when the situation calls for it", the President said when he received ex-President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia at the Castle, Osu. The former Zambian leader is in the country as the Special Guest for the 90th birthday celebration of the late President Kwame Nkrumah who died 27 years ago.

Both leaders led their countries to independence but while Dr Nkrumah was ousted in 1966, Dr Kaunda lost elections and has been embroiled in turmoil with the government of President Frederick Chiluba, which stripped him of his Zambian citizenship.

President Rawlings, who enjoys close friendship with Dr Kaunda, said if African politicians do not discard their "pull-him-down tactics", the continent's growth would continue to be stunted.

President Rawlings appealed to Africa's elder statesmen such as Dr Kaunda and ex-President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania to speak a against some of the ills afflicting the continent.

"The battle is not yet over for those of you still alive. You have the moral authority and you are the conscience of Africa. Dr Nyerere is making a lot of efforts but we want to hear more".

President Rawlings said as a new millennium approaches "we must take ourselves more seriously and plan how we will achieve our visions in terms of development."

Dr Kaunda said as a contemporary of Dr Nkrumah he is gratified the late President has at long last been rehabilitated and commended the government for it. "The rehabilitation of Dr Nkrumah is there for everybody to see.

He was too much of a giant to be destroyed. Although he was born in Ghana, he belonged to the whole of Africa." He said that apart from his rehabilitation, the late President's programmes are being pursued by the government and this could be seen in the economic development of the country.

"The cornerstone of the government's success is its ability to bring together people from different shades of political opinion." Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, Adviser to the President on Governmental Affairs, Prof. Kofi Awoonor, a Presidential Aide and Mr John Tettegah, a former trade unionist, paid tribute to Dr Nkrumah and said his ideas are still valid.

Alhaji Iddrissu said the late President's call for continental unity and an African Defence Force remain valid and that if the force had been established it could have intervened in some of the conflicts on the continent.