Former President John Dramani Mahama has admonished Africans leaders and world leaders at large to join forces and support each other to facilitate development globally.
Speaking to students and some faculty members of the Boston University on the importance of partnership and cooperation as a driving force for development in countries around the world, Mr. Mahama said no one country can be isolated or independent of others since every country needs the support of others to evolve and develop.
Our countries are bigger than any of us and politicians will come and go, presidents will come and go….no part of the world can isolate itself from the other, you can’t build walls and shut the rest of the world out, no part of the world can isolate itself from other parts of the world…this current wave of xenophobic attacks and others will fade away, we will come to realization we can’t live without each other”, he said.
Touching on Ghana’s status as far as democratic consolidation is concerned, Mr. Mahama said the country’s harsh political experiences in the past is a huge contributing factor to the democracy it enjoys today because its leaders built on the weaknesses and amended the mistakes to avoid any reoccurrences.
“somebody asked me, but why has Ghana been so successful in consolidating our democracy and I always say that it’s because of our experience, everybody’s experience is important, negative or positive, and so all the coup d’etats we went through are part of the experiences that brought us to the mature democracy Ghana practices today”, he explained.
He expressed his belief in the advancement of African countries and admonished all African leaders and Africans at large to continue working towards deepening democratic consolidation in their respective countries to progress and develop.
“Africa is changing, Africa is moving on and I think that this should be the new normal that we continue to deepen democratic consolidation, so it doesn’t make news if a president loses elections and hands over, our countries will outlast us,….each of us is just a little dot in history, just a grain of sand in history”, he stated.
Former President John Dramani Mahama was in Boston, USA on Thursday and visited the Boston University for a short and insightful interaction with some Faculty and Students. He also had the opportunity to speak at the African Development Conference at the Harvard University on Saturday.
