Mr. John Mahama, Former President
of Ghana, on Tuesday, appealed to the Nigeria Government to open up her border
so that economic activities can resume in West Africa.
Mahama made the plea while
delivering the 7th Anniversary Lecture, Investiture into The Realnews Hall of
Fame and The unveiling of the Book: Pathways to Political and Economic
Development of Africa in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
reports the title of the lecture is `Beyond Politics: An Economic Narrative for
West Africa’.
He said that the total closure
of, especially, the Benin border was having a significant toll on many small
and medium businesses especially in Togo, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire that relied
on inter-country trade.
“I am sure that businesses in
Nigeria that rely on supplies from these countries are also suffering.
“With the signing of the joint
border task force agreement between Nigeria and her neighbours, I will like to
take this opportunity to appeal to Nigeria to open up her border so that
economic activities can resume,” he said.
Mahama said as a former Chairman
of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), an Authority of Heads
of State and Government, he had an abiding interest in the progress of ECOWAS
and its people.
He noted that it was not by
accident that Nigeria was home to the
headquarters of the ECOWAS and
the largest economy in West Africa.
According to him, the import of
the following quote from the objective principles for establishment of ECOWAS
cannot be lost on us.
“ECOWAS was set up to foster the
ideal of collective self-sufficiency for its member states.
“As a trading union, it is also
meant to create a single, large trading bloc through economic cooperation.
“Integrated economic activities
as envisaged in the area revolve around but are not limited to industry,
transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources,
commerce, monetary and financial issues, social as well as cultural matters,”
he said.
The ex-president expressed
optimism that as an economic and regional bloc, a lot of economic opportunities
were available to ECOWAS and they must take advantage of them.
Mahama said: “Back home in Ghana,
I also look forward to our government’s intervention that brings an immediate
cessation to the forceful and illegal closure of shops of foreigners,
especially Nigerians, by members of the local trade associations”.
The former president noted that
the uptake of science and technology in all sectors of our economies would
allow Africa to leapfrog its development.
He noted that Africa need not go
through all the stages of industrialization that the developed countries went
through.
Mahama stated that the
biotechnology and tissue culture would allow us to multiply agricultural
productivity in ten fold.
He said the use of innovation
would allow the continent increase productivity and free more people from
back-breaking labour and allow them to pursue careers in services, tourism and
the arts.
“We must grow our SMEs and blue
collar labour. SMEs and middle level blue collar manpower have been the main
drivers of growth in middle income Latin American and Asian economies.
“This means that our educational
curriculum must be rejigged to produce the skilled human resources to drive
this sector.
“Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) must be rebranded to be a career of first choice.
“Rather than the humbler
alternative when other doors of progression in the grammar schools and
humanities track have been closed to a student, ” he said.
Mahama emphasised that despite
the end of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), we must strive to achieve
the basic goals of universal enrolment of African children in school.
According to him, nearly 30 per
cent of African children are out of school. We must also work to keep them in
school, especially with the girl child.
“Keeping girls in school till
post secondary means less early child marriages and also delays the onset of
pregnancy till well after 18 years, ” he said.
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