FRATERNAL relations between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire date back to several decades. As for relations between the peoples of the two countries, they predate the colonial era when, Africa, the object of the greed and insatiable appetite for territory by Western imperialist powers, and its people were totally balkanised.
When Ghana, under the leadership of our visionary and illustrious Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, broke the back of the colonial regime and founded the new sovereign Republic of Ghana on March 6, 1957, it became the Mecca for Africanists who were thirsty to see the back of the colonial order and bring freedom and justice to their long-suffering people.
Notwithstanding ideological differences between Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah and the late Ivorian leader, Houphouet Boigny, the two states and their peoples continued to forge ahead in the decolonisation process, as well as in the bid to build sound and symbiotic economic systems for the mutual benefit of the two peoples.
It is important here to recall the immense contribution the two states made to the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the vanguard of the decolonisation process. Today, it goes without saying that relations between the two states and peoples have reached a higher level.
Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are not leading members of only the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) but also the African Union (AU) whose vision, commitment, actions and inaction contribute significantly to shaping the destiny of the continent and the millions of its people.
We recall with a sense of pride the positive collaboration between the two states and Nigeria that culminated in the formation of ECOMOG, a military expedition which intervened in the Liberian civil war.
The intervention not only rescued the Liberian state from joining the unenviable league of failed states but also saved millions of precious lives.
Given all these acts of positive collaboration between the two states, we are happy to welcome the Ivorian Leader, President Laurent Gbagbo, to Ghana on a two-day visit at the invitation of President John Evans Atta Mills.
While Ghana is not new to President Gbagbo, his visit comes at a time of profound global challenge — the crippling global recession which has far-reaching consequences for the entire humanity, especially the underprivileged and marginalised developing nations of which Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are part.
We believe that in addition to intensifying co-operation on the economic front to help improve the lives of the peoples of the two countries, Presidents Gbagbo and Mills will drink from the deep fountain of each other’s wisdom and experiences on a number of issues.
In particular, we pray that the protracted political problem in Cote d’Ivoire which has defied a durable solution all these years will receive due attention so that an amicable resolution of the problem can be found for the huge potential of Cote d’Ivoire to be mobilised for the mutual benefit of our two countries and their peoples.
As we say Amaraaba (Welcome) to President Gbagbo for coming home to Ghana, we also wish to urge the two leaders to endeavour to bring the other African leaders together to forge a stronger African Union so that, like the United States, Africa will stand tall and take its rightful place in the comity of nations as the legendary Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah had dreamt and worked selflessly for.
Once again, welcome home, President Gbagbo.
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