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It's
good to be back home - Busumuru Annan
Accra, Jan. 25, GNA - "It's good to be back at home" was
Busumuru Dr Kofi Atta Annan's opening statement when he
mounted the podium to deliver the first of the Golden
Jubilee Lecture Series on: "Championing African Excellence".
It was his first speaking engagement since retiring after 40
years of service at the United Nations (UN), 10 of which he
was the Secretary-General.
"I intended to retire to a quiet and peaceful civilian life
but when your President calls you to duty you can only say
it's an honour Sir to be at your service", Busumuru Annan
declared amidst a loud laughter from the audience, which
included President John Agyekum Kufuor and his wife Theresa;
Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Mr Begyina Sakyi-Huges,
Speaker of Parliament; Members of the Council of State;
Ministers of State, Members of Parliament (MPs), Members of
the Diplomatic Corps, Traditional and Religious Leaders and
people from all walks of life.
Busumuru Annan declared that he was proud to return home and
to address Ghanaians not in his capacity as a world leader
but as a private Ghanaian citizen, who left Ghana to join
the UN at the time when Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah was still
President of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology (KNUST) was Kumasi College of Science
and Technology (KCST).
When he turned his attention to his lecture notes, he was
straight to the point, punchy, fluent and brief. Even though
at the start the audience got the impression that the
lecture was going to be long, Busumuru Annan delivered a
brilliant and loaded lecture, which attracted a standing
ovation at the end, in less than 30 minutes.
Professor Daniel Adzei Bekoe, Chairman of the Council of
States, who presided, sent the entire audience laughing
their bowels out when he told a story about retirement and
gave a quotation that "retirement is an overrated state of
existence" apparently to say that Busumuru Annan was only
retiring from UN to work for Ghana and Africa.
Indeed Professor Kwame Gyekye, Moderator for the Annual
Golden Jubilee Lecture series, stood before the audience and
invited Busumuru Annan to deliver a second lecture in July
this year after the delivery, an invitation he willingly
accepted there and then.
Before Busumuru Annan mounted the podium to make those heart
warming statements a guard of honour was mounted for him by
the Ghana Navy at the forecourt of the Accra International
Conference Centre, the venue for the lecture.
Later when he entered the main conference hall the Police
band received him and President John Agyekum Kufuor with the
introductory blast of musical instrument that preludes the
national anthem, but they were held up for over a minute to
allow Mrs Nane Annan, wife of Busumuru Annan to walk in and
to take her seat in the front row.
Officers and men of security forces present in the hall took
an early salute at the introductory blast of the instruments
but had to bring their hands down to allow Mrs Annan to
settle before taking the salute again for the national
anthem to be played.
In tune with traditional Ghanaian custom, the National
Linguist Okyeame Nana Odei Ampong recited appellations to
the delight of the audience to invite Busumuru Annan to the
podium.
He brought welcoming messages from all the 10 regions of the
country except Greater Accra, since the Ga State was
mourning and all the chiefs have leaves in their mouths and
could, therefore, not speak.
Busumuru Annan could not but remark: “What a welcome!”
The curtains and floor lights in the national colours gave
the occasion a real national character, especially the flash
lights at the background in the national colours floating
from a source and spreading unto the background curtains was
particularly spectacular.
Members of the audience the GNA spoke to after the lecture
were unanimous in their assessment that they had been
treated to a brilliant lecture.
His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson of the Cape Coast
Archdiocese of the Catholic Church said African leaders
needed to imbibe the content of Busumuru Annan's lecture and
embrace the African Union (AU) principles as the only way
forward for the Continent.
He said he was sad that in the recent negotiations with
China, African Leaders held separate meetings with Chinese
Leaders instead of going together to present one programme
as a bloc from Africa. "It is sad that our leaders could not
read in between the lines to see that the Chinese only
divided the African front for their own benefit."
Cardinal Turkson said he was hopeful that the challenge
raised by Busumuru Annan for African leaders to embrace the
AU vision would impact on their thinking and actions to give
the Continent a promising future.
Nana Akuako Sarpong, Former Minister of State and
Agogomanhene, said the lecture was excellently delivered,
adding that the atmosphere was conducive for all the
political parties to meet and interact.
He described Busumuru Annan as the unifying factor Ghana
needed to forge ahead, saying that the lecture had set the
tone for national development over the next 50 years.
Mr Paul Adu Gyamfi, Chairman of the National Media
Commission, also passed the lecture as excellent and stated
that it raised challenges for Ghanaian and African Leaders.
"These are challenges based on Busumuru Annan's personal
experience in world politics and I believe if we follow them
we will celebrate a better century as a nation and Africa
will have a better future," he said.
Mr Alban Sumani Bagbin, the Minority Leader in Parliament,
said the lecture was a masterpiece delivered in the most
excellent English that one could ever imagine.
"Although at the start of the lecture one got the impression
that it was going to be long, it ended up being very brief
but loaded and I hope everybody there understood everything
he said."
Mr Bagbin, however, complained about what he described as
“selective invitation” the Government threw to members of
the opposition to Ghana@50 programmes, and said Ghana@50 was
not NPP@50 and that all political parties in Parliament
needed to be invited to be part of the initiation, planning
and implementation of programmes to give the celebrations a
national character instead of one party character.
Mr George Opesika Aggudey, Convention People’s Party (CPP)
Flag Bearer for Election 2004, described Busumuru Annan as a
symbol of national unity, saying that all leaders of
political parties needed to rally around him and his
brilliant ideas to move the country forward.
"Ghana is bigger than any political party and (Busumuru)Kofi
Annan has just told us that in the simplest of languages -
we need to put our differences aside and feed on his ideas
for development," he said.
Dr Edward Mahama, Leader of the People’s National Convention
(PNC), said Busumuru Annan was a calm and humble gentleman
but firm in his convictions "and I believe that we can see
another Kwame Nkrumah in (Busumuru) Kofi Annan - this should
give us the hope that the spirit of Kwame Nkrumah lives on
in sons of the nation like Kofi Annan and others".
GNA
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