President Akufo-Addo Meets UK Labour Party Leader

By Rex Mainoo Yeboah

Ghana's President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Monday, held discussions with the leader of UK's Opposition Labour Party, Rt. Hon. Jeremy Corbyn, MP, on how to deepen democracy among member states of the Commonwealth.

The two leaders also discussed the worsening humanitarian crises in DR Congo and Syria, reforms of the UN Security Council, BREXIT, trade co-operation between Ghana and the United Kingdom (UK), and migration.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, currently on-going in the UK.

At the meeting, President Akufo-Addo urged Ghana and the UK to continue to maintain the strong bonds of friendship and co-operation that had existed for ages, saying UK remained one of Ghana's most significant trading partners and a major source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

As members of the Commonwealth, President Akufo-Addo said, the two countries shared common values of democratic accountability, good governance, respect for individual liberties and human rights, and the rule of law.

On the issue of migration, President Akufo-Addo said the issue had worsened largely as a result of the structure of the economies of most African countries, including Ghana, which had largely depended on the production and export of raw materials.

These economies, he stressed, could not create job opportunities, wealth and prosperity for the African people, a situation that, the President argued, had fueled the waves of migration of African youths from the Continent to Europe in search of jobs.

It is for this reason, President Akufo-Addo told Jeremy Corbyn, that Ghana had decided to focus her energies on building an industrialized, value-added economy, with a modernized agriculture, that incorporated and took full advantage of the digital revolution.

President Akufo-Addo said the issues of migration and refugee emanating from Africa, could properly be addressed if it included the discussions on how African countries could change the structure of their economies.

Imperatively, President Akufo-Addo indicated, it was only such a comprehensive discussion, resulting in appropriate policies which would enable satisfactory solutions to be found for the refugees and migration crises, especially from the African continent.

President Akufo-Addo invited the Labour Party leader, whose constituency, Islington North, had a high Ghanaian residence, to visit Ghana later in the year, an invitation Jeremy Corbyn warmly accepted.

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