By Francis Kobena Tandoh
A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Razak Kojo Opoku has commended President John Mahama for evacuating stranded Ghanaians from South back home.
According to him, the decision by the Mahama-led administration to bring the Ghanaian immigrants’ home is welcoming and follows good examples by the former Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration.
In a write-up, Dr. Opoku praised the president and the Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa for their respective roles.
“I would like to commend President John Mahama and Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa for continuing the good examples of Nana Akufo-Addo and Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey in the area of evacuation exercises, bringing home stranded Ghanaians from South Africa due to the ongoing Xenophobia attacks in South Africa,” he said.
Dr. Opoku stated quite a number of instances during the Akufo-Addo administration where Ghanaians who were in various distress conditions were evacuated safely back home.
He also listed some of the remarkable achievements of the previous NPP government during the 8-year period that the administration served the country.
The government on Wednesday evacuated the first batch of Ghanaian from South Africa, following renewed xenophobic tensions and anti-immigrant protests in parts of South Africa.
The group, estimated at about 300 people, was flown from Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport aboard a government-chartered flight as part of a voluntary repatriation exercise coordinated by Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ghana’s High Commission in South Africa.
According to Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Benjamin Quashie, more than 800 Ghanaians have registered for evacuation, with additional flights expected in the coming days.
The evacuation follows weeks of rising tensions in South Africa, where protests linked to unemployment, crime and illegal immigration have triggered renewed hostility toward foreign nationals. Enditem
Source: Ghana Eye Report
Find the full write-up of Dr. Razak Kojo Opoku below;
Evacuation of Ghanaians and Foreign Policy Achievements of Akufo-Addo’s Government:
- Successfully evacuated over 80 Ghanaian citizens (mostly students) from Sudan to safety in Ethiopia and Egypt in 2023 following the outbreak of the deadly conflict in Khartoum. Akufo-Addo’s government ultimately brought the evacuees home to the Kotoka International Airport (now known as Accra International Airport).
- Successfully evacuated over 1,000 (one thousand) Ghanaian citizens from Ukraine following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022, making Ghana the first African country to do so. The first batch of the evacuees arrived at the Accra International Airport in March 2022.
- Successfully evacuated about 2, 262 Ghanaian citizens from Lebanon during the COVID-19 lock down.
- Successfully evacuated over 9, 000 Ghanaian citizens and resident permit holders from countries around the world such as South Africa, Gambia, Ukraine, Benin, Togo, United States of America (USA), China, Burkina Faso, United Kingdom (UK), and United Arab Emirates.
Some of the major foreign policy achievements of Nana Akufo-Addo as the sitting President of Ghana are as follows:
- Successfully lobbied for Ghana to be the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), currently the AfCFTA Secretariat is located in Accra, further solidifying Ghana as the gateway to Africa, as well as cementing the country as the epicenter for intra-African trade and economic integration.
- Led aggressive advocacy for Borderless Africa.
- Firmly positioned Ghana as the leading global voice on climate change advocacy, as well as successfully lobbied for Ghana (precisely Accra) as the headquarters for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF).
- Aggressively promoted the “Ghana & Africa Beyond Aid Diplomacy anchored on the need for Ghana and African Countries to collectively work together in moving away from the traditional aid dependency toward trade, investment, and strategic partnerships with the rest of the world.
- Spearheaded the adoption of UN Resolution 2667, and secured UN funding for 75% of expenses for African Union-led peacekeeping operations across the African continent.
- Successfully fostered the African Diaspora participation in tourism, trade and investment through the launched of “Year of Return”, and “Beyond the Return’ campaigns.
- Officially granted Ghanaian citizenship to hundreds of African diasporans who committed to making Ghana their second home country, as well as meaningfully contribute to the national development of Ghana.
- Prominently led the global adovacy for the reparations and formal apologies to Haiti and the wider African diaspora for historical exploitation and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
- Construction of various treatment centres across Ghana to help in the National COVID-19 Treatment including the construction of the Ghana Infectious Disease Centre in partnership with private sector funding support.
- Successfully spearheaded the regional security mechanism to prevent the spillover of terroism and violent extremism from the Sahel into Coastal West African States.
- Successfully secured Ghana a two-year non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (2022-2023).
- Successfully served two consecutive terms as the Chairman of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), providing leadership and mediation efforts to restore democratic rule in troubled nations across the West African sub-region.
I would like to commend President John Mahama and Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa for continuing the good examples of Nana Akufo-Addo and Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey in the area of evacuation exercises, bringing home stranded Ghanaians from South Africa due to the ongoing Xenophobia attacks in South Africa.
Source: Razak Kojo Opoku (PhD)
