The President of the Senate (Parliament) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Abubakar Olubankola Saraki, has commended the Akufo-Addo-led government for its people-centred programmes designed to better the life of the ordinary person on the streets of Ghana.
Recounting some of the programmes, which have begun to yield positive results just over a year after the NPP assumed office, Dr Saraki described them as ‘milestone achievements’.
The Senate President gave the commendation when he and a delegation from the Nigerian Senate paid a courtesy call on the Vice President of the Republic, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, at the Flagstaff House on Monday 5th March, 2018.
“I commend you on the people-oriented programmes. You know the world is a small village, and some of these good things that you are doing, we are reading about it”, he emphasized.
Dr Saraki is in the country to deliver a lecture as part of events to mark 25 years of uninterrupted parliamentary democracy in Ghana, which also coincides with Ghana’s 61st independence anniversary celebration. He was accompanied by the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Rt Hon Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye and the Minority and Majority Whips of the Nigerian Senate together with the Chairpersons of the Banking, Foreign Affairs and other committees of that country’s Senate.
“It’s my great pleasure to be part of the celebration of 25years of uninterrupted democracy; let me congratulate you and your government for that”, he noted.
“We are here to be part of the celebration and use that opportunity to strengthen the relationship between our two countries…; the relation goes back many years and I think it’s our responsibility as governments to sustain that special relationship”, he emphasized.
He called on the leaders of the subregion, particularly in Ghana and Nigeria to pay greater attention to job creation to meet the aspirations of the teeming youth while deepening trade and other mutual ties.
“I believe at this time too we have the responsibility to address the challenges of our people regarding jobs – employment of our teeming youth. We must reposition the African continent. We have the resources, we have the people and I think we need to have good governance to be able to drive it and also the right kind of laws.
“I believe we need do that for us to be able to sit down and address particular issue of trade and ensure economic empowerment for our people.”
The Nigeria Senate President thanked the government and people of Ghana for the opportunity offered to many Nigerian students to access quality education in Ghana. “We have a lot of young students who are here who are being received very well; I thank you for that and we will continue to work closely together”.
In brief remarks, Vice President Bawumia recalled the longstanding ties between the West African neighbours, saying “Ghana and Nigeria, we are pretty much the same people when you look at it.”
“I think we should find ways to deepen that cooperation. Our paths to economic development are relatively similar; we all have quite significant endowments of natural resources and all of that and we are all also of the view that we have to move our economies beyond dependency”, he emphasized.
That, he said was because “the more we really trade amongst ourselves and invest in each other the better it is for our people and we want to really learn from each other…we look forward to closer ties between our two countries.”
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