Veep launches book on US President Barrack Obama
Accra, Aug. 6, Ghanadot/GNA – Vice President John Dramani Mahama on
Thursday observed that Ghana’s diverse ethnic, religious and
political mix must serve as a melting pot to wield the
nation in unison and not a route to discord, strife and
anarchy.
He said Ghana could draw some lessons from the American
political system, which had enabled a black person to get to
the topmost position of President, despite the imperfections
of the structure.
“Our religious and ethnic diversity should be a source of
strength, not a cause of division,” he emphasised.
The Vice President made the observation when he launched a
book entitled “Barrack Obama – Africa’s Gift to the World”
authored by Daasebre (Dr) Oti Boateng, Omanhene of the New
Juaben Traditional area, in Accra on Thursday.
The book chronicles the life story of Mr Barack Obama as the
first black President of the US.
It also dilates on the political, social and intellectual
factors that have shaped Mr Obama’s life and how the younger
African generation could derive powerful lessons from the US
President’s historic achievement.
A subject matter of the 43-page mesh of scholarly articles,
speeches and pictorials, is the lesson that Africans,
particularly the youth, could draw from Mr Obama’s successes
and use that as an inspiration in overcoming the challenges
confronting the continent.
Vice President Mahama asked Ghanaians to reflect
purposefully on the vision enunciated by President Obama
when he visited Ghana recently and use the ideas as a
rallying point of nation building.
“President Obama’s message of hope, unity and peace
transcends racial, religious, generational and political
barriers and brings disparate people together to participate
in the electoral process and national development,” he
added.
Vice President Mahama said it was only by recognising that
all people, regardless of their racial, ethnic, social,
religious and other backgrounds mattered and as such must be
given the opportunity to thrive that peace could be ensued.
Dwelling on some ideas of the late reputed Ghanaian
academic, Dr Kwegyir Aggrey, he said without the mixture of
black and other races in “equal partnership, mutual
confidence and respect, the peace and harmony of the world
would give way to strife and discord among the nations”.
Vice President Mahama said: “One cannot produce beautiful
music on the piano without using both the black and the
white keys.”
He said Mr Obama’s ascendancy to the US Presidency was “no
accident of history, but history unfolding” owing to the
trail blazed by men of African descent such as Dr Marcus
Garvey, W.E. Dubois, Dr Kwame Nkrumah and Martin Luther King
Jnr.
Giving an exposé of the book, Daasebre Oti Boateng said he
came under the Obama inspiration after having watched him
deliver a powerful speech to delegates at the Democratic
Party Convention in 2004, and had since gone to believe the
US President as a personality who rekindled hope in the new
African generation.
Daasebre Oti Boateng said President Obama’s ethos of
changing the world’s perception of races could be anchored
in Ghana to change his compatriots’ notions about races and
ethnicity.
What Ghana needs to do, he outlined, was to encourage its
youth to develop sufficient educational, organisational and
tactical abilities to face the world confidently.
Professor Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, Vice Chancellor of the
University of Ghana (UG), said the achievements of US
President Obama should inspire Ghanaians to develop the
requisite human resource base for development, promising his
outfit will play its expected role in this regard.
Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso, a Senior Research Fellow at the UG
Centre for International Affairs, who reviewed the book,
described Vice President Mahama as the “gift of the Gonja
people to Ghana” as President Obama is the Africa’s gift to
the world.
He said what came out clearly from Daasebre Oti Boateng’s
work was the need for Africans to become masters of their
destiny.
Former students of the Commonwealth Hall (Old vandals) of UG
bought the first copy of the book for $1,000 while the
office of the Vice President bought a copy for GH¢1,000.
Starting as a researcher and lecturer at the University of
Ghana, Daasebre Oti Boateng rose to Senior Lecturer before
being appointed as Government Statistician and lately as
Professor Emeritus at the All Nations University at
Koforidua in the Eastern Region.
GNA
