Blair takes the path walked forty years ago
Accra (Greater Accra) 09 February 2002 - British Prime Minister, Tony Blair on Friday urged developed countries to give access to their markets to make free trade a reality in the relationship between develop and developing countries
Mr Blair, addressing Ghana's Parliament as part of his three days visit to the country said; "developed countries retain significant barriers to trade particularly in agriculture.
"Access to European Union (EU) Agricultural market, is still restricted by the common agricultural policy and a loader market is open to tropical African Agricultural commodities such as coffee and cocoa and tax of about 300 per cent exist on some commodities."
He said he was aware that Ghana has a particular interest in securing improved trading opportunities adding: "We must give access to our market so that what we say about free trade is made a reality."
Mr Blair, who is on a four-nation West African tour and which, has already taken him to Nigeria is expected to visit Sierra Leone and Senegal with a 35-member delegation.
He said with G8 summit coming up in Canada, African and the developed world have to put together a comprehensive plan that would give a framework for a future action so as to forge a partnership between the developed and developing world.
He said the partnership should not be that of an aid handout but as a handout to help people to help themselves. "It should not be aid to create dependence but to create sustainable independence... so that the relationship is no longer one of donor and passive recipient but one of equal partners working for the shared prosperity of all."
He said one of the reasons that many people of the West were cynical about aid and development was because a lot of aid was being misused over the years adding, "it was feeding the elite and corrupt rulers ... rather than helping the poor in the developing countries."
Mr Blair said the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) was absolutely critical. Under the programme the United Nation Millennium Assembly has set targets to reduce poverty, tackle universal primary education and to reduce child mortality by the year 2015.
He said today's international politics needed education because it was an educated workforce that would succeed in producing the quality goods and services people wanted to buy.
He called on developing countries to have commitment to democracy and good governance because in the end dictatorship was not just wrong but usually inefficient and corrupt.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 09 February 2002 -Forty-two years after British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan visited the then toddling Ghana, Tony Blair, the youngest English leader in two centuries, took the next step.
The lure of conservative and procedural make up of Ghana's Parliament cast in the mode of the Westminster could not be avoided by the man currently occupying Number 10, Downing Street.
A long red carpet rolled from the top of the three-tier staircase of the chamber's frontage to the bottom awaited him as dancers depicted a hero's welcome amidst the sound of drums. It had not been long since President John Agyekum Kufuor unveiled his vision in the House but the lawmakers had girded their loins for Mr Blair.
He entered the House visibly accompanied by the Vice President Aliu Mahama humbled in a procession led by the Mace of the House. A deafening applause of Hear! Hear! Greeted him but he immediately retorted " The British Parliament can be very unfriendly sometimes."
"My friends I am happy to be here with you," he said, as the applause faded. His supposedly short address travelled some distance and at every twist and turn, he endeared himself not only as an orator but one in full grip of current affairs.
The 49-year old Englishman had even psyched up for the technological limitations of his host, as he had to pause twice to allow the Parliamentary microphone to regain its vitality amidst murmur. His countenance was to be envied as he wore a lit-up face jerking and gesticulating most of the time.
He came to West Africa to sell his new partnership concept, telling the developed world not to neglect Africa lest it slipped into the manufacture of drugs and terrorism and haunt the "secured" West like Afghanistan had done.
He had come to the continent mostly described by the worse adjectives and expressions known in modern languages. A continent blighted by war, famine, disease, hopelessness and yet a borrow pit for Western civilisation.
He ended his heart-warming speech with: "There is a time when it is possible to do the impossible." Blair blighted his opponents by his landslide victories when he was young and not well accommodated by the consecutive English establishment so he did the impossible in two centuries.
Tony is touring West Africa feeling the heat of the sun and cohabiting with "hopelessness," again making possible the impossible. President Kufuor came just on time to whisk his visitor away. He did not enter the chamber because his visiting hours ended on the day he addressed the House.
As Blair descended the stairs to join his host, all specially invited guest rushed to see him off, probably seeing off the often drummed idea that "Africa has a special place in the hearts of the power brokers of the world", an impossibility that can never be possible.
GRi../
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