Akufo-Addo confers with Nigeria’s Buhari

The leader of Ghana’s biggest opposition party Nana Akufo-Addo met with Nigeria’s president-elect Muhammadu Buhari Thursday.

The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) met with the incoming president of West Africa’s most populous nation in Abuja to cement ties with the then opposition party.

The three-time presidential candidate also congratulated Gen Buhari on his historic victory, having become the first opposition leader to defeat an incumbent president.

Accompanying Akufo-Addo were Alhaji Rashid Bawa, Ghana's former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Saratu Atta, Akufo-Addo's Executive Assistant.

Akufo-Addo had earlier issued a statement to pat the APC leader on the back for unseating Goodluck Jonathan.

“I join well-wishers in the rest of Africa and across the world to extend warm congratulations to the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, on his decisive victory in the March 28, 29 Nigerian presidential election, thus becoming the next President of the Federal Republic,” the statement read.

“Through the peaceful exercise of their sovereign and democratic right to elect their own leaders, the people of Nigeria have strengthened the frontiers of democracy for all other African countries to emulate.

“This is the first time, in Nigeria’s history, that one democratically elected government has been voted out for another, and that a sitting President has been rejected at the polls. This change, after 16 years of the Fourth Republic, should go a long way to enhancing the quality of competitive governance in Nigeria. It has reinforced the democratic notion that the people have the power to change governments.

“President Goodluck Jonathan is to be commended for graciously conceding defeat, thereby laying to rest any lingering suspicion and anxiety about the fate of Nigeria in the aftermath of the elections.

“By their exemplary conduct, both outgoing President Jonathan and his successor have reinforced the resilience of Nigeria's democracy, and demonstrated to the entire world that politics in Africa can be positively competitive, when conducted on the basis of time-honoured principles of transparency, fairness and equal opportunity.

“I hope that the determination and perseverance shown over the years by General Buhari, evident in this victory, which is his 4th attempt at the Presidency, will result in him bringing his wealth of experience, as a military ruler and subsequently as an acknowledged democrat, to the fore in delivering unity, security, progress and prosperity to the Nigerian people,” the statement concluded.