It's good to be back home - Annan

Accra, Jan. 25, GNA - "It's good to be back at home" was Busumuru Dr Kofi Atta Annan's opening statement when he mounted the podium to deliver the first of the Golden Jubilee Lecture Series on: "Championing African Excellence".

It was his first speaking engagement since retiring after 40 years of service at the United Nations (UN), 10 of which he was the Secretary-General.

"I intended to retire to a quiet and peaceful civilian life but when your President calls you to duty you can only say it's an honour Sir to be at your service", Busumuru Annan declared amidst a loud laughter from the audience, which included President John Agyekum Kufuor and his wife Theresa; Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Mr Begyina Sakyi-Huges, Speaker of Parliament; Members of the Council of State; Ministers of State, Members of Parliament (MPs), Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Traditional and Religious Leaders and people from all walks of life.

Busumuru Annan declared that he was proud to return home and to address Ghanaians not in his capacity as a world leader but as a private Ghanaian citizen, who left Ghana to join the UN at the time when Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah was still President of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) was Kumasi College of Science and Technology (KCST).

When he turned his attention to his lecture notes, he was straight to the point, punchy, fluent and brief. Even though at the start the audience got the impression that the lecture was going to be long, Busumuru Annan delivered a brilliant and loaded lecture, which attracted a standing ovation at the end, in less than 30 minutes.

Professor Daniel Adzei Bekoe, Chairman of the Council of States, who presided, sent the entire audience laughing their bowels out when he told a story about retirement and gave a quotation that "retirement is an overrated state of existence" apparently to say that Busumuru Annan was only retiring from UN to work for Ghana and Africa.

Indeed Professor Kwame Gyekye, Moderator for the Annual Golden Jubilee Lecture series, stood before the audience and invited Busumuru Annan to deliver a second lecture in July this year after the delivery, an invitation he willingly accepted there and then.

Before Busumuru Annan mounted the podium to make those heart warming statements a guard of honour was mounted for him by the Ghana Navy at the forecourt of the Accra International Conference Centre, the venue for the lecture.

Later when he entered the main conference hall the Police band received him and President John Agyekum Kufuor with the introductory blast of musical instrument that preludes the national anthem, but they were held up for over a minute to allow Mrs Nane Annan, wife of Busumuru Annan to walk in and to take her seat in the front row.

Officers and men of security forces present in the hall took an early salute at the introductory blast of the instruments but had to bring their hands down to allow Mrs Annan to settle before taking the salute again for the national anthem to be played.

In tune with traditional Ghanaian custom, the National Linguist Okyeame Nana Odei Ampong recited appellations to the delight of the audience to invite Busumuru Annan to the podium.

He brought welcoming messages from all the 10 regions of the country except Greater Accra, since the Ga State was mourning and all the chiefs have leaves in their mouths and could, therefore, not speak.

Busumuru Annan could not but remark: "What a welcome!" The curtains and floor lights in the national colours gave the occasion a real national character, especially the flash lights at the background in the national colours floating from a source and spreading unto the background curtains was particularly spectacular.

Members of the audience the GNA spoke to after the lecture were unanimous in their assessment that they had been treated to a brilliant lecture.

His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson of the Cape Coast Archdiocese of the Catholic Church said African leaders needed to imbibe the content of Busumuru Annan's lecture and embrace the African Union (AU) principles as the only way forward for the Continent.

He said he was sad that in the recent negotiations with China, African Leaders held separate meetings with Chinese Leaders instead of going together to present one programme as a bloc from Africa. "It is sad that our leaders could not read in between the lines to see that the Chinese only divided the African front for their own benefit."

Cardinal Turkson said he was hopeful that the challenge raised by Busumuru Annan for African leaders to embrace the AU vision would impact on their thinking and actions to give the Continent a promising future.

Nana Akuako Sarpong, Former Minister of State and Agogomanhene, said the lecture was excellently delivered, adding that the atmosphere was conducive for all the political parties to meet and interact. He described Busumuru Annan as the unifying factor Ghana needed to forge ahead, saying that the lecture had set the tone for national development over the next 50 years.

Mr Paul Adu Gyamfi, Chairman of the National Media Commission, also passed the lecture as excellent and stated that it raised challenges for Ghanaian and African Leaders.

"These are challenges based on Busumuru Annan's personal experience in world politics and I believe if we follow them we will celebrate a better century as a nation and Africa will have a better future," he said.

Mr Alban Sumani Bagbin, the Minority Leader in Parliament, said the lecture was a masterpiece delivered in the most excellent English that one could ever imagine.

"Although at the start of the lecture one got the impression that it was going to be long, it ended up being very brief but loaded and I hope everybody there understood everything he said."

Mr Bagbin, however, complained about what he described as "selective invitation" the Government threw to members of the opposition to Ghana@50 programmes, and said Ghana@50 was not NPP@50 and that all political parties in Parliament needed to be invited to be part of the initiation, planning and implementation of programmes to give the celebrations a national character instead of one party character.

Mr George Opesika Aggudey, Convention People's Party (CPP) Flag Bearer for Election 2004, described Busumuru Annan as a symbol of national unity, saying that all leaders of political parties needed to rally around him and his brilliant ideas to move the country forward. "Ghana is bigger than any political party and (Busumuru)Kofi Annan has just told us that in the simplest of languages - we need to put our differences aside and feed on his ideas for development," he said.

Dr Edward Mahama, Leader of the People's National Convention (PNC), said Busumuru Annan was a calm and humble gentleman but firm in his convictions "and I believe that we can see another Kwame Nkrumah in (Busumuru) Kofi Annan - this should give us the hope that the spirit of Kwame Nkrumah lives on in sons of the nation like Kofi Annan and others".