The President said despite the daunting challenges that were inherited by his administration, he was confident of the persevering spirit of the Ghanaian to rise above every challenge and push for success.

“Nonetheless, what our long, tortuous history has taught us is that the spirit of the Ghanaian, in his or her quest for peace, progress and prosperity, cannot be quenched. We are a determined lot who cannot be deterred. We have had our failures as a nation. But failure is never fatal so long as our courage to persevere prevails,” he said.

The President said this when he delivered the keynote speech at the Advocates Africa convocation in Accra yesterday.

The convocation was held at the instance of the Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Ghana and members of the fellowship from other parts of Africa and the world, under the auspices of Advocates Africa and Advocates International.

It had the theme: “Awake, awake, O Zion (Africa), put on your strength and beautiful garments.”

Be government’s advocates

President Akufo-Addo urged Christian lawyers, in their work and advocacy, to be at the forefront of championing government’s commitment to build a modern, developed, prosperous and progressive Ghana, and free her from a mindset of dependence, aid, charity and handouts.

He said with their help, “we will build a new Ghanaian civilisation, where there is fair opportunity for all in education and health, where hard work, enterprise and creativity are rewarded, where there is an abundance of decent jobs with good pay, where there is a dignified retirement for the elderly, and where there is a social safety net for the vulnerable and disadvantaged.”

Building a prosperous Ghana

Reiterating his commitment to enhancing accountability in the nation’s public life, President Akufo-Addo said corruption had become the bane of the country’s progress.

“The Office of Special Prosecutor, which will be enacted in the next Session of Parliament, will work independently of the Executive, and will have the responsibility to investigate and prosecute acts of corruption, free from predictable claims of witch-hunting. Words can no longer defeat the canker of corruption. Concrete actions must,” the President said.

On job creation, he said, industrial regeneration, through the policy of ‘one-district, one-factory’, the revival of agriculture, through the ‘planting for food and jobs’ policy, targeted infrastructural development, especially of our roads and railways, and promoting access to digital technology, were going to be the main avenues for job creation.

In September, President Akufo-Addo said his government would redeem its pledge of providing free senior high school education in the public schools, stressing that it was an important tool for development.

“We have begun to clear the arrears of debt that were strangling the National Health Insurance Scheme, Kufuor’s great legacy to our nation, so that we will have, again, a buoyant health delivery system to which even the poorest in our society can have ready access,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo urged the participants to speak out against decadence on the continent, stressing that: “If we think that moral issues are decided by the times we live in, then we have been blinded to the truth.”

Ghana Bar Association

The Vice-President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Mr Tony Forson, said lawyers had been equipped by God with the tools to help governments fight the canker of corruption.

He said the continent, in present times, needed such advocacy from lawyers to turn things around.

He was hopeful that at the end of the programme, the relations between the GBA and the bar associations of the various countries represented would be further enhanced.