President John Evans Atta Mills, on Friday, sent a message of felicitations to Nigeria on the Golden Jubilee of her independence, stressing more collaboration among African nations to improve the living standards of their peoples.
He praised the practice of collective diplomacy among African Diplomats in Japan, and re-emphasised the need for African leaders to put up a united front, with a holistic view of affairs on the continent for investors to take advantage of the environment instead of the people.
President Mills made the call when he attended a breakfast meeting in Tokyo, with the 30 African Ambassadors, as part of his state visit to Japan.
He said Ghana had very good investment prospects, with an open door investment policy and invited other African nations, as well as the rest of the world, to make Ghana a preferred investment destination.
The President expressed regret that despite the many things the African nations had in common, they had lagged behind in comparison to the rest of the world for far too long, in their development, because conflicts and the lack of unity.
"What are we fighting over?" President Mills asked, and wondered why some leaders tended to turn their backs on the very people who elected them into power.
According to the President, the wind of change blowing around the world requires African leaders to see the good things on the continent and apply the human resource to the natural resources to transform the lives of the people and give them better standards of living.
President Mills said having broken the yoke of colonialism, African leaders needed to forge a stronger united front, and chart a new course for the continent.
In apparent reference to the coups and civil wars that plagued the continent in the recent past decades, President Mills called for the cessation of the conflicts, and called for people from the political divides to throw their weight behind democratically elected governments once elections were over for accelerated development.
"No development can take place without peace," President Mills said, and reiterated his message for leaders to use the resources to improve upon the lives of their peoples.
On the outcome of his Japan trip, President Mills said Japan restored its yen grant facility to Ghana, and expressed interest in the development of road infrastructure.
Tokyo also expressed her wish to assist Accra in the development of her human resources by announcing an additional scholarship package for training 100 students a year.
The opportunity to explore ways of further partnerships in the oil and gas industries was discussed and the President expressed the hope of having visible results of the visit very soon.
From Benjanmin Mensah, GNA Special Correspondent, Tokyo, Japan