Obama Agrees With Mahama

US President, Barack Obama has backed President John Dramani Mahama’s call on Ghanaians, especially the youth to avoid “pessimism and cynicism” as no nation across the world has developed based on such beliefs.

Taking questions from young people at Royal Horticultural Hall in the UK, Mr. Obama charged the audience to “take a longer, more optimistic view of history” and “know that progress is possible and problems can be solved”.

The US President’s comment comes on the heels of similar admonishment by Ghanaian President, John Mahama to his countrymen, to avoid “self-doubts” and cynicism as these negative tendencies have never built any successful nation in the world.

Mr. Obama told his audience, mostly young people at a ‘town hall’ style meeting at Royal Horticultural Hall UK, in which he took questions from the floor, to remain true to their ideals, while at the same time being prepared to compromise for the sake of achieving tangible results. But above all he urged them not to “succumb to cynicism”, even if the social problems they were confronting – whether poverty, inequality or climate change – didn’t disappear overnight.

“If any of you begin to work on an issue that you care deeply about, don’t be disappointed if years out things haven’t been completely solved,” he said.

“Don’t give up and succumb to cynicism if after five years poverty has not been eradicated and prejudice is still out there somewhere and we haven’t resolved all of the steps we need to take to reverse climate change.”
Progress is “not inevitable” but must be fought for over the long term, he added.

Equally, President John Mahama, while speaking at a ceremony to launch the preparation of a long-term national development plan for Ghana for the period of 40years indicated that “we must, as a nation avoid it (pessimism) at all cost if we wish to live to our fullest potential as a people with a common destiny.”http://ghanapoliticsonline.com

“What we are starting here today is a journey we have shy away from for many years while admiring the great strides made over the same period by countries such as Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, China and Brazil to name but a few.”

And only recently, Mr Mahama in an Easter message to Ghanaians delivered at the Light House Chapel’s Easter Programme dubbed “Good Friday Miracle Service” at the Black Star Square reiterated similar comment when he implored the citizen to cancel any form of self-doubt and believe that Ghana equally can make progress like Korea and Malaysia.
Emphasizing that it was time Ghanaians believe in themselves so that the country can achieve success, Mr. Mahama noted “we will not be able to move forward if we keep on saying that we cannot move forward”http://ghanapoliticsonline.com

“In the spirit of Easter, I say that one of the things that we have to do as a nation is to cancel self-doubt. We see other nations and we admire them and we say Korea has made progress, Malaysia has made progress but that is because they believed that their nations can be great,” he stated.

Adding “…but if half the time we say that we are useless and we can’t do it and we can’t go forward, you won’t go forward. You have to celebrate your successes one by one, and that is why; I say count your blessings and name them one by one and it will amaze you what the Lord has done.”

President Mahama also in a recent response to his main contender in the November elections, Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party; counseled him not to try to minimize the country’s achievements and the depth of Ghana’s transformation especially, in the last three years.

This was after the NPP’s 2016 flag bearer criticized the President for not painting the real state of the nation in his State of Nation Address.

By-Alhaji