Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived in Accra the capital of Ghana, on Friday, March 15. He was met at the airport by the Director General Of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from Cabo Verde, Maria Helena Semedo, and then went to a meeting with President John Dramani Mahama at the government headquarters in Ghana.
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At the meeting, Lula and Dramani Mahama discussed the exchange of experiences accumulated by Brazil in the fight against poverty and inequality, and also of the need to expand political and commercial relations between the two countries.
“I am convinced that the destiny of Brazil is more and more linked to the destiny of Africa for geopolitical reasons,” said Lula, opening the meeting. The former president emphasized his belief in the strategic role of countries in the South. Lula praised recent advances made in Ghana to strengthen its democracy, fight poverty and promote economic growth in the country. “We have learned the lesson that only through peace and democracy will our countries be able to develop.” Lula stressed that he hopes his visit will serve to support the expansion of relations between Brazil and Ghana.
President Mahama declared that is always a pleasure to welcome Lula to Ghana (this is his third visit to the country). “The ties between South America and Africa are very obvious, because if we join Africa and South America together they fit like a giant puzzle,” said President Mahama, recalling that Ghana is only five hours flying time from Brazil.
“We are excited about the progress made by Brazil under your leadership and now under the leadership of President Dilma Rousseff. When you took office, Brazil confronted a serious financial crisis and we asked ourselves if you would be able to change this. But your leadership made Brazil one of the fastest countries around the world in taking people out of poverty. We have great respect for the strong network of social protection that you built in Brazil. That is why we talk about a “Brazilian model of development”, and we in Africa look to Brazil as an example. Today we have many countries with democracy and elections in Africa and some of the countries with the highest growth rates in the world are in Africa.”
President Mahama stressed the importance of Brazil and other countries in the South for the development of Ghana, citing various instances of bilateral cooperation. As an example he cited the presence of the Embrapa office in Africa, opened during the Lula administration in Ghana. “Ghana is a low income country, that is trying to make the transition to a medium income country. And therefore it has to have a significant expansion in economic and social infrastructure. Today there is a crisis in Europe and in the United States and because of this we are trying to increase the financing and investment that comes from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).”
Mahama, who visited Brazil many times as vice president of Ghana, recalled his previous meeting with Lula when he gave a speech at the Fifth Ministerial Forum for Development in Brasilia last year.
“The last time I saw you was in Brasilia. You were recovering from surgery, you had just got out of the hospital, and told me that you ought not to speak very much, but you spoke for two hours. But it was interesting. Even with you speaking for so long, everything you said was interesting, it was very instructive.”
President Mahama concluded by saying that he hoped that Lula would continue to contribute to strengthening the ties between Brazil and Ghana. “Welcome home,” he added.
Lula began his visit to Africa with a visit to Equatorial Guinea. On Sunday, Lula will travel to Benin, and on the last day of his trip, March 19, he will participate in an event sponsored by the Economist magazine, the Nigeria Summit 2013, in Lagos.
