Your Excellencies and my dear friends.
On the accession of the sixth African Continental Conference on Solidarity with Cuba which is taking place in Abuja, the capital of the brotherly country of Nigeria, I wish to extend my personal solidarity with the Government and people of Cuba.
The seeds of the excellent bonds of friendship between the people of Ghana and Cuba were sown on the premises of Hotel Teresa in New York, the United States of America, where the first President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the Cuban revolutionary leader, Commandante Fidel Castro met to affirm their commitment to the national liberation process in Africa and the global struggle for justice and equality in 1959.
Since then Cuba has played various roles in the struggle for national independence in Africa and contributed significantly to the economic and social advancement of the African people. Cuban assistance led to the consolidation of the independence of Angola, the independence of Namibia and the defeat of apartheid in South Africa.
During the period that I served as President of Ghana from 2001 to 2009, my administration received tremendous help from Cuba in the fields of health and education. Cuba sent close to 200 medical personnel to help us fight disease. It provided help in our efforts to eradicate malaria. It gave us hundreds of scholarships to train young people whose brain and muscle power was needed for accelerated national development and it provided teachers for our tertiary institutions.
The people of Ghana and I are exceedingly grateful for Cuban assistance which was offered to us unconditionally.
Dear friends, I join all of you at this very important conference to demand that Cuba like all countries in the world should be allowed to choose its own path of development and that resolutions passed in the General Assembly of the United Nations calling for an end to the blockade of Cuba should be fully respected by all nations.
I salute the heroic people of Cuba for their achievements in health and education and their untiring efforts to contribute to global peace and security.
I also wish this conference success.
J. A. KUFUOR