Former President John Dramani Mahama, has called on Ghanaian leaders to strive to live up to the ideals of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah by fostering inter-African trade.

In an X post to mark the 114^th birthday celebration of Ghana’s founding father, he said Africa will only be able to achieve economic empowerment if it looks within by increasing intra-continental trade, value addition, diversification of Africa’s economies and creating well-paying jobs for Ghana and Africa’s youth.

He added that “With a leadership that unites rather than divides our people and inspires them to greatness rather than impose on them, Ghana and Africa will fully realise their potential.

“Building the Ghana and Africa we want together is the surest way to honour the memory of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah,” he said.

Below is his full speech;

A Happy 114th Birthday to Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the Founder of Ghana!

On Tuesday, I spoke at the Humanity Summit in Faro, Portugal, on "Creating a new paradigm of trade between the Global North and the Global South."

Kwame Nkrumah's quest for Africa's unity, empowerment, and his advocacy for a united Africa to look forward instead of looking East or West was the latent sub-theme that underpinned my speech.

Self-reliance!

This Nkrumahist subtext found expression in my adoption of VeneKlasen and Miller’s concept of power as comprising a quartet of "the power over, the power to, the power within and the power with" in my keynote.

I re-emphasised among others that, once Africa establishes the power within—that is to say, once we have empowered ourselves—we will then be in the position, insofar as trade is concerned, to negotiate with the Global North, in Africa’s best interest, in a manner anchored in mutual respect and cooperation.

I added: Only then can we say that a new paradigm of trade between the Global North and Global South has been created.

As we celebrate Nkrumah's 114th birthday today, September 21, let us strive to live up to the ideals Nkrumah stood for by working together with fellow Africans to increase trade among ourselves, add value to our raw materials, diversify our economies and create well-paying jobs for the teeming youth of Ghana and Africa as a whole.

With a leadership that unites rather than divides our people and inspires them to greatness rather than impose on them, Ghana and Africa will fully realise their potential.

Building the Ghana and Africa we want together is the surest way to honour he memory of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

Happy birthday, Osagyefo!