Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper has bemoaned attempts by some social commentators to compare ex-presidents Kufuor and Rawlings in terms of awards each of them have received. Mr Kufuor recently won the 2011 World Food Prize with former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He says he will use money from the international award to build a centre at the University of Ghana to promote leadership, governance and development in the sub-region. Part of the money will also be used to complete a presidential museum and library on the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology campus. Former President Rawlings, on the other hand, won the Hunger Project’s Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger in 1993, and the money realized from that award was what he used to build the University of Development Studies (UDS). Speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo programme Wednesday, Kweku Baako who was commenting on President Kufuor’s legacy pointed out that the two awards received by the two former heads of state were completely different and incomparable in any form. “There is no competition between President Kufuor [and] President Rawlings over awards…” he said. According to him, the awards given the two ex-presidents were significant in their own respects in that Mr Kufuor‘s – which came from the World Food Prize Foundation - has a more global scope (it is received by leaders both in and beyond Africa). Stressing on Kufuor's legacy, Malik Baako said Ghana cannot write its history without recognizing the fact that it was during President Kufuor’s era that the nation discovered oil in commercial quantities despite heavy investments and attempts made by the previous regime to find oil. “So, oil and gas dimension to our economy is part and parcel of the Kufuor legacy, nobody is claiming the genesis of exploration for Kufuor because it is not possible…” he said. In addition, the editor noted that Ghana’s status today as a lower middle-income country can also be attributed to Kufuor’s legacy, insisting: “it’s a fact.” He explained that Mr Kufuor upon assumption of office in 2000 “inherited some economy alright but he built on it at such a speed, expanded it at such a rate [that] you can’t write the history of how Ghana became a [lower] middle-income country without Kufuor’s leadership being brought in.” The decision to go HIPC, according to Kweku Baako, has benefited the country in many ways that in the next 20, 30 or even 40-years, Ghana would still be reaping the benefits of this decision depending on how succeeding governments use it. “How can you discuss Kufuor’s legacy without reference to HIPC and the effects it had on giving us the time and breathing space to develop?” As a journalist, Malik Baako noted that the repeal of the “criminal and seditious libel regime meant a lot, it is something you cannot forget.” He indicated that that achievement could not be quantified in terms of monetary value but was significant because it was part of the fight to expand the frontiers of free press and free expression” that freed the spirit of humanity to bring about development. The National Reconciliation Council (NRC) also healed wounds of the past, at least to some degree, Mr Baako stated, adding: “It was part of the process of healing, healing the spirit of the nation.” He noted that such things as the reconciliation exercise were easy to forget and their impact ignored because they could not be quantified but stressed that for the “spiritual aspect of nation building, you dare not underestimate it.” The aforementioned and many others, according to Kweku Baako, were “part and parcel of the Kufuor legacy” which nobody can take away from him. Story by Dorcas Efe Mensah/myjoyonline.com/Ghana