Former President Jerry Rawlings has expressed the hope that Ghana and the United States will appreciate the true value of the visit of President Barack Obama when the curtains are drawn on the visit on Sunday. In a statement issued on the eve of the arrival of the 44th President of the Unites States of America to Ghana, the former president intimated that the visit of President Obama “comes with mutually beneficial opportunities for both the US and Ghana. “As a global power with whom we have enjoyed a special relationship since Bill Clinton was President, we not only hope that we can have a more balanced, equitable, symbiotic relationship but one which allows us to explore solutions for the problems of malaria and infant and maternal mortality.” The former president said it was imperative that Ghana makes it clear to Obama how we would want his country and ours to relate for the mutual benefit of both countries. “Obama is bold, ethical and has a high sense of justice and fairness. Let us hope his choice of Ghana as his first place of visit will not intoxicate us into continuing our pious slumber,” he admonished. The former president noted Obama's progressive open mindedness and hoped that like his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton he would come to appreciate the history of dramatic change which Ghana had had to go through from the late '70s and which had brought the current democracy which now exists in Ghana and which is envied across the African continent. As President Clinton said at the time, “Ghana is not the largest country in Africa, but it continues to lead toward tomorrow by the force of its example, by its commitment to democracy, by its steady economic progress, by its cooperation with its neighbours.” Former President Rawlings said Ghana should use the visit to progress in leaps and bounds, cautioning, however, that it will only come to fruition if we boldly demonstrate our patriotic credentials and clean up the corrupt and abusive legacy of our immediate political past. “Although we fully endorse Obama’s viewpoint that Africa must take charge of its own destiny, Ghana is still in great need of assistance on health issues such as malaria and is saddled with an economy in great need of assistance after years of debt facilitated mismanagement,” former President Rawlings said. Touching on America’s image in the world in the past decade, the former President said he had the confidence that President Obama will restore not only the sense of political morality of the United States but motivate the International Community as a whole to follow suit. “His sense of social justice should help contain the savagery of unchecked capitalism,” he noted. President Obama is due to arrive in Accra on Friday evening for a two-day visit which will see him hold talks with President Mills and other leading government officials, make a major policy statement on Africa at the Accra International Conference Centre and travel to Cape Coast where he will be the guest of honour at a durbar of the Chiefs and people of the Oguaa traditional area. He will also pay a visit to the Cape Coast Castle. During President Rawlings’ tenure as President, the then sitting American President Bill Clinton visited Ghana with his wife, Hillary. President Clinton addressed a mammoth audience at the Independence Square and was mobbed by the enthusiastic crowd. Source: Kofi Adams