President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, arrived in Germany on February 16, onboard the presidential jet for the 59th Munich Security Conference 2023, which also had ex-President John Dramani Mahama in attendance.
The Falcon 900-EX Presidential Jet, is said to have returned to Accra on Valentine’s Day from Paris, France where it underwent full refurbishment over a six-month period at a cost yet to be known, but believed to be running into millions of dollars.
Media reports are that, the jet aside from refurbishment also underwent some retrofitting with avionics systems upgrade while in the French capital.
But it is not clear, whether its new status makes it possible for the President to sleep, bath and freshen up; the reason given by Ghana’s Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul for the chattering of expensive private jets from Europe to fly President Akufo-Addo to international events.
The conference provides a platform for high-level debates “on key foreign and security policy challenges.”
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Mr Mahama is the Chairperson of the Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa. The Tana Forum in collaboration with Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie e.V. (BDI) on Saturday hosted a side event, an MSC Regional Breakfast on “Africa’s Place in a multipolar world: Moving from strategy to action.”
The session, opened by President Mahama as Chair of the Tana Forum and addressed by the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, and Wolfgang Niedermark of BDI, the Federation of German Industries. South Africa’s Minister for Defence, Thandi Modise, delivered the keynote remarks.
On Friday, Mr Mahama, participated in a number of sessions at the Conference, including a town hall discussion on Resetting Migration: Moving Toward Opportunities and a side event on Disinformation: navigating the battle of narratives.
The president’s delegation, will leave Munich for Ethiopia to attend an African Union (UN) summit of Heads of State and Government.
Akufo-Addo’s main engagement in Germany, was in respect of the Munich Security Conference where he shared the stage on South-North cooperation with Bill Gates and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Kristalina Georgieva.
“We on the continent have been left alone to defend ourselves,” he said at a conference Townhall meeting, adding: “if indeed we have cooperation between the south and the north, the fundamental requirement of solidarity in the political world is to overcome the ‘them and us’.”
On her part, Madam Georgieva said: “We always have to strive for change. We have to recognize that we can do differently and do better. That we can reach out to partners and to the things that were unthinkable before.”
Also on the particular panel was the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
“Important deliberations at the Munich Security Conference President Akufo-Addo on stage with Bill Gates, IMF boss, Georgieva Kristlina German Chancellor Olaf Scholz,” Gina Blay, Ghana’s ambassador to Germany captioned a series of photos posted on Twitter.
