Deputy Ministerial nominee for Foreign Affairs, James Gyakye Quayson, has said that the rest agenda means changing the minds of the people.
He made the point that the people ought to see things from the nationalistic point of view, not partisan politics.
Answering questions during his vetting in Parliament on Friday, July 25, he said, “The weakness I find unfortunate is our partisan attitude. We should not go to one another’s parties just for the sake of being a member of a party. This is something I found very strange during my few years here. I think it is almost as though we have to find a way to reset our own minds. We have talked about resetting the country but let us reset our minds because the person doing the resetting, of course, is generating from your own resources.”
“If you are always doing things, thinking that I am going to discredit this government because I am not part of the party, it will affect everybody. We also need to develop a national agenda, something that we could work towards. If it is forty years or fifty years, let us set up a national agenda.”
In other matters, Gyakye Quayson noted that most of the advanced countries are milking people in developing countries, including Ghana, through visa fees.
He said that about 95% of the people whose visas do not go through successfully do not get a refund of their fees.
He explained that the advanced countries use the visas to run their embassies.
Gyakye Quayson indicated that he would work with his Minister to address this matter if approved by Parliament.
A member of the appointees committee had told him that in other countries, including Nigeria, anytime they apply for visas in foreign embassies and they are not accepted, the fees are refunded. Asked how Ghana is going to adopt this as well, he answered, “This is an administrative policy that we have to look into because I personally believe that most of these so-called advanced countries are milking our people. On average, most African youth, because of a lack of opportunities, will want to travel outside.
“A visa is not cheap, even just the application form alone is about 160 Dollars, which could be a month or two months’ pay for some of our youth or labour. These embassies are collecting this money and almost 99 per cent of them. We have to find a way to streamline this to save our youth their money. Most of these countries are using that as revenue to support their embassies.
“If we don’t know this and we think that the rich countries are able to afford to set up embassies, that is not the case, most of their revenues are coming from us to support their embassies, and we have got to find a way to put an end to that.
“I will work with my minister to make sure any policy that we put together will be something that can be of interest.
“Foreign policy is not about protecting foreign nations only; first and foremost, it should be about protecting us, and it should be reciprocated. Our domestic policies are what we extend to foreign policy,” he noted.
SOURCE: PARLIAMENT APPOINTMENT & VETTING COMMITTEE …….
Edited by: KENNEDY AMPONSAH NTI
EASTERN FM 105.1 MHZ
