The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu and Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel OkudzetoAblakwa, has eulogised the late former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe.
The 67-year-old statesman was assassinated by Tetsuya Yamagami, a 41-year-old who fired at him while delivering a speech during a campaign in Nara, Japan on July 8, 2022.
In a eulogy delivered on the floor of parliament, MrAblakwa described the assassination as an international tragedy because he left an “iconic impact and enduring global legacy which cannot be assassinated.”
“It is not only a Japanese loss but a great loss to the world, our common humanity, and particularly to Ghana, which has shared very deep and broad ancestral ties with friendly nation, Japan,” he said.
MrAblakwa, tracing the life and leadership of the Former Prime Minister Abe, mentioned how he was a member of a prominent political family with his grandfather KishiNobusukeserving as Japan’s Prime Minister from 1957 to 1960.
He said since he launched his political career as an active member of the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP), and in 1982 as secretary to his father, Abe Shintaro, who was Japan’s Foreign Minister at the time, he had shown great leadership.
He said the late Mr Abe distinguished himself from 1993 when he won a seat in the lower house of the Diet (parliament) through his elevation to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, Secretary General of the LDP and Prime Minister in 2006 at age 52 – the youngest since World War II.
“Prime Minister Abe pursued a more visible, charming and assertive foreign policy. He championed positive multilateralism and supported United Nations sanctions against North Korea after that country’s nuclear test,” he said.
Touching on how his rule impacted Ghana’s socio-economic life, Mr Ablakwa recounted that through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan provided support for Ghana in most sectors of the economy including education, transportation, infrastructure, energy, and tourism over the last 50 years of formal diplomatic relations.
In his constituency, for instance, he said during Prime Minister Abe’s tenure, JICA constructed a six-unit basic school and staff office complex with furniture and sanitary facilities in Agbetikpo, near Aveyime; constructed a modern science laboratory at the Mepe St. Kizito SHS; provided numerous scholarships for many constituents of mine including the famous Professor Akaho.
“[I] extend the deepest commiserations and heartfelt sympathies of this august House to the government and good people of Japan, Prime Minister Abe’s immediate family, especially his widow Akie Abe and our great friend, the dynamic Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mochizuki Hisanobu.
“May the callous perpetrator be brought to justice and may this catastrophe never again befall our two nations,” he said.
BY TIMES REPORTER
