President John Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama has called for Africa to assert sovereignty over its natural resources as the surest path to financing its development and protecting the dignity of its people.
Addressing the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York yesterday, President Mahama lamented the steep decline in global humanitarian aid, warning that African countries could no longer depend on external assistance to fund their socio-economic needs.
“An increasingly insecure world is witnessing upward spending on defense budgets of bilateral partners and steep cuts in official development assistance since July 2024. It is estimated that there has been a 40 percent drop in humanitarian aid globally,” he told the Assembly.
Against this backdrop, the President urged African governments to take firmer control of their natural resources and renegotiate better terms with foreign investors.
He stressed that while Africa will continue to welcome external investment, the era of “parceling out vast concession areas to foreign interests for exploitation” must end.
“We must negotiate better for a bigger share of the natural resources that belong to us. And we must insist on value addition to these resources. We are tired of the continued image of poverty-stricken, disease-ridden rural communities living at the periphery of huge foreign-controlled natural resource concession areas,” President Mahama said.
He criticised decades of arrangements that left African nations receiving “the very least by way of respect, consideration, and dignity” while others profited immensely from the continent’s resources.
For him, the time had come for Africa to redefine how it was represented on the global stage and to assert the richness and complexity of its history.
In a reflective moment, President Mahama quoted Indian-American writer Arundhati Roy, who once said, “Another world is not only possible. She’s on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
The President added his personal hope that this new world would be one of safety and equality, especially for women and girls.
“For the sake of Africa, and quite selfishly, for the sake of my 18-year-old daughter, I hope that this new world is a place where women and girls can succeed. To achieve this, we must empower everyone, including women and girls, to reach their full potential,” he said.
President Mahama also hailed recent strides in women’s representation in leadership.
He congratulated the Assembly President on her election as only the fifth woman to preside over the UNGA, and also celebrated Ghana’s own milestone – the election of Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as the country’s first female Vice President.
“Now every Ghanaian girl knows the heights to which she can ascend,” Mahama declared. “Words matter, but issues of representation matter even more, which is why Ghana looks forward to the appointment of a woman as Secretary-General of this organisation in the near future.”
Concluding his address, the President emphasised that Africa’s fight for sovereignty, dignity, and equal representation was not only a continental agenda but also a global necessity in building a fairer, more inclusive world.
By Ernest Kofi Adu