President Nana Akufo-Addo
President Nana Akufo-Addo has urged other Heads of State and Government to press on swift reforms for the UN Security Council to reflect today’s emerging trends.
In his address to the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the President stated that it is long overdue to redress the persistent injustice that the existing structure and membership of the UN Security Council represent for African nations.
“After serving on the Council at this difficult time in the world,” he noted, “our views on the need for reform have been even more strongly re-asserted.”
He told the assembled world leaders that the UN “cannot continue to preach democracy, equality, and good governance around the world; we cannot insist on peace and justice in the world when our global organisation is seen by the majority of its members and the people of the world as hampered by an unjust and unfair structure.”
President Akufo-Addo expressed disappointment that African countries “have witnessed, at first hand, over and over again, that the big powers of the United Nations might be preaching democracy, fairness, and justice around the world, but are happy to practice the opposite here at the UN, prioritising parochial interests over those of humanity.”
According to him, despite all that has been achieved in the organisation’s 78 years of existence, African countries still have to deal with “the reluctance by the nations, organisations, and major powers at the formation of the organisation, to agree to any reform.
He asserted that a lack of reform to reflect present reality has undermined the credibility of the UN and some of its organs, particularly the Security Council.
President Akufo-Addo referred to his first speech at the UN Assembly and noted, “I spoke at length on the need for reform of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council.”
“I said, then, that the urgent need to reform this Organisation had been talked about and scheduled for a long time, but, somehow, we have never found the courage and the will to execute it.
“I said, then, that Ghana supports UN Reform, especially of the Security Council, as set out in Africa’s Common Position on UN Reform, based on the Ezulwini Consensus,” he posited.
The President emphasised that the UN cannot rebuild that trust when the organisation that should bind us is seen by many as helping to perpetuate an unfair world order, which is reinforced by an inequitable, dysfunctional global financial architecture.