Europe, allies must repay

-Sacrifices Africans made at 2nd World War-President Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on Europe and her allies to reciprocate the sacrifices Africans made towards the path of peace and prosperity that European nations and citizens have enjoyed for decades now.

He reminded them that Africans fought and died in the Second World War in defence of Europe and her allies.

This he said reset the world towards the path of peace and prosperity that European nations and citizens have been enjoying for decades now.
“It is surely time for the world to reciprocate in our time of need,”  he stated.

President Nana Akufo-Addo made the call at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, United States.

He appealed to the international community to be supportive of Africa in dealing with the rising conflicts and insecurity on the African continent.

He noted that conflicts will be more satisfactorily resolved “if the international community was to support, not undermine, the efforts of our regional and continental organisations to deal with them.”

The president expressed concern that the instability in the Sahel and widespread terrorist activities had put the continent under severe political pressure and economic strain.

“Several countries in the region have lost vast stretches of territory to the rampaging terrorists.

“Coup d’états have reemerged as what some mistakenly hope would be the solution to the threats that confront their nations,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo also demanded the payment of reparations for the countries affected by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

He stated that, while no amount of money could compensate for the tragedies of the time, the point would be made that evil was perpetrated on Africans.

“No amount of money will ever make up for the horrors, but it would make the point that evil was perpetrated, that millions of productive Africans were snatched from the embrace of our continent, and put to work in the Americas and the Caribbean without compensation for their labour,” he told the Assembly

President Akufo-Addo noted that the time had come for Europe and the United States of America to acknowledge that the vast wealth they enjoy was harvested from the sweat, tears, blood and horrors of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the centuries of colonial exploitation.

“Maybe we should also admit that it cannot be easy to build confident and prosperous societies from nations that, for centuries, had their natural resources looted and their peoples traded as commodities,” he added.

 The President pointed out that the world had been unwilling and unable to confront the realities of the consequences of the slave trade.

He said it was time to bring the subject of reparations firmly to the fore.

 “Granted that current generations are not the ones that engaged in the slave trade, but that grand inhuman enterprise was state-sponsored and deliberate, and its benefits are clearly interwoven with the present-day economic architecture of the nations that designed and executed it.

“If there are any hesitations in some minds about the paying of reparations, it is worth considering the fact that, when slavery was abolished, the slave owners were compensated for the loss of the slaves, because the human beings were labelled as property, deemed to be commodities.

“Surely, this is a matter that the world must confront, and can no longer ignore. The AU has authorised Ghana to hold a global conference on the issue in November in Accra,” he stated.

President Akufo-Addo also referred to the report of the panel chaired by former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, on the illicit flow of funds from Africa, which states that Africa lost more than $88 billion annually through illicit outflows.

“Yes, those monies too must be returned to the continent. It is difficult to understand why the recipient countries are comfortable about retaining such funds and are happy to call those countries from whom the monies are taken as corrupt,” he indicated.

The President insisted that a joint task force of the African Union Commission and the OECD Secretariat, under the auspices of the UN, should be charged to find ways of stopping the damaging outflows.

On the matter of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the President stated that, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghana, like many other parts of the world, was making progress with the 17 SDGs.

“Today, the picture we have of our performance is not very bright. Most of the 21 targets designated for achievement by 2020 have not been met, and we are not on track to achieve many other targets by 2030,” he said

According to the 2023 SDG report, just 12 per cent of the targets are on track to be achieved.

“Progress on fifty per cent of the targets is weak. The most disappointing part is that we have stalled or retrogressed more than thirty per cent of the targets.

“We need to accelerate action on the entire project,” the President stated.

President Dankwa Akufo-Addo also called on world leaders to insist on immediate reforms at the Security Council to conform with current global trends.

He said it was time to correct the longstanding injustice that the current structure and composition of the UN Security Council represent for the nations of Africa.

“After serving on the Council at this difficult time in the world, our views on the need for reform have been even more strongly reasserted,” he said.

He told the Assembly that the UN could no longer press for democracy, equality, and good governance around the world, in its present state.

“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 at the fact 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.”

He expressed concern that after 78 years of existence of the UN, African countries still had to deal with “the reluctance by the nations, organizations and the major powers at the formation of the organisation, to agree to any reform to reflect present realities.”

“This has led to the undermining of the credibility of the United Nations and some of its organs, in particular the Security Council,” he stated.

The President referred to his inaugural address to the UNGA, in which he spoke at length about 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 said.

President Akufo-Addo stressed that the Assembly cannot build 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.”

The 78th UN General Assembly is taking place at a time of unprecedented setbacks on global progress.

The earth is getting hotter, poverty and food insecurity are worsening, amid war and inflation.

Humanitarian needs are escalating in scale and cost. Inequality is deepening, according to the UN.

Thus, world leaders, including young leaders, will be discussing and debating how to confront the global polycrisis, and find strategies to accelerate action on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

World leaders and representatives have gathered at UN headquarters for the high-level debate, which will run through September 26, 2023.