Despite the “minimal and relatively unimportant” participation of African nations in the founding of the UN due to colonization and partition, John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana, stated:  “As fate would have it, the tables have turned, and Africa’s role in the authorship of whatever is yet to come for this world will be huge.”  By 2050, more than 25 per cent of the world’s population is expected to come from Africa; one third of all young people will be residing on the continent, he said, emphasizing:  “The future is African.”  If this fact-based reality seems provocative, “perhaps it is because you are viewing it through the lens of centuries of racism, colonialism, imperialism and the resulting implicit bias”, he stressed.

Pointing to the remarkable ability of African countries “to make a strong comeback, just when you think it’s safe to discount them”, he detailed Ghana’s economic growth and significant reduction in inflation as examples of resilience. That was part of its “reset agenda”, he explained, calling on the UN to “establish its own reset agenda”, as the world has changed since the Organization’s founding. Recalling that the UN is based on “the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members”, he argued that if this principle applied in practice, “a continent as large as Africa with its numerous UN Member States would have at least one permanent seat on the Security Council”.  If not now, “then when”, he asked, also demanding a reset of the global financial architecture, which is currently “rigged against Africa”.

Drawing attention to the conflict in Sudan — the world’s largest humanitarian crisis — he said countries should be willing to assist 12 million refugees “in much the same way that many member nations readily assisted new refugees from Ukraine”.  Many migrants from the Global South are climate refugees, he said, criticizing the imbalance in responsibility: “The Global North emits 75 per cent more greenhouse gases than the Global South.  However, the effects of climate change are more severe in the Global South because we lack the resources to address them effectively.”

Furthermore, he stressed Africa’s right to exercise sovereignty over its resources, adding that “the days of parcelling out vast concession areas to foreign interests for exploitation must come to an end.”  Calling for equality and inclusion, he said:  “We are tired of the continued image of poverty-stricken, disease-ridden rural communities […] We are tired of not being represented in ways that reveal the richness and complexity of our history.”