President John Dramani Mahama has renewed calls for Africa to be granted a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, stressing that the current global governance system is outdated and unfair.
Delivering Ghana’s address at the 80th United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, September 25, Mahama argued that reforms were long overdue.
“Thirty years after Mandela made this same request, we are still asking: if not now, then when?” he told world leaders.
He criticised the dominance of post-World War II powers, describing their grip on the Security Council as unjust.
“The most powerful post-World War II nations are still being rewarded with an almost totalitarian guardianship over the rest of the world,” he observed.
“If this were truly the case, a continent as large as Africa with its numerous UN Member States would have at least one permanent seat on the Security Council.”
Mahama also questioned the unchecked veto authority wielded by the five permanent members, insisting it must be curtailed.
“There must be a mechanism for the General Assembly to challenge a veto. No single nation should be able to exercise an absolute veto to serve its own interests in a conflict,” he said.
Citing Nelson Mandela’s famous 1995 address to the UN, Mahama noted that Africa’s demand for inclusion had been ignored for three decades.
“So, today, Madam President, I stand here in this exact spot, asking: if not now, then when?” he declared.
Beyond Security Council reform, the President also called for a “reset of the global financial architecture,” which he said continues to be rigged against Africa, depriving the continent of fair representation in multilateral financial institutions.
