Ghanaian President John Mahama has called for permanent representation for Africa on the United Nations Security Council, including full rights and veto powers, saying the continent’s exclusion undermines equality and fairness in global governance.
Speaking at the ongoing General Debate of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly at the organization’s headquarters in New York, Mahama said reforming the Security Council was essential to strengthening the legitimacy, credibility and survival of the United Nations.
“Security Council reform is not a favour to Africa; it is an imperative for the legitimacy, credibility, and survival of the United Nations,” he said.
Mahama described Africa’s continued exclusion from permanent membership of the Security Council as unacceptable in the 21st century, stressing that the continent was seeking equal partnership rather than charity.
“Africa does not seek charity. Africa seeks equal partnership anchored in mutual respect. Africa’s exclusion from permanent membership of the Security Council is fundamentally unacceptable in the 21st century,” he said.
The Ghanaian president called for Africa to be granted permanent representation on the council, with full rights and veto powers.
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Addressing broader issues of identity and equality, Mahama warned against the use of political expediency to fuel nativism, chauvinism, xenophobia and prejudice against people perceived as different.
“When weaponized by political expediency, it transforms into nativism, chauvinism, xenophobia and the dangerous prejudices extended to those who are deemed different.
“No race is superior. No nation is inferior. No child’s life is worth less because of the language they speak, the faith they profess, the colour of their skin, or the land of their birth,” he told the gathering. He said these principles should remain the moral foundation of the United Nations.
Mahama also recalled his 2025 pledge to secure international recognition of the transatlantic trafficking and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity, a position he said was affirmed by the General Assembly in March. “Some cautioned that we were reopening old wounds,” he said, adding, “We came to seek healing.”
On global conflicts, the president warned of “a dangerous drift toward unilateralism, lawlessness, and the erosion of multilateral norms.
Addressing the situation in Gaza, Mahama urged the international community to stop using diplomatic euphemisms to conceal the scale of human suffering. He reaffirmed his support for a two-state solution and condemned “all acts of terrorism by Hamas.”
On climate change, he described the crisis as the ultimate test of global equity and called on developed countries to provide predictable, non-debt-creating grants to support vulnerable nations.
NAN
