It is common knowledge that President Mahama has referred to Ghanaians as a people who have short memories. Perhaps, the president is right about a certain category of Ghanaians but not academics. The nature and scope of the academic profession does not predispose them to the short memory symptom. Academics have an active memory because of their penchant for teaching and research. Consequently, I want to revisit an important aspect of President Mahama’s address to the UN General Assembly and (re)open a debate on its implications for Ghana’s election 2016, national security, and foreign policy.
On 21’st September 2016, President Mahama addressed the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly. His 14-page address touched on a variety of issues from international security to free trade and eulogizing Dr. Kwame Nkrumah whose birthday fell on the same day of his address to the General Assembly.
On page 6 of the address, President Mahama opined, “Human progress is not seamless movement forward. It encompasses periods of reversal, mistakes, fumbling and falling. All parts of the world have been through this, learnt from their mistakes, picked themselves up after a fall and continued moving. Africa must be allowed the same latitude. There must be room for us to make our mistakes and learn from them.” At first glance, the president is right about the different paths that have been taken by several societies around the world to reach economic, political and social development. Yes, indeed, the road to human progress is not one size fit all. Therefore, not all forms of foreign interventions are necessary in Africa.
Nevertheless, a careful reading of the president’s address raises pertinent questions given the fact that he gave the address less than three months to a crucial election in Ghana. In fact, the pockets of elections-related violence in recent weeks further legitimize the need to ask these questions. Moreover, critically analytical minds would agree that by calling on the international community to allow African states to commit mistakes and learn from them suggest that these mistakes may be premeditated acts by African leaders. In other words African-made-mistakes may not just be accidents.
In that light, what kind of mistakes was President Mahama talking about in his address to the General Assembly? What are the human and material costs of those mistakes? What lessons have African leaders, including president Mahama, learnt from past mistakes? Why should Africa be given the latitude to commit more mistakes when it is apparent that it has not learned enough from previous mistakes? Specifically on Ghana, why should the international community allow President Mahama’s government for example to commit more mistakes when these powers have invested so much financial, material, and political resources in the Ghanaian economy? In spite of the constraints of Ghana’s sovereignty on external actors, is it not detrimental to the enlightened interest of major powers and the UN to sit idly by and allow Ghana to commit its own share of African-made-mistakes? What are the implications of President Mahama’s statement for Ghana’s image in the comity of states?
Throughout his address, President Mahama neither defines nor explains what he means by “mistakes”. However, as an African and academic it is not difficult to read meaning into President Mahama’s concept of mistakes made in Africa. To be sure, some these so-called mistakes are extremely costly and the impact could transcend the lifetime of several generations. Readers may agree that beyond the impact of colonialism, the lack of democracy and the rule of law, poor governance and rampant human rights violations in post-colonial African societies have been the catalyst for violent conflicts and in turn the bane of Africa’s underdevelopment and prevalent poverty across the continent. The growing threat of terrorism in Africa has given some African leaders new justification to stifle legitimate opposition and undermine human rights.
The African continent has already had its fair share of human suffering and destruction of property. The Genocide in Rwanda in 1994 is still very fresh in the memories of millions of people across the African region. It is therefore unconscionable for the UN and Africans to allow their fellow Africans, especially leaders, to commit mistakes that would perpetuate the suffering of the masses. Africa does not need more mistakes. It needs political and economic healing, it needs respect for human rights, it needs the rule of law, and it needs democracy that would guarantee national and human security. To that end African leaders and peoples should demonstrate their commitment to building sustainable economies that works for all and not rely on massive borrowing, for example, that places unjustified burden on current future generations. Africa needs peace and economic prosperity. That is the vision of the AU Agenda 2063 and that should guide the behavior of African leaders! In fact I expected President Mahama to emphasize these ideals in his address to the General Assembly.
It may interest readers to note that President Mahama made the above statement at the height of the electoral dispute in Gabon in which Jean Ping, the former AU Commission Chair and a presidential candidate, alleged the rigging of the presidential vote in that country by President Ali Bongo. Jean Ping who sought to end the Bongo family’s 50-year rule of Gabon disputed the 99 percent voter turnout in the Bongo family’s Haut-Ogooue stronghold. President Bongo won 95 percent of the votes there. Indeed, common sense suggest that a voter turnout of 99 percent is impossible and for it to occur in Mr. Bongo’s stronghold makes it even more strange. The AU Election Observers in the country were prevented from observing the court proceedings to settle the dispute. This is an African mistake! In fact, similar African-made-mistakes on governance is rife in Burundi where third termism (changing the constitution and running for a third term) has become the norm. Beyond these examples, we could cite the gruesome murder of Africans in Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan on daily basis as a result of civil violence. As the UN and the African Union are working to resolve these conflicts, African states should not be allowed to commit more mistakes. We have lives and properties to protect.
On the score sheet, therefore, President Mahama’s diplomatic sermon on allowing Africa to make mistakes and learn from them has the tendency of undermining Ghana’s influence in the international arena. As a current member of the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, President Mahama should have used the UN General Assembly platform to champion the course of African democracy and rally conflict-ridden African states to join the course of human freedom, economic prosperity, and peace and security and not seek to rationalize African mistakes in relation to human progress elsewhere.
To be sure, democratic governance is no longer a choice of African leaders. It is an international legal obligation! At least in Africa, the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance obliges African states to establish democratic governments, respect human rights and the rule of law, and promote sustainable development and human security. To a large extent, the Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance reaffirms the African Union’s resolve to prevent the mistakes and the impact thereof of unconstitutional changes of government. Indeed, the Constitutive Act of the AU makes democratic governance a central pillar of Africa’s regional governance.
It is very sad to note that since President Mahama’s delivery of the UN address, South Africa, Africa’s largest economy and a bulwark of the African Union and African renaissance, has announced its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) which was set up to prosecute crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The Gambia and Burundi are following the lead of South Africa. But it is important for African leaders to note that the withdrawal of their states from the ICC cannot not in any way shield them from facing international justice should they commit crimes of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity. They know too well that the 1998 Rome Statute that established the ICC mandates the UN Security Council to refer cases to the prosecutor for investigation and subsequent prosecution. In other words, the Security Council option would always be available to the international community to subject nationals of non-ICC member states to international criminal prosecution. For example the Sudan is not a member of the ICC yet through a Security Council referral, President Omar al-Bashir is facing an ICC arrest warrant for the alleged crimes he has committed in the Darfur region of the Sudan. In spite of African leaders’ accusation of the ICC as a neocolonial instrument and its unfair targeting of Africans, it will not only continue to serve as a deterrent against African “mistakes” , but as well, it would’ bite’ those who commit atrocious crimes against their fellow human beings.
In a nutshell, President Mahama upheld Ghana’s international obligation by attending and addressing the UN General Assembly. Although the president made important calls for example on the need to reform the Security Council, he appears to have raised the eyebrows of major powers and the UN when he called on them to grant Africa ‘a free pass’ to commit mistakes and learn from them. Given the pockets of violent acts in the run-up to the December 7, 2016 elections, it is therefore not surprising that the United States and the United Kingdom who have vested interest in the Ghanaian economy have issued warnings on the revocation of visas and sanctioning of political leaders who would foment violent acts. Let other major powers like France, Germany, Japan and China follow the lead of the USA and UK by deterring those political leaders whose actions could jeopardize the security of Ghana in the run-up to the elections. Mistakes are just too costly in African societies!
Edward Akuffo is an associate professor of international security and international relations at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.