Mahama tells UN Assembly Africa wants healing, fair partnership and a permanent Security Council seat

Pinned summary · as of 05:19

President John Dramani Mahama spoke for Ghana before world leaders in New York on 24 September 2026, during the UN General Assembly's 81st session, pressing for respect between nations, reparatory justice and a stronger African voice in global decisions. He framed the reparations campaign as a search for healing rather than a quarrel. A later Citi Newsroom report has him explaining why Ghana rejected a proposed American health agreement.

What we know

• Mahama delivered Ghana's national address in the General Debate of the Assembly's 81st session, which met in New York; the speech came on Thursday, 24 September 2026. The session's theme centred on restoring trust and managing transformation.
• On reparatory justice for the transatlantic slave trade, Mahama described the campaign as a route to repair through truth and acknowledgement, and said Africa had come to seek healing, according to Nkonkonsa. He also tied the legacy of slavery to today's trade rules, costly borrowing, debt and credit ratings.
• Mahama pointed out that Ghana sponsored General Assembly Resolution A/RES/80/250, adopted on 25 March 2026. Kumasi Mail and The Insight News Online give the tally as 123 votes for, three against and 52 abstentions. He added that the Netherlands, Germany and France had since made encouraging moves towards talks on reparatory justice.
• Mahama noted that Africa, home to about 1.5 billion people and the biggest regional voting bloc in the Assembly, has no permanent Security Council seat. He asked for permanent African membership with full rights and veto powers, and described Security Council reform as a question of the UN's legitimacy.
• On finance and resources, Mahama said Africa wanted a partnership of equals rather than handouts. He called for affordable, long-term concessional financing for developing economies, said Africa would process its critical minerals at home to build industries and jobs, and warned against a fresh scramble for the continent's resources.
• Mahama said Africa contributes little to global greenhouse-gas emissions yet bears heavy climate damage, and urged wealthier countries to honour their climate-finance pledges through predictable grants rather than new loans. Citing Ghana's 29 June floods, he gave a toll of 39 dead and one person missing.
• On conflicts, Mahama repeated that Ghana recognises Palestine and supports a two-state solution, condemned Hamas attacks, and put the number of children killed in Gaza at more than 20,000. He also urged an end to the embargo on Cuba, more attention to Sudan, solidarity with Sahel states facing terrorism, and dialogue as the way to settle disputes.
• Mahama told delegates that no human civilisation may ever be justifiably destroyed, least of all that of a UN member state. He spoke two days after US President Donald Trump addressed the Assembly and raised the possibility of further action against Iran.
• Mahama cautioned against making belonging a political weapon, saying it can harden into nativism and xenophobia and be used to excuse discrimination, forced displacement, persecution and war. He rejected the idea that any race or nation ranks above another.
• Part of the speech was personal: Mahama named Damongo, which has since become the Savannah Region's capital, as his birthplace and said he speaks Gonja, Akan, Ga and Hausa. He closed by recalling Kwame Nkrumah's view that Ghana's independence was incomplete without freedom for the whole continent.
• Mahama told the Assembly that Ghana's economy had turned a corner under his Resetting Ghana Agenda, citing lower inflation, a steadier cedi, growth and a lighter debt burden, alongside the Big Push infrastructure programme, the 24-Hour Economy programme and the Free Primary Health Care Programme. Kumasi Mail and The Insight News Online add that the IMF said in July Ghana had made large stabilisation gains but flagged risks in state-owned enterprises and the financial sector.
• Mahama said Ghana will assume the African Union chair in January 2027 and use it to push continental integration and faster delivery of the African Continental Free Trade Area. He also said Ghana reaches 70 years of independence in March 2027.
• At a New York side event on Monday, 21 September, Mahama launched the Accra Reset panel's health report, 'A Sovereign Future for Health'. He argued that developing countries should have real control over their health systems and lean less on foreign donors, since ownership without control means little.
• Ahead of the trip, the Presidency's schedule listed a NASDAQ bell-ringing, a US-Ghana Presidential Roundtable, an address to the Council on Foreign Relations, an Ocean Panel meeting and a town hall with Ghanaians in New York on Friday, 25 September.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

• ?
  Citi Newsroom reported that Mahama, speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event in New York on Friday, 25 September, said Washington offered a health compact after USAID closed. He said Cabinet objected to demands for Ghana's medical records and pathogen profile, to a fixed counterpart contribution, and to medicines entering without Food and Drugs Authority inspection, and that the Health Minister was told to inform the American ambassador that Ghana would not sign. No other report has carried these remarks.
• ?
  According to Citi Newsroom, Ghana left the compact talks in April 2026 after they began in November 2025. It cited Reuters and the Associated Press for a deal worth about US$300 million, of which roughly US$109 million would have come from the US over five years, and Reuters for the view that Ghana's obligations were never clearly spelt out. These figures rest on that one report.
• ?
  Citi Newsroom also carried wider claims about the American health agreements: that 35 countries had signed by 11 September 2026, that KFF put their value at about US$24.1 billion with recipient countries paying around 39 per cent, and that the standard template allows funding to be cut if a country under-contributes and sets a 25-year data-sharing period. No second report confirms these claims.
• ?
  Citi Newsroom quoted Arnold Kavaarpuo, who leads the Data Protection Commission and sat on the negotiating team, as saying the Americans sought extensive health data. It also reported a Kenyan court fight over that country's agreement, Zimbabwe's decision to halt talks, and a Zambian minister's remark on a minerals link. The US State Department told Citi Newsroom it does not discuss bilateral negotiations, and the American ambassador in Lusaka denied that aid was being held back for minerals.
• ?
  Only Citi Newsroom gave funding-gap figures. It said Mahama said during a May appearance in Geneva, at the World Health Assembly, that Ghana lost US$78 million when USAID programmes closed, that some estimates put the gap nearer US$156 million, that US aid to Ghana in 2024 was about US$219 million including about US$96 million for health, and that outside health funding across Africa dropped by nearly 70 per cent from 2021 to 2025.
• ?
  A commentary carried by Citi Newsroom, by J.B. Allotey, argued that the Health Ministry should publish Ghana's draft compact and that Parliament should approve any accord touching health data, samples or regulators. It also said Ghana removed the ceiling on the health insurance levy that pays for free primary care and the Ghana Medical Trust Fund. These are one writer's views and claims.
• ?
  Accounts of the toll from Ghana's 29 June floods differ. Mahama cited 39 deaths and one missing, while Kumasi Mail alone reported that on 30 June the Interior Minister gave Parliament an earlier count of 12 dead and seven unaccounted for.
• ?
  Figures for children killed in Gaza differ. Kumasi Mail cited a UNICEF report of at least 20,000 since October 2023, while The Insight News Online cited UNICEF for at least 21,700 by 30 June 2026. Onua Online alone also reported Mahama saying developing nations borrow at up to eight times the rate of rich ones and that Africa emits under 4 per cent of greenhouse gases.
• ?
  Kumasi Mail alone reported that the Free Primary Health Care Programme began in April 2026 in 150 underserved districts, with a plan to cover all 261 by the end of 2028, and that the Ghana Medical Trust Fund received GH₵6.1 million from presidential staff and appointees in June 2026.
• ?
  The Insight News Online alone reported that Mahama has set 2030 as Ghana's goal for processing major minerals at home, that Africa's common position seeks at least two permanent Security Council seats, and that ECOWAS endorsed Ghana to chair the African Union in 2027.
• ?
  The Press Radio alone said Trump's address focused on US military strength, Iran and Cuba, that he called Cuba a failed state, and that Cuba's delegation reportedly walked out during his remarks. Nothing else confirms this.
• ?
  The Press Radio and a columnist in Rainbow Radio Online both contrast Mahama's remark on annihilation with Trump's use of the same word about Iran, and both note that Mahama did not name Trump. Whether the line was meant as a reply is an interpretation, not something the president stated.
• ?
  Accounts differ on when Mahama left Accra. Opemsuo 104.7 said he flew out on a KLM flight on Friday night, while Ghanaian News (Canada), quoting the Presidency, said he left on Saturday, 19 September.
• ?
  Rainbow Radio Online alone reported that Mahama met Alex Soros of the Open Society Foundation on Sunday. Opemsuo 104.7 alone reported Tuesday meetings with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Kenya's William Ruto, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Switzerland's president, and named Gordon Brown, Olusegun Obasanjo and Mia Mottley among those at the health report launch.
• ?
  Details of the president's parents differ. Opemsuo 104.7 gave his father's home as Bole and his mother's name as Abiba Nnaba Suluwa of Busunu, while OmanGhana wrote Ble, Abiba Naba and Bunu.
• ?
  A columnist in Rainbow Radio Online, Eke Agbai, argued that the speech showed an emerging African consciousness. OmanGhana added that Nigerian singer Davido praised Mahama's personal introduction on Instagram and said social media reactions highlighted his stress on cultural identity. Each is a single account.

Why it matters for Ghana

Ghana's health financing has been under strain since USAID programmes closed, so any deal on American health money, and the conditions attached, touches hospitals and patients across the country. Questions over who controls medical data and how imported medicines are checked bear directly on public trust in the health system, although those claims still rest on a single report. The president's calls on debt, climate finance and local mineral processing point to the pressures on Ghana's budget and on jobs in its mining regions, while the coming African Union chair role will shape how Ghana is seen abroad.