Akufo Addo’s speech at 74th UN General Assembly

PRESIDENT AKUFO ADDO`S ADDRESS AT THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

President Akufo Addo indeed made a landmark speech at the on-going Un General Assembly in New York when he urged colleague world leaders to help end poverty among their peoples.  The Ghanaian President underscored the need for a fairer trading attitude among developed and developing countries, drawing reference to situations in African, President Akufo Addo said ” to us in African poverty is a daily reality and it robs the people of the dignity that should be the inherent right of every human being.  Indeed, President Akufo Addo hit the nail on the head saying what needs to be said at such a high-level gathering given the theme for the occasion “Galvanizing Multilateral Efforts for Poverty Eradication, Quality Education, Climate Action and Inclusion.”  The motive for President Akufo Addo’s calls for poverty eradication especially in Africa is not far fetched.

More so when despite tremendous global progress in ending poverty, poverty levels seem to be increasing in sub-Saharan Africa. According to statistics as at November last year about one point eighty-eight billion people or thirty-six percent of the world`s population lived in extreme poverty. Nearly half of the population in developing countries lived on less than one point fifty-five dollars a day.  According to UNICEF twenty-two thousand children die each day to poverty and this is disheartening.  Indeed, President Akufo Addo was blunt in looking at the world leaders in the face and making it explicit for them to marshal all energies to support the fight against poverty.  As President Akufo puts it, poverty has no boundaries and degrades all.  Coming to Africa it is pathetic most countries on the continent have the majority of their people living within the poverty line despite huge resources like oil, gold, bauxite and timber to mention a few that they have been endowed with.

As good old Bob Marley once sang “in the abundance of water the fool is thirsty” Africa cannot continue to live in wealth whiles her people go hungry.  It is perhaps against this background that President Akufo Addo upon assumption of office declared the policy “Ghana beyond Aid”   Really for how long can we go with cup in hand begging for hand-outs when we can live on our own resources. The bane to our miserable situation is corruption where the few are living at the expense of the majority. The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer.  Even though Ghana was the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to reduce poverty by half as expected by the Millennium Development Goals that notwithstanding many of the people especially in the rural areas such as those in the Northern part of the country live in extreme poverty.

In the urban areas extreme poverty is evident in inequalities of access to social infrastructure including education and healthcare. It is good President Akufo Addo and his NPP administration introduced free Senior High School education policy to ensure accessible, equitable, quality and life-changing education in the country. This, it is hoped will ensure that parents who hitherto could not afford to give their children secondary education can do so.  However, challenges with its implementation have sent tongues wagging.  Another area President Akufo Addo touched on was how his government was leveraging on technology to improve the lives of the people.  Truly the current administration is doing well by way of technological innovation.

One can cite the application of the drone technology in the distribution of drugs to rural and inaccessible areas, the paperless system, modernisation of agriculture and advances in telephone technology among others. One can say with any fear of contradiction that the administration is doing well in leveraging technology to achieving national goals, the cost of mobile phones and telephone calls are a bit too high and will slow down efforts to leverage technology for development. On the whole, President Akufo Addo`s address to the UN was spot on and must be commended.

BY JUSTICE MINGLE, A JOURNALIST