Ghana: Economic Fighters League (EFL) – Economic Fighters League Supports Nana Kwame Bediako’s Call fora Single African Currency (06.05.2024)

Ghana: Ministry of Roads and Highways – Prof Stephen Adei’s Allegation of Organized Crime against the Ministry of Roads and Highways “Unsubstantiated and Highly Presumptions” (12.04.2024)

Ghana: Eric Opoku MP – Minority in Parliament demands Immediate Increase in Farm-Gate Price of Cocoa (02.04.2024)

Ghana: Economic Fighters League (EFL) – ANYONE EXCEPT NPP-NDC: Economic Fighters League Unveils Revolutionary Blueprint for 2024 Elections in Ghana (02.04.2024)

Ghana: Ministry of Finance – Passage of the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanian Family Values – Brief on hte Immediate Impact of the Implementation of the 2024 Budget (March 2024)

Ghana: Executive Chairman of LOC Kwaku Ofosu-Asare – Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa’s Analysis of hte Local Organising Committee’s (LOC) Spending is Erroneous (27.02.2024)

Opinion: The Sahel is changing and ECOWAS cannot keep up…

The Sahel region is not to be recognized. As the current regimes in Bamako, Ouagadougou and Niamey have changed significantly over time. The military regimes, the juntas has decided new paths and created alliances within the region, which alter the old ways.

The rest of world is maybe not catching up to the sentiments of Burkina Faso, Mali or Niger. Neither Guinea for that matter, but they haven’t followed the nations of the Allied of Sahel States (AES). That’s surprising, but maybe Conakry is waiting for the “right” moment to withdraw from ECOWAS as well.

While the AES states does this. There has already been a massive shift. These nations has gone out of the neo-colonial order and challenged France heads on. They haven’t done the ordinary banter and called for reform. Neither have they accepted the old agreements, codes or bilateral trading practices, which has been favourable to Paris. No, they have ceased operations with the French army and with practices that was inherited since independence.

Alas, now the juntas has gone even further and not surprisingly so. They are now weakening the ECOWAS. The CEDEAO of the Western African hemisphere. The trading block that was built to build harmony between the nations. Also, it was supposed to create an economic zone and borderless movement between them. The promises of ECOWAS has been huge, but it haven’t lived up it’s mandate. There are principals involved, but these has also been violated from time to time. Which isn’t new of any sort of organization, but it has to be stated.

The ECOWAS haven’t always been acting in good faith or for the “good neighbourliness” either. The ECOWAS supposed to act upon “non-aggression” between the member states. While foreign interference with organization and pressure from the outside has been reported. That’s why the Sahel region is moving away from it. As they wants to stay sovereign and alone without the possibility of seeing allies turning against them.

The junta’s of our day is maybe pushing things far. Too far without knowing the consequences. They are doing so out a need to show a difference from the past governments. It is also very populist moves to gain support at home. That’s done without much action and need for changes internally. While the external forces has to change accordingly. Because, the three states are now weakening the ECOWAS and making it less significant. Even if they are not the most well off or the biggest markets for trade of any kind there. Still, the loss will be felt and the ECOWAS leadership will have less of influence as a cause of it.

The AES becomes a more singular unit, as it is already sanctioned and tested by the outside. That will continue, as “interests” of others gets into play. This would have happened regardless of who was running these nations. It is how diplomacy and how trade goes. We have seen leaders come and go, but the minerals has to be sold. That’s what is happening and some will be alert. Some of the previous “interests” will ask for more and wonder what is up.

Paris is a loser and been so for months now. The AES is more aligned with Moscow, which hurts the old hegemony. That’s why other European nations are asking the AES to disassociate with the Russians. Alas, the AES are showing their own independence and sovereignty by aligning with who they pleases. However, their choice will have another reaction in other capitals. When you open up one door, another door closes. That is life…

Now that Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger is choosing this path. There is maybe no amicable solution on the horizon. However, if ECOWAS was sincere and open. They would have sent envoys and tried to mediate with the nations who are withdrawing. Just so they can try to find a way to keep them in the Commission. Nevertheless, that might be a foolish enterprise and another loss.

Still, ECOWAS would show finesse by doing so. As the state has addressed grievances and reasons for leaving. They aren’t doing it out of nowhere and for no apparent reason. That’s why the tides are turning.

ECOWAS couldn’t keep up with the times. The times are changing. Junta’s are residing and they are moving with haste. They running and we can wonder when their marathon is over. Peace.

Ghana: New Patriotic Party (UK) – Addressing Political Tensions and Upholding Democratic Values in the 2024 Elections (24.12.2023)

Ghana: National Democratic Congress (NDC) – COCOBOD CEO lied over Cocoa Forward Sales; He must render an Unqualified Apology to President Mahama Immediately (21.11.2023)

Ghana: “Call for Reparations a Valid Demand for Justice” – President Akufo-Addo (15.11.2023)

President Akufo-Addo stated that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, which begun with some twenty (20) slaves from West Africa being forcibly sent in 1619 to the United States of America, was devastating to the continent and to the African Diaspora.

ACCRA, Ghana, November 15, 2023 – “Let me reiterate that the call for reparations is not a plea for alms, but a valid demand for justice. If reparations can rightfully be paid to victims and descendants of the victims of the Holocaust, so can reparations also be paid to the descendants of the victims of the Slave Trade. It has been four hundred (400) years, and we want closure to this tragedy.”

These were the words of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, when he delivered an address at the opening of the Accra Reparations Summit, held at the Kempinski Hotel, on Tuesday, 14th November 2023.

Delivering his address at the event, President Akufo-Addo stated that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, which begun with some twenty (20) slaves from West Africa being forcibly sent in 1619 to the United States of America, was devastating to the continent and to the African Diaspora, as it stifled the economic, cultural and psychological progress of Africa.

“But what we do know is that the African peoples built and contributed to the successes of the Americas, and even though they did not willingly make the journeys in the two hundred (200) years of the slave trade, once there, they were and have been an integral part of the success in their new homes, even though they have not benefitted nearly as much as they should have from their toil,” he said

The President noted, however, that reparations for Africa and the African diaspora are long overdue, with the question of reparations becoming a debate only when it comes to Africa and Africans.

“When the British ended slavery, all the owners of enslaved Africans received reparations to the tune of twenty million pounds sterling, the equivalent today of twenty billion pounds sterling, but enslaved Africans themselves did not receive a penny. Likewise in the United States, owners of slaves received three hundred dollars for every slave they owned; the slaves themselves received nothing,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo continued, “Take the case of Haiti, which had to pay reparations amounting to twenty-one billion dollars ($21 billion) to French slaveholders in 1825 for the victory of the great Haitian Revolution, the first in the Americas and the Caribbean which freed the slaves. It was a payment made under duress that impoverished Haiti throughout the 19th century till today.”

The President also indicated that native Americans have received and continue to receive reparations; Japanese-American families, who were incarcerated in internment camps in America during World War II, received reparations.

He added that Jewish people, six million of whom perished in the concentration camps of Hitlerite Germany, received reparations, including homeland grants and support.

“So, it is time for Africa, twenty million of whose sons and daughters had their freedoms curtailed and sold into slavery, also to receive reparations. No amount of money can restore the damage caused by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and its consequences, which have spanned many centuries. Surely, this is a matter that the world must confront, and can no longer ignore,” he indicated.

And, even before these discussions on reparations conclude, President Akufo-Addo noted that the entire continent of Africa deserves a formal apology from the European nations involved in the slave trade for the crimes and damage it has caused to the population, psyche, image and character of the African the world over.

Whilst at it, the President pointed out that the subject of restitutions must go along with the matter of reparations.

“The initiative for the return and restitution of African cultural properties to the continent must also be a major issue of concern for all Africans. We must call for the return of African cultural properties that were illegally and shamelessly transported from the continent,” he said.

The President stated that he was aware of the efforts made by countries such as Senegal, Nigeria and Benin in successfully regaining possession of some of their cultural properties that were illegally moved out of their territories.

Ghana, he added, has also successfully recovered some of its stolen cultural properties and relics, pointing to the collaboration of Government and elders of Ahanta to return the severed head of Nana Badu II, who was executed in 1838.

Other success stories, he stated, include the return of some family collections of the Ashanti Royal Family and an Asante Stool in 1985, by the British Government.

“The return and restitution of African cultural properties to the continent will help Africans, and, in particular, the descendants of the communities, groups, and individuals who created and produced these cultural properties, to reconnect to their history, to their pioneers, to their knowledge and their skills,” the President added.