Entire country is proud of your courage at UN – Julius Debrah to  Mahama

Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Julius Debrah, says the entire country is proud of President John Dramani Mahama’s bold leadership at the United Nations.

Mr. Debrah made the remarks on Sunday evening at a brief reception held at the Kotoka International Airport to welcome the President back from New York, where he championed a historic global resolution on slavery and reparations.

“Mr. President made us so proud, so it calls for us to be here,” he said, praising what he described as a courageous and defining moment for Ghana on the world stage.

Drawing parallels with Ghana’s founding leader, Kwame Nkrumah, Mr. Debrah noted that just as Nkrumah led Africa’s liberation struggle, President Mahama has now taken up a similarly bold role in advocating for justice on behalf of people of African descent.

“Several years ago, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah made Ghana proud. Several years down the line, when the entire African Union was looking for somebody courageous and bold to lead the charge, they found no one than our president,” he stated.

He further invoked the legacy of historical figures such as Ndewura Jakpa and the President’s late father, E. A. Mahama, saying they would be proud of his leadership and achievements.

Mr Debrah commended President Mahama for successfully pushing the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a landmark resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity and advancing the call for reparations.

“Ghana as a whole is proud of you for leading the charge to call for the entire world to acknowledge that slavery was the greatest crime against humanity and to call for reparations, an assignment you executed excellently,” he added.

The resolution, adopted on March 25, 2026, received overwhelming support from 123 member states, with only a few opposing and several abstaining.

It formally designates the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement as the gravest crime against humanity.

The initiative, spearheaded by Ghana with backing from the African Union, marks a significant shift from symbolic recognition toward concrete steps for justice, including truth-telling, institutional accountability, and structural reforms.

President Mahama, addressing a high-level forum in New York a day before the vote, described the resolution as a major step forward.

“This resolution is a pathway to healing and reparative justice. This resolution is a safeguard against forgetting,” he said.

The reception at the airport underscored national pride in what many see as a defining moment in Ghana’s leadership on global justice and historical accountability.