Watch Now: Mahama addresses the UN General Assembly

President John Mahama is currently addressing the UN General Assembly in New York

“At this 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, I would like to speak about Africa’s role in the future of the organisation. However, it is impossible to do that without first considering the collective role that Africa played in its founding, which was small and relatively insignificant.

“Of the 51 Member States involved in the founding of the United Nations in 1945, only four were African: Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and South Africa.

“It is important to point out that the United Nations came into being in the aftermath of World War 2 because of the inability of its precursor, the League of Nations, to avert a large-scale global conflict, which had been its guiding purpose when it was founded in 1920 on the heels of World War 1.

“Out of the 42 founding member states of the League of Nations, only three were African: Liberia, the Union of South Africa, and Ethiopia. Egypt joined later in 1937. Africa’s overall participation in the organisation’s founding was minimal and relatively unimportant. That’s because, before all the other talks and meetings, representatives from a group of 14 nations gathered in Berlin for a series of discussions that began in 1884, which led to the participation and formal colonisation of the continent—also called the Scramble for Africa.

“It has famously been written that “past is prologue.” Well, in the past, the majority of the 54 nations that now comprise Africa were never offered a seat at the table where plans for a new World Order were being drawn.

“But, Madam President, As fate would have it, the tables have turned, and Africa’s role in the authorship of whatever is yet to come for this world will be huge, and it will be consequential. According to this organisation’s own projections, by the year 2050, more than 25% of the world’s population is expected to come from the African continent. Additionally, by 2050, one third of all young people, aged 15 to 24, will be residing on the African continent.”