Prez Mahama's Address At 69th UN General Assembly

There is no doubt President Mahama excelled in his address to the UN General Assembly where he touched on the Ebola pandemic, Ghana's economic situation vis a vis her partnership with the IMF and the terrorist regime in the Middle East among other issues.  As chairman of the ECOWAS regional bloc, President Mahama in his less than 20 minute extempore speech rightly focused more on the Ebola Viral disease which has affected four  countries namely Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Guinea and perhaps Nigeria.  

Indeed President Mahama brought to bear a living experience of his visit to the affected countries and what Ghana is doing as regional pace setter to help these countries and in fact the whole of Africa to overcome the disease.  

Simply put President Mahama depicted Ghana's foreign policy as not egocentric but globally inclined.  By offering Accra to be adopted by the UN as a center for Ebola Emergency response, President Mahama  knew the risk he was taking but goaded by the Pan Africanist fervour of Ghana's
first President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah he aptly opted for that decision.  

Nevertheless Ghana will highly benefit from the center. It will enable Ghana and the UN to work closely to put in place appropriate screening and prevention measures to avoid any adverse effects on Ghana as a result of the operations of the logistics center.  

It will also enable the UN to assist Ghana in reviewing and strengthening the country's Ebola preparedness, as steps are taken to prevent the virus from entering the country.  

Ebola, as President Mahama put it,  is not only devastating our human resource and capital but has affected  our cherished cultures and traditions.  So far,
there have been 5,843 cases of Ebola including 2,803 deaths and the WHO predicts that the number of cases could rise up to 20 thousand by November this year, if frantic steps are not taken.

Ebola has transcended from a medical issue to that of human rights.  The right to live is a natural right and Ebola can't
truncate it.  As President Mahama put it, Ebola is not a West Africa
problem alone but a global disease that knows no boundaries.  With the World becoming a global village everybody irrespective of the
Nationality, colour, religion or creed stands at risk.  

Africa, now must regulate her huge bush meat industry if it is really interested in curbing Ebola.  Thus it is important to control what enters into the food chain so that diseases such as Ebola can be avoided.  

Africa must lead the search for the cure of the deadly Ebola alongside other tropical diseases that still continue to plague our part of the world.

It is amazing that despite the huge advances in science and
technology, death from rabbies still occurs, and this is unacceptable.

There is the need to strengthen our health institution, improve access to health care and critical medicines, reverse the brain drain so that critically needed physicians and surgeons from the continent can come back to serve in African countries.

Above all, efforts should be made to improve social infrastructure particularly health care delivery
systems in the Mano River region which comprises Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. 

All three countries are still struggling to recover fully from years of war and need full support from the international community to get over Ebola and other health problems. 

Another area which President Mahama touched on, which deserves critical attention is the two-state solution to the Middle East crisis; a proposal which has been on the negotiation table for a long time. It has been part of
the UN Security Council resolution and the US road map to finding lasting peace in the Middle East. 

Sadly however, it has been difficult to implement due to differences, misunderstanding between the Palestinians and Israelis. 

Generations of Palestinians Israelis view the solution differently, and so do various leaders of the two communities. The situation how now boiled over with kidnappings and exchange of fire leading to deaths and worsening conflicts. 

The recent  fighting between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip shows the deep-seated animosity between the two sides.

But to achieve true and lasting peace, both sides must give up violence, since violence has
never achieved results. All said and done, there is no doubt President Mahama's speech at the UN general Assembly is one of the best and most topical at the convention of world leaders.

President Mahama, we say ayekoo for making Ghana proud!!

BY JUSTICE MINGLE, A JOURNALIST