Here is President Mahama's Full Address to the 80th UN General Assembly:

President Mahama's full address to the 80th UN General Assembly:

Madam President,
Mr. Secretary-General,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are tired of the continued image of poverty-stricken, disease-ridden rural communities, living at the periphery of huge foreign-controlled natural resource concession areas. We are tired of having people extract the most they can from us and, in return, offer us the very least by way of respect, consideration, and dignity.

The slave trade must be recognised as the greatest crime against humanity. As African Champion on reparations, Ghana intends to introduce a motion in this August body to that effect. More than twelve and a half million Africans were forcibly taken against their will and transported to create wealth for the powerful Western nations. We must demand reparations for the enslavement of our people and the colonisation of our land that resulted in the theft of natural resources, as well as the looting of artefacts and other items of cultural heritage that have yet to be returned in total.

We recognise the value of our land and the value of our lives. I want to add that for the sake of Africa, and quite selfishly, for the sake of my 18-year-old daughter, I hope this new world that is arriving is a place of safety and equality for women and girls. To succeed, we must empower everyone, including women and girls, to reach their full potential.

The days of parceling out vast concession areas to foreign interests for exploitation must come to an end. We will continue to welcome foreign investment, but we must negotiate better for a bigger share of the natural resources that belong to us.

For nearly two years, and for the fear of reprisal, we here in this General Assembly have been playing hide-and-seek with language to find the right words to help us avoid or excuse what we all know is taking place there. But here's the thing, it doesn't matter what you call it: if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, well then… It must be a duck. The crimes in Gaza must stop.

I believe that, in honour of this milestone celebration, the United Nations should also embark on a process of serious recalibration and establish its own reset agenda. Since the organisation's founding, the number of UN Member Nations has nearly quadrupled. And, quite frankly, it is not the same world that it was back then.

Africa's role in the authorship of whatever is yet to come for this world will be huge, and it will be consequential. Already today, Africa is a catalyst for human potential and development, as well as for economic reform and ecological stability. Africa is a catalyst for systemic change.

I want to draw particular attention to the conflict in Sudan, which this body has described as the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Twelve million people have had to flee their homes. When we speak of migration, we refer to the 12 million new refugees, whom we, as a global community, should be willing to assist in much the same way that many member nations readily assisted new refugees from Ukraine.

I would like to call for the removal of the blockade on Cuba. As Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, our nation's founder, famously said, "We seek to be friends of all and enemies to none." The Cuban people shed their blood on African soil in the fight against apartheid. Indeed, Cuba has been, and continues to be, a faithful friend to Africa.

I would like to congratulate you on your election to preside over this historic 80th General Assembly, and on being the fifth woman to hold this distinction. I would also like to congratulate Her Excellency Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang on being the first woman Vice President of Ghana. Now every Ghanaian girl knows the heights to which she can ascend.