Ghana, 1969

3. Madam President, your election as

President of the twenty-fourth session of the United

Nations General Assembly is an event which invites one to

reflect on the history of your country and the relationship

down the centuries between the races labelled as black and

those labelled as white. Two things stand out after

reflection. The first is that race relations are a sphere in

which the achievements of man fill us all with shame, and

the second is that in your election we may take comfort

and hope that mankind is making progress, even in this

sphere so full of the sad records of man’s inhumanity to

man, too shameful to recall on an occasion such as this.

4. It is in the light of this sober reflection of history,

Madam President, that I wish you toe accept the warmest

greetings, good wishes and felicitations from the Government

and people of Ghana: first, because your election

gives happy evidence of the notable advance that mankind

has made in the twentieth century in the important task of

learning how to live together as members of the same

family, and secondly, because in your own personal

qualities and in your achievements you bring honour to all

Africa, particularly to the womanhood of Africa. You have

given yet one more proof that man is not superior to

woman, not one race superior to another. Madam President,

please accept our sincerest congratulations.

5. Permit me now to refer to my own country, and to an

event which has recently taken place there. It deserves to be

noted as it is of historic and global significance. On 24

February 1966, the armed forces of my country, in

co-operation with the police, overthrew the government in

a coup d’état. The joyous and spontaneous general approval

and acclaim, accorded to the armed forces and the police

throughout the country, clearly demonstrated the people’s

endorsement of their action. It was the people of Ghana,

not those elsewhere, who were best qualified to judge their

own Government and those who overthrew it. They were

the ones who had borne the suffering, degradation and

deprivation inflicted by a tyrannical, corrupt and inefficient

Government. They were the ones who had paid for the

extravagances, ostantation and inordinate ambition that

had dazzled those outside, who only watched from afar

without seeking to probe beneath the glittering surface.

6. When, after assuming power, the National Liberation

Council of soldiers and policemen declared that they would

hand over power to elected representatives of the people as

soon as possible, many both within and outside Ghana,

were sceptical; they had cause to be doubtful for were we

not familiar with military juntas, both in Africa and

elsewhere, making similar declarations and promises, and

repeatedly failing to fulfil them?

7. In Acora sixteen days ago, on 1 October 1969, in the

presence of distinguished guests and representatives from all

over the world, I was handed our new Constitution as a

symbol of the transfer of power from a military to a civilian

Government. I should like to quote a few words from what

I said on that occasion:

“It is a unique and noteworthy event that men who

have seized power, and who have the means and the

ability to continue to wield it, should not only voluntarily

decide to surrender it but should also supervise

orderly free and scrupulously fair elections for the people

to choose those to whom the power should be transferred.

By any standard, this is an example of dignity

and nobility at its best, and we are proud to be able to

show the world that we have fellow citizens who can rise

to such heights of grandeur.

“You have handed to me, as a symbol of the transfer of

power from you to a democratically-elected civilian

Government, our new Constitution. It is a Constitution

which seeks to place the exercise of power under

restraint. It is the fruit of our recent experience. It bears

the marks of our scars, our fears and our aspirations. Its

underlying philosophy is that no man, or group of men, is

virtuous enough to hold power without checks. My

colleagues and I to whom the nation has freely entrusted

that power accept the philosophy which underlies our

Constitution. We are conscious of our fallibility as human

beings, and we recognize the need to establish and

develop institutions which help to tame the unbridled

exercise of power. We shall endeavour to uphold the

ideals of freedom and justice enshrined in our

Constitution.”

8. I am proud and thankful to be addressing this Assembly

this afternoon as the Prime Minister of the Second Republic

of Ghana; proud because my country has demonstrated

what I am sure the rest of the world will note, that it is

possible to return from military to civilian rule by peaceful

democratic processes, and I am thankful that I am alive and

privileged to tell the world of this unique achievement.

9. At the time of the military coup in Ghana, relations

between Ghana and her neighbours had been strained by

the imperialist ambitions of the former régime, and they

were far from being cordial. One of the principal tasks

which the National Liberation Council set itself was to

improve relations with our neighbours and to lay a

foundation for beneficial co-operation. In this the Council

was highly successful, and my Government intends to

continue to pursue the same policy.

10. Our international policy will be based on the ideal of

the brotherhood of all nations and peoples. That ideal

derives inspiration from the faith that all nations and

peoples, in spite of cultural and historical differences,

belong to the same species of man, share a common

humanity, and can dwell together in brotherly amity. We

believe that human life cannot reach its highest level except

in a world in which the barriers to friendship and

brotherhood have been broken down. We take note of the

fact that the scientific and technological advances of our

contemporary world do not only increase the inter-

dependence of the nations of the world, but also compel

and make possible closer co-operation among the nations. A

rational reflection on the possibilities, both for good and

evil, opened to mankind by the knowledge and power at

present available, make the efforts to build a world

community based on brotherhood and responsibility, one

for the other, the only alternative to destruction and

annihilation. So we share the beliefs and hopes which

motivated the founding of the United Nations and which

provide the basis for its existence as an instrument for

human understanding, co-operation and world peace.

11. Brotherhood implies the acceptance of all members of

the human family as equals. There can be no inequality in

our common humanity. Fundamental to our concept of

brotherhood, and to our foreign policy is the firm

conviction that international relations must be based on the

acceptance of two established facts; first, that all races are

equally human, and second, that human cultures do not

and cannot divide men, because all men are capable of

learning and mastering any culture if they are given

sufficient exposure to it and the opportunity to learn. The

cultural achievements of all men of all ages and of all

countries constitute the common heritage of man from

which all can and may draw. Our approach to the specific

problems of racial and international relations that afflict

our world will be based on the implications of the basic

ideas I have tried to state.

12. When our foreign policy is described as one of

non-alignment, it has meaning only in the historical context

of our contemporary world where two power blocs,

championing two conflicting ideologies, have faced each

other. Non-alignment does not mean for us non-involvement,

for, whether we like it or not, all mankind is

inextricably bound together, and our lives are becoming

increasingly intertwined. Our interpretation is that we

reserve the right to make our own judgements and take our

own decisions on international issues on the basis of two

considerations. The first and primary consideration must be

the interests of our own country within the context of our

international obligations, interests which, as its Government,

we must put above all others. The second consideration

is for the welfare and peace of the world on which our

progress and prosperity ultimately depend.

13. We will not be tied to the apron strings of any

country, whether East or West. But we freely acknowledge

what is obvious and what realism compels us to recognize as

the facts of history. Our own historical contacts and

experiences have brought it about that we share more

common interests with some countries at this point than

with others. They compel us to endeavour to forge the

closest links with our brothers in Africa, particularly our

neighbours with whom we share common boundaries. We

also recognize that we need to establish friendly relations

with all countries seeking world peace and brotherhood. It

is a necessity for cur economic development and progress.

As we see it, the task facing our nation, and indeed all

nations, is to widen and increase our areas of mutual

interests and deepen our relations with other nations and

peoples, so that we can build a world community of

nations, bound together by our common interests and

objectives. This task is made possible through our contacts

and associations at the United Nations and numerous

international groups.

14. Therefore, doctrines that are based on maintaining

divisions among peoples are not acceptable to us. We

consider policies based on racial or cultural discrimination

or segregation to be wrong in their philosophic assumptions,

as well as threats to world peace. It is in that light

that we view the policies of South Africa, Rhodesia and

Portugal. They are based on doctrines which we consider to

be false and pernicious.

15. The existence of the United Nations General Assembly

is based on the assumption, explicit and implied, that all

men are capable of being persuaded by rational argument,

and also that there is a moral language of principles of right

and wrong which all men share, whatever their race, colour

or tongue. If we did not accept these assumptions, the

existence of this august body and all the efforts and money

expended on it would be futile and pointless. However the

achievements which the Assembly has to its credit leave no

doubt about the soundness of the assumptions I have enunciated.

16. Consequently, I do not wish to take time by referring

in detail to the problems posed by the policies of South

Africa, Rhodesia and Portugal. They are well known at this

Assembly. The main question is what to do to resolve them.

When rational persuasion fails, then what? The answer

which appears to have been accepted and applied in the

African context is to apply half-hearted sanctions which

some countries responsibly accept, and others flout. That,

of course, was doomed to failure. When decisions of the

Assembly and the principles and objectives of the Charter

of the United Nations are defiantly flouted, as in the case

of Southern Rhodesia, or as in the case of Namibia, what is

to be done? Such incidents demand a fresh examination as

to the effectiveness of the United Nations.

17. An Organization such as this will inevitably be faced

with situations which do not offer easy solutions but which

call for painful and courageous decisions if we are to leap

forward toward the goals we seek. Since half-hearted

sanctions have not worked, dare we consider applying more

stringent sanctions in addition to those contained in

Security Council resolution 253 (1968) of 29 May 1968?

Imposing more effective sanctions would place the general

welfare of humanity above narrow selfish interests. The

lesson seems to be that where rational persuasion fails and

other measures are resorted to, those measures must be

such as will be effective. Otherwise, more harm is done

since it brings into question the effectiveness of the United

Nations itself, and even its future as an institution capable

of fulfilling its objective and justifying the hopes centred on it.

18. A survey of the problems which are dealt with in the

Secretary-General’s reports poses one inescapable challenge,

which is to make the United Nations itself an effective

instrument for peace by developing effective sanctions and

procedures, and by harnessing the collective action of its

Members to deal with thorny problems. Like all human

institutions, the United Nations must be capable of

adaptation and growth to meet new needs and situations or

stagnate and become an anachronism.

19. There are various subjects of topical interest and

concern which, in accordance with the established custom

here, every speech should deal. Among them are Africa, the

Middle East, South-East Asia, disarmament, the representation

of the People’s Republic of China, and the work of the

preparatory committees. As I have nothing new to add to

the statements that have been made by the Government we

have succeeded, I do not propose to indulge in tiresome repetition.

20. However, I wish to betray my simplicity and naivete,

for which I claim the indulgence of the Assembly since I am

a novice, by saying a few homely and commonplace things

which I hope will reflect what is in the minds of some of

the millions of simple ordinary men and women around the

world whom this Organization seeks to serve.

21. Now that I have the opportunity I will publicly admit

that I have often wondered whether the display by all

concerned of some real sincerity and goodwill in the

handling of problems like the Middle East, South-East Asia

or disarmament, going beyond the facade of make-believe

diplomacy, behind which eminent representatives and

diplomats hide their real faces and selfish aims from one

another, would not produce solutions to some of these

apparently insoluble problems.

22. I have talked of a common moral language which

binds mankind and makes an international organization like

the United Nations rational and meaningful. But why is

that language so rarely spoken when we have to deal with

difficult international problems that require the

reconciliation of different sectional interests?

23. Take for example the arms race, which in 1968 cost

$280,000 million. Why this accumulation of armaments

which everyone knows poses a grave danger to world peace

and security? Yet the work of the Conference of the

Committee on Disarmament is prolonged by incomprehensible

discussions of technicalities while the arms race

continues, and the fears and feeling of insecurity of the

nations mount ominously. Is it not that, behind many of

the technicalities, lie what the ordinary man and woman

understand to be distrust and lack of confidence in one

another? When the diplomats meet, they wine and dine

together and talk interminably and impressively about the

many complex questions they pose to one another, but all

the time they are haunted, one and the other, by the moral

issue of trust. There is no mutual trust, only suspicion and

fear. We are all afraid of one another and distrustful of one

another, and we have become experts at raising screens to

hide our true goals and interests from one another. A great

deal of the disillusionment and frustration creeping over the

world’s hopes for the United Nations comes from the

ordinary man’s discernment that the Organization is becoming

a place where men are engaged in hiding truth from

one another, instead of tearing down their masks and facing

truth together in a joint effort to build a peaceful,

harmonious world.

24. It is in the areas where the common moral language

has been truthfully spoken and there has been no hiding

behind masks that the United Nations has achieved success

and has been a powerful instrument. I remember how very

deeply impressed I was, some fifteen years ago, at an

international conference in Milan, when the leader of the

delegation of one of the four big Powers declared, during a

discussion of the question of aid to developing countries,

that it was the moral duty and responsibility of the rich

countries of the world to help the poor ones. It came as a

startling novelty, and yet those of us who come from poor

countries can justifiably make claims on the rich countries

only on the basis of mankind’s common moral language,

that everyone should be his brother’s keeper and that the

poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the handicapped and the

disabled have claims upon those who are not so afflicted.

25. In our view, the greatest and most creditable advance

the United Nations has made in the twentieth century is to

have accepted and based the activities of its agencies on the

moral responsibility of the nations and peoples of the world

to help one another.

26. That is why we may venture to talk about economic

aid and international co-operation to raise the living

standards of the poorer areas of the world. We are in the

closing period of the First United Nations Development

Decade and on the threshold of the next. During the last

ten years, experience has proved that it is possible for poor

countries to make a quite rapid transition to the status of

industrialized countries. In the most recent years it has

been shown that the problem of feeding large and rapidly

increasing populations can be solved by the application of

modern science and technology. Thirty of the developing

countries are likely to have achieved the growth target of

the First United Nations Development Decade by the time it

ends, and it has been proved that the systematic provisions

of international assistance towards the national development

efforts of the developing countries can yield results in

terms of economic and social development.

27. It seems to me a reasonable judgement that if

international economic co-operation had not flagged so

disastrously during the past ten years the targets set for the

decade could have been achieved by the majority of

developing countries.

28. The fact that only three of the industrialized countries

have so far achieved the target of aid which was

internationally adopted, and the difficulties which were experienced

in the recent replenishment of the resources of the

International Development Association show that there is a

most urgent need for responding more faithfully to the

moral obligations which were accepted. More strenous

efforts need to be made for strengthening international

economic co-operation. The world community has still not

made any progress in facilitating the trade of the developing

countries in order to help them help themselves. An

imperfect sugar agreement and the international coffee

agreement stand as lonely exceptions to a general failure to

reorganize the international trade in primary commodities

which is of such overriding importance to the Third World.

In the case of cocoa, which is of vital interest to Ghana, we

have had many resolutions expressing support of the

principle and declaring the intention to co-operate in

working out an international agreement. After more than

ten years of negotiation there is still no international cocoa

agreement. My Government hopes that, through the practical

co-operation of all the parties concerned, this statement

will no longer be true a year from now.

29. It seems clear to us that the international strategy for

development, which is being so carefully worked out for

the coming decade, should be backed by firm undertakings

in the area of international co-operation in trade and

finance; otherwise it will lose most of its meaning. The

Government of Ghana and those of other developing

countries, I am sure, will commit themselves to the task of

mobilizing our internal resources for our own development:

As Governments responsible to the people of the developing

countries, we cannot escape that commitment. We

should also accept any measures that seem to be required to

make the machinery for the implementation of international

economic policy more effective. We must then look

to the developed countries to commit themselves to the

level of effort that is required, in order to fulfil their part in

this joint venture for the advancement of the peoples of the world.

30. This commitment should include, in particular, the

assurance of sufficient funds to the multilateral agencies so

that they can play an increasing part in the planning and

financing of national and regional development. The multi-

lateral organization and co-ordination of aid has established

its merits beyond doubt, and it is our hope that this will be

reflected in the aid policies of the donor countries. We, in

Africa, must emphasize multinational co-operation as an

essential part of development strategy during the years

ahead. The Government of Ghana has participated vigorously

in all the attempts that have been made at regional

and sub-regional co-operation in Africa. We call on the

world to support these programmes and, in particular, to

supplement the self-help of the African countries which has

been demonstrated in the establishment of the African

Development Bank.

31. Together with other developing countries, Ghana will

be carrying into the next decade a load of debits, the

servicing of which will constitute a grave impediment to our

prospects of national development. We cannot bear it unless

we are prepared to deny essential commodities to our

people, accept a condition of steady inflation and random

scarcities of the most elementary necessities, be indifferent

to massive unemployment among adults, and abdicate

responsibility for the employment of the youth who are

daily coming forward prepared to earn an honest livelihood.

These are conditions which a democratically elected government

cannot afford to accept. National development in

Ghana has been virtually at a standstill for about five years

now. It seems that, under the existing practices, our

Government, which has been expressly elected by the

people of Ghana to end these difficulties, might be required

to continue servicing these past debts and to forsake our

mandate. I hope our creditors, who have shown a willingness

earlier on to recognize the need for dealing with this

debt problem through negotiation and concerted action,

will be equally willing to listen to the aspirations of our

people and co-operate in arrangements for debt repayment

which make it possible for our new Government to respond

to their needs.

31. In conclusion, I would like to say that my Government

regards the United Nations as a symbol of hope for

the world. Despite its imperfections and failures, it has

achieved successes which have justified its existence as a

forum for the exchange of ideas and information, for the

creation of avenues for international understanding and

co-operation, and for the collective building of an international

community of all races and all peoples who have

learnt to respect and regard one another as equal members

of the human family, and have accepted the responsibility

for being each his brother’s keeper. We value our member-

ship of this Assembly and we, on our part, will do all in our

power to help it grow to fulfil the world’s hopes and

aspirations placed in it as an instrument of peace and progress.

33. Madam President, may the General Assembly, under

your able and engaging guidance at this session, move a step

nearer the realization of the vision to which it owes its

existence! May God help it progressively fulfil its mission!