Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has praised President John Dramani Mahama’s transformative leadership at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, while announcing the formal launch of the Accra Reset interim Secretariat in Ghana.
The initiative seeks to reshape global development cooperation with a focus on the Global South.
Speaking on behalf of President Mahama, Obasanjo highlighted the initiative’s expanded reach, noting that the Circle of Leaders now includes more than two dozen former Heads of State and leaders from international organisations across Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Caribbean.
“President Mahama extends his deep appreciation to H.E. President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose leadership has guided this G20 cycle with clarity, courage, and profound commitment to justice,” Obasanjo said, conveying special greetings from the Ghanaian leader, who also serves as African Union Champion for Reparations.
The Accra Reset represents a fundamental shift in development philosophy, moving away from what Obasanjo described as “an economy of dependency” created by traditional aid and loans. “To move forward, we must re-architect our economies based on trade and investment,” he declared.
Obasanjo emphasised that the initiative aims to transform development cooperation into a system that is “country-led, regionally empowered, and globally coherent,” moving away from decades of top-down approaches in North-South relations.
The Secretariat’s launch in Accra marks a new phase for the initiative, which Mahama champions as a platform ensuring that global governance reforms are “co-created, not imposed; negotiated with fairness, not inherited from history.”
A High-Level Panel is being convened to prepare a landmark report on restructuring global governance, to be submitted to a commissioning authority comprising Heads of State from both the Global North and Global South.
Obasanjo also praised South Africa’s G20 Presidency under President Ramaphosa for advancing priorities aligned with the Accra Reset’s mission, including equitable global financial architecture, global health resilience, fair technology partnerships, and wider Global South participation in multilateral decision-making.
“The Accra Reset stands ready to work closely with the G20,” Obasanjo said, positioning the platform as “connective tissue interlinking the public, private, and civil factions of Global South societies.”
The initiative seeks to move international development “from endless aspirational targets to workable business models that drive real and durable change,” reflecting Mahama’s pragmatic vision for economic transformation across the Global South.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
