[ad_1]
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in as President and Vice President of the United States of America at a time like no other in history. Many historians agree that even the emergence of Franklin D. Roosevelt who took office in 1933 during the Great Depression does not compare.
They are rising to the coveted post as leaders of the free world at a time when the world is in untold turmoil and ravaged by a debilitating Covid-19 pandemic that has not only claimed more than two million lives, but has and continues to ruin the economy, cause extreme hunger, increase unemployment, disrupt formal education and change the way of life of humanity for good.
Sadly, on the eve of Biden’s inauguration, the United States lost the 400,000e life at Covid-19 as this nation becomes most afflicted by the insidious pandemic.
The international image of the United States is at its lowest. Trump’s deliberate incitement to insurgency on Capitol Hill, which landed him a place in infamy and a second indictment by the House, has done near-fatal damage to America’s democratic credentials.
This has dramatically reduced its soft power and undermined its moral authority and world leadership by helping to install democracy in many parts of the world where the remains of dictatorship have not been fully exorcised. It’s not as if the United States was enjoying good favor abroad before the sacrilegious assault on the citadel of democracy by far-right nationalists inspired by Trump.
In September 2020, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 13 countries showed that the international image of the United States had plummeted to depths unmatched hitherto unknown since the center began polling on the subject ago. about two decades. Audiences surveyed at the time viewed President Trump more negatively than other world leaders, including Putin and Xi.
The poor performance must have been occasioned by the withdrawal, isolationism and unilateralism that characterized Trump’s foreign policy and which he very vigorously defended for the way he rejected the Paris Agreement on the climate change, his disputes with NATO, the contempt with which he has treated Iran. Nuclear deal, cruel neglect of the African continent, its trade wars with China and Canada that spilled over into many trade corridors, leaving UNESCO, abandoning the UN pact on migration until the shocking exit of the World Health Organization in the midst of a pandemic.
It should also be noted that Trump’s refusal to boldly confront the institutional racism that led to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arberry, Tony McDade, and many others, sparked national and international outrage that has leads the Black Lives Matter movement to become the most powerful. and a remarkable mass movement of that era as it staged hard-hitting protests in virtually every nation’s capitals and evoked memories of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and 1960s. MLK, of which one remembers this week, had underlined: “a riot is the language of the unheard of.”
I remember how a statement I made to the Ghanaian Parliament on this heinous issue last year received intense bipartisan condemnation and a strong demand for justice and concrete reforms.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris undoubtedly deserve warm congratulations from the African continent, which has borne the brunt of most of Trump’s isolationist, confrontational and erratic policies.
As a leading member of the 7th Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, I have had reason to criticize and speak openly about the fractional and deeply disturbing transactional bilateral relations under President Donald Trump and President Akufo-Addo . My basic thesis was that the African strategy of the Trump administration was neither positive nor effective.
There have been studies and comments on this issue, and there will undoubtedly be many more. As with any administration, there were strengths and weaknesses in the relationship, but overall, I am of the opinion that Mr. Trump’s policies were bad for Africa, ECOWAS and Ghana.
President Trump’s African policies will be remembered for his infamous rude and unprintable portrayal of the continent’s countries, travel bans, thinly veiled slurs to our leaders during his meetings with them in Washington DC and, most recently, its disastrous interventions in the Nile water crisis.
He will remain the first president since 1992 never to undertake a visit to the continent although Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt were happy to welcome First Lady Melania in 2018 on her solo trip.
Amid the greater period of insecurity, fueled by radical Islamists, where global cooperation is the obvious logical strategy, Trump made a monumental mistake in dismantling tactical multilateral security cooperation.
A major concern as the United States and the international community at large have been distracted by other issues is the erosion of gains from the wave of democratization in Africa in the 1990s. 50 constitutions adopted by African countries during this period, at least 30 limited the number of terms a president could serve.
Unfortunately, since 2015, as many as 13 countries have bypassed or weakened mandate limits, as noted by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, who claimed victory in last week’s elections, is just a very recent example of a dangerous trend that is quickly becoming fashionable but with dire consequences for a continent with institutions weak democracies compared to other jurisdictions such as Germany which could afford to have Angela Merkel in office for 15 years.
Following closer to home, for Ghana in particular, Mr. Tump’s four years have been regressive, their impact more acute due to the actions or inactions of the current administration.
Under the Akufo-Addo regime, opaque and controversial military deals were made with the United States, which many analysts believe to be poorly negotiated unilaterally. This and a failure of large-scale engagement and strategic communications has dramatically reduced America’s soft power attraction to Ghana.
There is anecdotal evidence of the Trump administration’s tough immigration policy hitting citizens associated with Ghana in the United States hard. Due to deportation disputes, the United States under President Trump has sanctioned the Ghanaian government and imposed visa restrictions on Ghanaian citizens – a rather unfortunate strain in Ghana’s relationship with the United States.
Another worrying area of stress in Ghana-US relations that, to be fair to the Trump administration, was necessitated by the shortcomings of the Akufo-Addo presidency – is what later became the ” PDS scandal ”.
This was during the implementation of the Ghana Power Compact of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which was to inaugurate a new concession agreement between the Ghana power company and Ghana Power Distribution Services Ltd.
The eventual cancellation of the pact and the loss of over US $ 190 million was entirely the fault of the Nana Akufo-Addo government and its program to seize the heights of the Ghanaian economy for family and close associates.
Fortunately, this story of wailing is over, and we can expect a reset. A reset for the world, a reset for Africa especially Ghana and ECOWAS in this most important relationship. The United States of America matters.
The President of the United States is essential to the proper functioning of the globe. America has been a great friend of Ghana (will including the Akosombo dam), and Ghana has been a great friend of the United States (will including the case of GITMO-2).
It is my prayer and hope that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ victory will be a watershed moment for all of us and propel us to a place where world leadership will not be the result of sassy, irascible and immature tweets, but it must be motivated by careful, thoughtful, thoughtful and strategic deliberations.
President Joe Biden has his work cut out for him. Its mission as I see it: to repair, reconcile and rebuild. Biden represents a refreshing break from the past four largely ignominious years.
It must offer hope in the face of adversity and provide the leadership it urgently needs that breaks down walls, heals, binds, values friendship and upholds good principles not just in word but in deed. .
On a personal level, he was no stranger to tragedy and crisis – his character was shaped by the loss of his first wife, a baby girl and a grown son. America and the world could count on him to guide us through these difficult times.
Biden must quickly bring the United States back to the international stage by ensuring that the response to the pandemic is a truly global response that benefits humanity in general – vaccines should be available to everyone, not just Western countries rich; respect for the science of climate change and a return to the Paris Agreement are essential; a positive Africa-US policy anchored by fair trade and the new dynamic of the AfCFTA is imperative and the discriminatory targeting of African and Muslim migrants must end.
Its Vice President, Kamala Harris, should not forget the hope and inspiration she represents to many young African girls through the remarkable story she made by becoming the first black woman Vice President of States. United of America. She has the power to translate the hope she ignited into a golden time of opportunity for black girls around the world who continue to be held back by centuries of structural barriers.
There is a silver lining – one can come to a firm conclusion that the recent dark events in the United States, which brought them to the brink of the precipice, have shown the resilience of its democracy.
The other poignant lesson for other less influential countries in the Committee of Nations is to learn to be self-reliant and self-sufficient, as nations cannot continue to depend on their wealthy counterparts because that may not be the case. last Trumpian era and we all need to be aware that nationalism is on the rise in many Western political parties.
May the lessons of these landmark years guide us towards a more secure, equitable, just and just future.
About the Author; Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (MP) is a Member of Parliament for a third term in the Ghanaian Parliament representing the people of northern Tongu. He was the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the 7e Parliament. He also served as Deputy Minister of Information and Deputy Minister of Education from 2009 to 2017.
Source link
