Spio-Garbrah reacts to Kamara Harris’ Democrats ticket in US

Read the full write-up by H.E Ekwow Spio-Garbrah

Since my recent commentary on the disastrous Biden debate performance, three significant events have taken place in US politics:

Donald Trump has been shot and nearly killed, apparently boosting his chances to win the US elections. It would have been too risky to stage such an event, as some “conspiracy theorists” profess.

Joe Biden has pulled out of the race, as my thought-piece had requested. His letter to Americans by which he pulled out of the race, seemed hurriedly written, therefore not well thought-through for such a seismic decision, even if anticipated.

Kamala Harris has declared her candidacy for the US Presidency, which is what the US Constitution and its framers envisioned.

Other potential candidates, such as California Governor Newsom or Michelle Obama, may be advised to shelve or postpone their ambitions for now. Democrats need to quickly unite behind the best-prepared candidate for the job—Kamala. A former Attorney-General of California, Kamala can be suitably combative in the political ring against the hard-hitting and unconventional punching Donald Trump.

She will likely close the gaps in various previous polls between Trump and Biden, and potentially show up at the Democratic Convention triumphant.

The US and the rest of the world need a multilateralist US President. A Harris Presidency could be remarkable for more than her being the first woman President of the USA. Her African and Asian roots should commend her to be more sensitive to the aspirations of the developing world.

Africans cannot forgive President Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton for the grievous and unjustifiable assassination of Libya’s Muamar Ghaddafi, the greatest leader Africa has had since the tragic elimination of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah by the CIA in 1966.

Ghana has never fully recovered ever since that event some 50+ years ago. Recent mismanagement of Ghana’s economy and finances have reduced the once shining Black Star of Africa to the level of bankruptcy.

The African Continent and its potentially dynamic and very creative people need a US leader who will help raise the Continent out of an abyss caused primarily by a harsh international economic and financial order exacerbated by the Continent’s own weaknesses, especially its poor leadership.

The election of a pro-globalist US leader is in Africa’s interest, especially in an era where AI and the 4th Industrial Revolution could do so much to change world history for both good and evil.

The outcome of the US election portends such broad opposite prospects for a world beset with potential self-destruction from climatic factors alone, not to cite other nuclear risks.

This is why the 2024 US elections must matter more to Africa. Most Africans should face neither East nor West. We should face Forward, as Nkrumah advised.

Ekwow Spio-Garbrah is a former Ghana Ambassador to the USA, former Minister of Communication, Education, Mines and Energy and Trade and Industry. Former senior official of the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank and CEO of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation.