Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has stated that the push for reparatory justice is “not rooted in sentiment” but rather a demand for accountability, as he outlined Ghana’s position on neocolonialism at a high-level international forum in Russia.
“Our fight for reparatory justice is not rooted in sentiment, nor is it about assigning guilt to present generations for the actions of the past. Rather, it is a firm demand for accountability,” he said.
According to him, meaningful international cooperation cannot be separated from the historical inequalities that continue to shape global economic systems.
On June 25, he participated in the 3rd Standing Committee Meeting of the “For the Freedom of Nations!” Movement, hosted by the United Russia Party, where he presented Ghana’s position on countering modern neocolonialism and advancing what he described as true global equity.
He said the engagements combined diplomacy with a broader policy argument that “true Pan-Africanism cannot exist without economic liberation,” stressing that political independence across Africa remains incomplete without control over financial systems, trade regimes, and resource governance.
“Decades after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah cautioned us, political independence remains incomplete if our financial systems, trade regimes, and resources are still governed by rules we did not write,” he said, referencing the former Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah.
He argued that Africa must move beyond its traditional role as a supplier of raw materials and instead compete as an equal partner in industrial production, technology, and value creation.
Beyond the main summit sessions, he said Ghana’s delegation engaged in working meetings at the Legislative Assembly, the Hermitage Museum, and at the XIV International Legal Forum, where legal and policy strategies around global economic justice were discussed.
Ghana, he added, is positioning itself at the forefront of what he described as a growing global movement linking reparatory justice to economic sovereignty through international diplomacy.
The remarks come amid renewed advocacy by several Global South countries seeking reforms to global financial and trade systems, with Asiedu Nketiah framing the issue as central to Africa’s long-term development trajectory.