Last month in Accra, before an audience that included many African luminaries, President Mahama called upon Africa to assume leadership in its healthcare. In an eloquent speech, he urged:
“A fundamental shift away from dependence on donor support for health infrastructure.”
He added:
“The outdated notion that health drains our economies must be rejected. In truth, health is the engine of our productivity and the engine of inclusive growth.”
He even cited a WHO study which reported that for every dollar invested in healthcare, there is a four-dollar return. Listening to the speech, which until then sounded positively Nkrumahist, I said to myself: “So far, so good.”
Then, he praised Ramaphosa for COVID leadership, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for Ebola leadership, as well as Kagame, Kofi Annan, Obasanjo, and Ruto for health leadership. Yet, there was no mention of President George W. Bush, who launched PEPFAR — through which, together with the Global Fund, the U.S. has spent $120 billion on HIV and saved 26 million lives, mostly in Africa. Nor was there acknowledgment of the West’s additional $157 billion in health support to Africa, not to mention bilateral assistance from the U.S. and EU.
There is more, but you get the picture. Indeed, truth be told, President Mahama’s summit was necessitated by what WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus reported as:
“Health aid projected to decline by up to 40% this year compared to two years ago.”
This decrease is due mainly to cuts in global health spending by the Trump administration.
The summit would have been a good time and place to thank America for the generosity of past governments, starting with Bush and continuing through Biden.
As for African leaders, the less said, the better. A quarter-century after the Abuja Declaration — in which they committed to spending 15% of their budgets on health — most of them, including Ghana, have not even reached 8%. Two decades after the Blair Africa Commission urged governments to abolish health fees, most countries, including Ghana, still charge them.
A few years ago, we allowed a new mother with postpartum bleeding and dialysis patients to die because they couldn’t pay for fuel and dialysis supplies, while we profligately built a cathedral! Respectfully, talk is cheap. Nobody is preventing African governments from spending 15% of their budgets on healthcare.
President Mahama deserves credit for uncapping the NHIS and initiating the Ghana Medical Trust Fund. But more needs to be done. Health is not just about wealth and economics — it is also about galamsey forcing pregnant women and children to drink mercury-polluted water. It is about filth that pollutes our environment and breeds disease. It is about bad roads leading to untimely deaths.
Mr. President, show action to back your words:
- Halt galamsey. It is both a health emergency and a national crisis.
- End fuel payments as a condition for ambulance use.
- Stop the collection of “poop tolls” before the poor can use public toilets.
- Tackle sanitation with professionals, not just volunteers.
- Build safe roads.
- Improve public security so our countrymen stop dying needlessly in Bawku and Bole.
Finally, Sir, you could lead Africa in thanking America for its generosity during HIV and COVID. Nominating President Bush for a Nobel Peace Prize for launching PEPFAR might remind America that we are a grateful continent.
May God bless Africa and Ghana.
Arthur Kobina Kennedy (18th September 2025)
