By Kemo Cham
Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Shirley Botchwey is the new Commonwealth Secretary General.
Ms Botchwey was announced as the winner for the top job at the just concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa. She contested against two men – Gambia’s Foreign Minister Momodou Tangara and a former minister of Lesotho, Joshua Phoho Setipa, who currently works in the Secretariat of the Commonwealth.
Tangara’s candidacy was opposed at home over his dark past. Some Gambians wrote a petition asking for his disqualification over his role in the administration of exiled former Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh.
The Commonwealth, officially known as the Commonwealth of Nations, is a voluntary association of 56-member nations, with a combined population of 2.7 billion, a third of whom are Africans. It was initially meant to be a membership for Britain and its former territories. But it has since opened up to other countries, with the stated mission of collaborating for development and global peace. Former French colonies like Rwanda, Gabon and Togo have all recently joined thanks to this reform.
Critics, however, say that it is a neocolonial entity that only seeks to continue Britain’s colonial mission.
The Apiah meeting was in fact dominated by calls for reparation, which was rebuffed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who argued that the focus of the association should be on contemporary issues.
The summit also discussed climate change and sugestions for the drafting of a free trade agreement among Commonwealth member states.
The heads of government in a communique released at the end of the Summit insisted on calls for discussions on the issue of reparation for the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism.
The incoming Secretary General has expressed her support for calls for reparation.
The Commonwealth Secretariat implements the policies and programmes of the heads of state, which is geared towards building democratic and inclusive institutions, strengthen governance and promote justice and human rights across member nations.
Botchwey, a trained lawyer and a former member of parliament, has served as Ghana’s foreign minister since 2017. She takes over from Patricia Scotland, who has held the position of Secretary General since 2016. The Ghanaian becomes the 7th Secretary General of the association.
The position, which is four-year per term and re-electable for one more term, is rotated among the five regions of the world.
This is Africa’s turn, coming 24 years since veteran Nigerian diplomat Chief Emeka Anyaoku, who became the first African to hold the position from 1990 to 2000.
