Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has taken a swipe at foreign powers and development partners, accusing them of tying aid, trade and bilateral support to the adoption of cultural values alien to Africa’s social fabric.
Addressing the Fourth African Interparliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values in Accra on June 3, Bagbin argued that tying foreign aid to changes in African laws undermines the sovereignty of African countries.
According to him, Africa must be allowed to define its own social, legal and cultural direction without external pressure.
“In recent times, we have witnessed a troubling narrative. Development assistance, trade agreements, natural resource agreements, and bilateral cooperation have been made contingent upon the adoption of legal and cultural paradigms alien to our social, cultural fabric,” he said.
Bagbin said making aid dependent on changes to domestic laws violates the principle of sovereign equality under the United Nations Charter.
“I want to emphasize that conditioning aid on the alteration of domestic laws to the disadvantage of beneficiary countries violates the principle of sovereign equality,” he stated.
He said African countries do not dictate the legal frameworks of other continents and must therefore be given the same respect.
By Noble Crosby Annan
