Obasanjo Hails Mahama’s Vision for Global South Reform at G20; Announces Launch of Accra Reset Secretariat

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has delivered a significant address at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, confirming the formal launch of the Accra Reset’s interim Secretariat in Ghana and applauding President John Dramani Mahama’s leadership in advancing global development reform.

Speaking on behalf of President Mahama — the driving force behind the Accra Reset initiative — Obasanjo announced that the platform’s Circle of Leaders has now grown to include more than two dozen former Heads of State and leaders of international organisations from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Caribbean.

“President Mahama extends his deep appreciation to H.E. President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose leadership has steered this G20 cycle with clarity, courage, and an unwavering commitment to justice,” Obasanjo said. He also conveyed Mahama’s greetings in his role as African Union Champion for Reparations.

Obasanjo described the Accra Reset as a transformative shift in development thinking — a move away from what he termed “an economy of dependency” fostered by traditional aid and loan systems.

“To move forward, we must re-architect our economies on the foundations of trade and investment,” he stated.

The initiative, he explained, aims to build a new model of development cooperation that is “country-led, regionally empowered, and globally coherent,” breaking from the long-standing top-down frameworks that have shaped North–South relations for decades.

The establishment of the temporary Secretariat in Accra marks a major milestone, reinforcing Mahama’s vision for global governance reforms that are “co-created, not imposed; negotiated with fairness, not inherited from history.”

A High-Level Panel is already being assembled to produce a landmark report on restructuring global governance, to be submitted to a commissioning body made up of Heads of State from both the Global North and Global South.

Obasanjo further commended South Africa’s G20 Presidency under President Ramaphosa for prioritising issues that align closely with the Accra Reset — including a fair global financial system, strengthened global health resilience, equitable technology partnerships, and expanded Global South representation in multilateral decision-making.

He reaffirmed the initiative’s readiness to collaborate with the G20, describing the Accra Reset as “the connective tissue linking the public, private, and civil sectors of Global South societies.”

The Accra Reset, he added, seeks to shift international development “from endless aspirational targets to practical business models that deliver real, lasting change,” underscoring President Mahama’s pragmatic approach to transforming economies across the Global South.