By Mustapha Sanah
Last week, the superpower of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia played host not only to one of the biggest gatherings of world leaders, including Africa, but also discussed some of the biggest topical issues on the front burner of our time – Africa’s development and prosperity and the immediate solution to the war between Gaza and Israel.
The desert Kingdom, under its transformational prime minister and Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, colloquially referred to as MBS, led the Kingdom’s efforts to underscore its leadership role in the Middle East and the entire Arab world. Three distinct events took place – the Saudi-Africa Summit 2023, emergency meetings of the Arab League and that of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation.
By bringing Africa’s leaders as well as Arab leaders and those of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation into two or three separate international conferences in the week, to deliberate on matters of critical concern to both Africa and the globe, the Kingdom somewhat asserts its position as undisputed leader of the Arab and Islamic world of the time.
This whole week, social media and other broad networks especially, within the Muslim communities around the globe are agog with the initiative of the Saudis. The initiative did not only boost the image of MBS for his extraordinary level of diplomacy in uniting the Islamic and Arab leaders on the current catastrophic human misery in Gaza, but he also received widespread praise for being blunt on the situation in Gaza.
Sharing table with the Kingdom’s arch-rivals including Iran’s President Rassi and others, and setting-aside their differences to use a single voice to demand an immediate ceasefire and the restoration of normalcy in Gaza, is considered as a source of great hope for many people in the Muslim world. It is the prayer of many around the world for Israel to immediately cease fire and co-ordinate the delivery of food and medicine to the war-ravaged Gaza city.
Twenty (20) Africa leaders flew into Riyadh to woo the Saudis for improved relations and increase in the Kingdom’s investments in their respective countries. This is a significant milestone in the relations between the Arab superpower and Africa, signaling a new era for budding relations to achieve our shared goals and objectives of improving infrastructure and reducing poverty in Africa.
Interestingly, I felt jealous for not seeing any of Ghana’s high-ranking leaders in Riyadh, where about 20 of our continent’s presidents were busily signing about 50 mouthwatering bilateral agreements with the Saudis in the energy, tourism, mining and finance sectors. As part of its Vision 2030, a whopping $25billion has been earmarked to be invested in Africa by the Kingdom. That aside, a US$5billion has been penciled to support Africa’s infrastructure through the Saudi Fund for Development.
Nigeria, our sweet rival, signed many agreements with the Saudis including the Kingdom’s readiness to revamp Nigeria oil refineries and also injecting substantial financial deposit of foreign exchange to boost the country’s forex liquidity.
Ghana certainly should not wait at the fence, but proactively engage Saudi in pursuit of our economic diplomacy. Our nation as the Black Star of Africa has never groped in the wilderness when it comes to leadership in Africa and we must been seen in the frontline building the path for sustain cordial relations between Africa and the world in the comity of nations, especially Saudi Arabia. Ghana must reset its agenda for the Middle East in order to harness the limitless opportunities in that region.
The president had a shrewd foreign policy in his first term, but many foreign policy analysts now think that euphoria in his first term is faltering with his handling of the Wagner remarks in Washington DC, the country’s stand on the Russia-Ukraine war and most recently, Ghana’s position on the ongoing Gaza-Israeli war. Is there a shift in our non-aligned principles?
The Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the gateway to the Gulf region and when NOEN is realised, it will catapult the Kingdom under its reformist and transformational leader to more greater heights. It’s worthwhile for Ghana to consider developing an enhanced and discreet modern economic and diplomatic relation with Saudi both at the primary and secondary levels including the private sector to spur growth of our economy. As a key player at the top, I have no doubt institutions like the Ghana Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry may also add some impetus in this direction.
We must assimilate the tactical and innovative economic diversification model of the Crown Prince in order to revive our economic from the shocks of our major traditional exports like cocoa and gold. Constantly, we must keep our enviable position as the Black Star of Africa.
Mustapha Sanah: The writer is a policy advocate and Executive Chairman of the Tamale-based Northern Development & Democratic Institute, NDDI, a premier public policy think-tank in Northern Ghana. He also chairs the Board of four private corporate entities with interest in agriculture, security, civil engineering and services.
