President John Dramani Mahama has made a clarion call to African leaders to take the initiative in securing full control over their medical independence.

Speaking at the African Health Sovereignty Summit on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, the president said that African nations must go beyond merely responding to crises once they occur and instead build health systems that foster resilience and empower the abilities of the African people.

According to him, several incidents and crises have exposed the widening gaps and loopholes in health systems and its delivery, advocating for new and innovative reforms to change the narrative.

“This summit comes at a time of overlapping and intensifying global crises. We have wars, pandemics, climate shocks, economic volatility and widening inequalities and these are not just testing our systems, indeed they are exposing where the fault lines are.

“The world has changed but global health governance has not kept pace with the changing world. At this moment we are called to redesign the architecture that has for far too long excluded Africa's voices, excluded Africa's needs and innovations,” he said.

President Mahama added, “We are called to build systems that do more than respond to crisis. We must build systems that generate resilience, produce equity, and amplify dignity of our people.”

He expressed his belief and confidence that the continent is capable of managing its health services and other initiatives, urging it to rise above its overreliance on foreign countries.

“Above all, it is a question of the sovereignty, the right of African nations to determine their health priorities, marshal their capacities, and lead with their own vision. And so out of adversity comes opportunity. Africa must no longer be the patient; it must be the driver. It must be the author. It must be the architect and the advocate of its own health destiny,” he urged.

MAG/MA

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