Michael Owusu Addo, better known by his stage name Sarkodie, is a multi-award-winning Ghanaian rapper who has voiced his strong support for President John Dramani Mahama’s recent call for African countries to take charge of their natural resources.
Using his official X (previously Twitter) account, the well-known rapper and head of the Sarkcess Music label shared a video of President Mahama giving an inspiring speech at the Executive Leadership Retreat Programme (ELRP) on Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Ada, Greater Accra Region.
During his speech, the president urged African leaders to use the continent’s abundant natural resources for sustainable growth. As happened during the colonial era, he cautioned against permitting foreign powers to take advantage of these resources for their own gain.
”The time has come for Africa to unashamedly take advantage of the natural resource endowment God has given us. In the colonial era, we had colonial masters. We had no say, and so they mined the gold and took it away. They developed the palm plantations and took the palm oil away. They took the diamonds and everything away.
His response suggests that the former president’s views on African sovereignty and resource management are significantly supported.
Following his recent laudation of Burkina Faso’s military chief, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who has gained the respect of numerous young Africans for his audacious development projects and anti-imperialist discourse, the rapper made this post. The late Thomas Sankara, the renowned Pan-African revolutionary who ruled Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987, has frequently been likened to Traoré.
Sarkodie has long advocated for African leaders to band together and use domestic resources to improve their countries rather than relying on aid from outside sources. In his 2020 political rap collaboration “Brown Paper Bag,” he and fellow Ghanaian rapper M.anifest emphasized this message by denouncing neocolonial influence and advocating for economic