At age 70 years. Mr Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, is an epitome of a successful human being in our present-day world.
Having lived through the immediate post – Second World War era places him in a position to appreciate better, what a chaotic world would look like. Nobody can take it away from him, he was forthright from the beginning. He told Americans and the world what he intended to do if elected President of the most powerful country on Planet Earth.
Candid President Trump has started implementing what had been his platform and some of us see nothing wrong with that.
However, it is suggested that he should pay attention to some critical issues to ensure that he does not throw away the bathwater with the baby.
The case in point is the possible revocation of the regulation adopted in June 2016 by the Securities & Exchange Commission under Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act.
Natural resource-rich countries would forever be grateful to President Trump if he retained the “Cardin-Lugar Anti-Corruption Rule (Dodd-Frank Act 2010, Section 1504).
The case for the maintenance of this Act is laid out succinctly by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre in an open letter to oil, gas and mining companies: – “Country – and project level reporting of extractive industry payment is essential for citizens in resource-rich countries to hold their governments accountable for how they use the massive revenues they receive for their finite natural resources from companies.
Oil, gas and mining companies need payment disclosure to maintain their social licence to operate. Without payment-transparency citizens cannot know how much money extractive companies pay to dictatorial and non-transparent governments.”
It is pertinent to note that following America’s lead the European Union (EU), United Kingdom and Canada have all passed similar legislations.
America’s leadership in the world is never in doubt; and has been at the forefront of democratic governance and the liberty of the citizenry.
This unique position imposes on the leadership of this great country a huge responsibility.
When in 1968, it was reported that asteroid Icarus was heading to crash with the earth, many people expected America to send satellites to intercept it – a weird expectation indeed. But can anybody blame them?
Am I hearing the song “Don’t Let Me Down”, by The Chainsmokers, in the background?
By Boakye-Dankwa Boadi| Director of Communication and Advocacy of Wacam; a human rights, environmental and mining advocacy non-governmental organisation. He was the Acting General Manager and Supervising Chief Editor of Ghana News Agency, when he retired in 2011.
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