Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called on African leaders to stop holding on to foreign plans noting that the continent needs leaders use policy as a surgical blade instead of a slogan. He was speaking on Thursday in Abuja during the Dr. Kayode Fayemi commemorative symposium and launch of the Amandla Institute for Policy and Leadership Advancement.
During the Dr. Kayode Fayemi commemorative symposium and launch of the Amandla Institute for Policy and Leadership Advancement, Nigerian leadership, Bola Ahmed Tinubu urged African leaders to stop clinging onto foreign plans.
He asserted that the continent needs leaders who use policy as a surgical blade instead of a slogan as he lamented that the leaders have refused to emancipate themselves from client-state mentalities and governance through hashtag activism.
The event on Monday under the theme « Renewing the Pan-African Ideal for the Changing Times: The Policy and Leadership Challenges and Opportunities. » saw the leadership represented by his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima in a statement by presidential spokesman Stanley Nkwocha, asserted that no matter the differences across the continent, fighting development dilemma with spears and arrows is not worth it while the rest of the world is fighting the same battle with missiles and tanks. « The world is not waiting for Africa to catch up, » he stated.
The president noted that The train of progress accelerates, yet too many of African leaders cling to old carriages adding « that it would be wishful thinking to hope that Africa’s renaissance will happen as a gift, maintaining that it must be built. »
He adviced the African youth to utilise tools to leapfrog colonial legacies urging them to never forget that the continent’s legacy can only be sustained by the systems they institutionalise. echoing that « Africa seeks collaboration, not patronage.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki in his address at the event, noted that development aspirations and targets across Africa have largely not been met due to multiple factors, including inadequate resource mobilisation and poor leadership highlighting that African leaders in the context of establishing a global multipolar order have to prepare adequately to position the continent correctly.
