Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has challenged African leaders to set aside personal aggrandisement and work towards a democratic model capable of delivering good governance to citizens in all ramifications.
Obasanjo urged African leaders to rethink the type of democracy being practised on the continent, especially in comparison with the system inherited from colonial masters, both in context and content, to better serve the people of Africa.
He emphasised that Africa’s governance challenges are fundamentally institutional and personality-driven, noting that successive leaders across the continent have failed to consistently build institutional frameworks capable of sustaining good governance regardless of who occupies leadership positions.
The former Nigerian president maintained that leadership in Africa must take democracy seriously, not as a system to be manipulated for electoral advantage, but as a covenant with the people based on genuine commitment to good governance.
Obasanjo stated this in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, while delivering an address at the International Colloquium titled “The Burden and Blessing of Leadership: Reflections from Africa to the World.”
Speaking at the event held at the main auditorium of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, the former president stressed that Africa’s governance problem remains fundamentally institutional and personality-based.
He said successive African leaders have not consistently produced the institutional frameworks that would ensure good governance endures regardless of individual leadership.
“We have produced extraordinary individual leaders like Mandela, Nkrumah, Nyerere, Sankara and Machel, but we have not consistently produced the institutional frameworks that make good governance endure and last regardless of who the individual leader is.
“We must solve the personality problem and the institutional problem. When an entire country’s trajectory depends on the character of one person, that country is permanently fragile,” he said.
Obasanjo maintained that although democracy could be “imperfect, slow and frustrating at times,” African leaders must accept that the alternatives are “infinitely worse.”
“Let us take democracy seriously, not as a system to be manipulated for electoral advantage, but as a covenant with the people: a genuine commitment to good governance that is accountable, transformational, transparent, selfless and oriented toward inclusive development and the common good.
“Defend democratic institutions; strengthen independent judiciaries; protect free expression. Let us rethink the democracy we inherited from colonial masters in both context and content so that it can serve Africa’s unique realities in a world whose institutions were not created by us for ourselves.
“Build courts for justice, not for the highest bidder. Build regulatory bodies that are not subject to whims and caprices. Build a civil service that delivers service. Build universities whose graduates can compete with those from the best institutions in the world. Build institutions that will outlast all of us and cannot be derailed through abuse or misuse,” he said.
Obasanjo also urged African leaders not to allow narrow nationalism to undermine continental opportunities and shared prosperity, particularly in areas such as economic integration and youth investment.
He warned that any continent that fails its youth risks planting seeds of instability that could haunt future generations.
“We must integrate Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area is one of the most important developments on the continent in a generation.
“Economic integration has the potential to transform Africa’s position in the global economy, create market depth that attracts investment, generate employment and build the productive capacity required for sustainable development,” he said.
Taking a swipe at Nigeria’s situation, Obasanjo warned that advocates of religious and ethnic sentiments are “great enemies” of the country, stressing that Nigeria cannot survive under ethno-religious hegemony.
“Nigeria is not merely a nation; it is an argument, an ongoing, unresolved, occasionally violent but ultimately vital argument about what kind of people we are and what kind of future we can build together.
“I love this country with all its contradictions and will die loving it. But we must all make Nigeria our own home. It will not work if Nigeria belongs only to the South or the North, the East or West, or to Muslims or Christians alone.
“Those who promote such sentiments are enemies of Nigeria. Nigeria cannot survive on hegemony,” he said.
The former president also stressed that leadership is not a solo endeavour but a collective responsibility for which leaders must remain accountable.
“Africa is not a problem to be managed; Africa is a promise to be fulfilled. The question now is not what my generation did or failed to do, but what this generation will do with what it has inherited.
“As I cross my 89th year, I bow in gratitude, in hope and in continued commitment to the continent and the people I have spent my life serving. I will continue to serve until my last breath,” he concluded.
