Obasanjo disagrees with Obama on Africa's setting

intern

March 28, 2018 11:46 AM

Obasanjo says Africa needs effective leadership to be able to build strong institutions

Nigerias former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disagreed with the former United States president, Barack Obama over his statement on African institutions way back 2015.

President Obama had on July 28, 2015, at the Mandela Hall, African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, reiterated the statement he made that African doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.

Obama further explained that those institutions can be the Africa Union but former Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo said he disagreed with the former United States president.

Obasanjo made this remark at the closing session of the presidential panel at the 2018 Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire on Tuesday alongside the Zimbabwe president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

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The former Nigerian leader said: "President Obama said we need big institutions not big men and I don’t agree with him. We, in Africa, we need effective leadership. We need strong institutions, but first adequate leadership."

"If you have a strong institution and a weak leader, the institution that you have will be weakened by the leader."

'Five years ago, if you had told me that an election would be declared and that the judiciary would come out and say the result is null and avoid, I would have said that sounds far-fetched. But it has happened.'

"I want to tell my brothers and sisters of Africa, let us not underestimate the progress we have made. Where we must pat ourselves on the back, let us pat ourselves on the back." Obasanjo said at the panel discussion.'

On his part, President Mnangagwa said Africa needs leaders with vision who can dream for the future of their nations.

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The Africa CEO Forum is the world's largest gathering of the African private sector with its 2018 edition theme, "African Champions: Powering Competitiveness," with the aims of enabling its participants to formulate action plans for the transformation of the continent's large companies.

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