Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo called for African political reforms and discussed his plans to bring peace to the African continent during the 2004 Oliver Tambo Lecture at the O’Donovan Dining Hall Friday afternoon.
A teeming crowd of students, administrators, and dignitaries waited patiently for Obasanjo’s arrival despite the president’s nearly hour-long delay at a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York. A standing ovation greeted Obasanjo as he entered the building flanked by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Donald McHenry.
Obasanjo delivered a brief lecture followed by questions from Albright, McHenry and the audience.
He emphasized that Africa faces significant challenges due to a bitterly painful past.
“The legacies of slavery and colonialism, as well as neocolonialism, compromised opportunities for internally propelled growth and development in Africa,” he said.
Obasanjo added that post-colonial Africa has never been “economically free or integrated” and said that Africans must confront their own problems through the development of independent reform initiatives.
The president described several new Nigerian reforms meant to address these problems. The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy, a program dedicated to increasing Nigeria’s economic strength, complemented by local development strategies, will promote privatization and commercialization in an effort to revitalize the Nigerian private sector, he said.
The speech also touched on the role of the African Union in ending violent conflict on the African continent. As the current chair of the AU, Obasanjo said he plans to unite fellow leaders to develop pan-continental peace keeping strategies.
“The overall goal is to establish a dynamic connection between national, sub-regional and continental strategies for peace, stability, growth and development,” he said. “In all of these new approaches, consultation, dialogue and the participation of the people, their organizations and communities are emphasized.”
Following the prepared remarks, Albright asked the president about the situation in Darfur, Sudan. International observers have recently accused militia groups backed by the Sudanese government of genocide and have compared the events in Darfur to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were murdered.
Obasanjo said that the AU has plans to deploy troops to the region and that this initial deployment will focus on “dealing with the immediate problems that have come up as a result of the rebellion – human and direct security issues.”
“We have agreed on basic protocol for humanitarian issues and by the end of October we should have troops in the area,” he said. “If my own assessment is anything to go by, within six months we should have a solution to the Darfur problem.”
Obasanjo also discussed the sometimes polarizing role religion has played in African politics, specifically in Nigeria, which is largely divided between Muslims and Christians.
“Religion shouldn’t be a problem in Nigeria since we have dealt with this for so many centuries. The differences are part of a liability but also an asset,” he said.
During a question-and-answer session with Georgetown students, Obasanjo addressed the importance of U.S. economic aid to Nigeria by emphasizing the value of promoting democracy in the region.
“One of the things we have to fight against in the world is terrorism and ensuring thriving democracies is one way of fighting terrorism,” he said.
The afternoon ended with a brief address from the South African Ambassador Barbara Masekela, who called Obasanjo a “great leader of Africa.”
Most students, including Joe Saboe (SFS ’07), said they enjoyed the event despite the long initial delay.
“I think it was great timing to have him come,” Saboe said. “He has a lot of challenges ahead of him and it was just amazing to hear what he says because he’s a guy who deals with so many conflicts on a daily basis.”
The Oliver Tambo lecture is named for a former president of the African National Congress in South Africa. It has previously drawn prominent speakers including South African President Thabo Mbeki and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
