Former governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has urged African leaders to end the “supplicant mentality” of depending on foreign aid to solve the continent’s problems but to “instead embrace the audacity in defending our rights and interests in global affairs that has eluded us for way too long.’’
Fayemi said it was demeaning that African leaders are constantly summoned to the capitals of competing foreign powers to beg for aid and support.
The former Ekiti governor spoke at the annual lecture of the Society for International Relations Awareness (SIRA), where he was the keynote speaker and delivered the lecture with the theme: “Africa in the Turbulence of a World in Search of Direction.’’
Fayemi, who is now a visiting professor at the School of Global Affairs, Kings College, London, advocated strong visionary leadership for Africa if the continent is to find its place in the turbulence of the current global order.
‘’This is where visionary leadership must come in to help, in a forward-looking way, to develop a strategic, coordinated, coherent, and shared African approach to managing the turbulence in the international system as the process of change gathers momentum,’’ he said.
The event was attended by a wide range of stakeholders, including top government leaders, serving and retired diplomats, ambassadors and representatives of foreign governments.
He cautioned against fragmented and disjointed actions and called for visionary leadership to develop a strategic and shared African approach to navigate these challenging times.
Highlighting the role Nigeria should play in shaping Africa’s response to global changes, Fayemi stated, “Of course, it is altogether natural – for reasons of history, demography, economic weight, and human and natural resource endowment – that Nigeria should play a frontline role in framing and harnessing the African response to a changing international system.”
Fayemi also called for equipping the next generation of diplomats with the necessary tools to represent Africa’s core values and interests effectively.
On his part, the president, SIRA, Owei Lakemfa lamented the slaughter in the Middle East, the war of attrition in Ukraine, the carnage in Syria, the barbaric conflict in Yemen, the blind war in Sudan, the unending battles in Somalia and other such conflicts, diminish humanity.
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