President Bola Tinubu says Africa will not replace old shackles with new ones.
Tinubu made this claim when he gave his inaugural address at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in the wee hours of Wednesday.
He championed the need for Africa to surmount foreign exploitation to attain prosperity through democratic ideals.
“As for Africa, we seek to be neither appendage nor patron. We do not wish to replace old shackles with new ones,” he said.
He spoke to other heads of government, hours after similar addresses including those of US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.
The President spoke on the theme ‘Rebuilding Trust and Reigniting Global Solidarity: Accelerating Action on the 2030 Agenda and Its Sustainable Development Goals Towards Peace, Prosperity, Progress, and Sustainability for All’.
According to Tinubu, many proclamations have been made, “yet our troubles remain close at hand”.
Noting that failures in good governance have hindered Africa, Tinubu decried that broken promises, unfair treatment and outright exploitation from abroad also exacted a heavy toll on Africans’ ability to progress.
“Given this long history, if this year’s theme is to mean anything at all, it must mean something special and particular to Africa,” he added.
Chronicling the establishment United Nations, Nigeria’s leader detailed the role played by the Second World War, saying the period was a highwater mark for trust in global institutions and the belief that humanity had learned the necessary lessons to move forward in global solidarity and harmony.
“Today and for several decades, Africa has been asking for the same level of political commitment and devotion of resource that described the Marshall Plan,” he said.
“We realize that underlying conditions and causes of the economic challenges facing today’s Africa are significantly different from those of post-war Europe.”
