Nigeria’s peaceful stability critical to Africa’s development, says Prof Lumumba
The pan-African crusader and a Kenyan professor of law, Patrick Lumumba has said that African countries must rally around Nigeria to guarantee the stability of the continent.
Speaking at the 2023 Annual Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Leadership and Good Governance Lecture and Awards, Prof Lumumba said no African country could enjoy peace if Nigeria with a population of over 250 million people is allowed to plunge into crisis.
The President of the Patrick Lumumba Foundation, Kenya, said the ongoing unrest in some African countries should not be allowed in Nigeria because it is the nerve centre of the entire African continent.
Prof. Lumumba said, “African countries would be sitting on gunpowder ready to explode if the peace needed to stabilize the Africa continent is allowed to elude Nigeria.
“No African country has the capacity to accommodate and host refugees from Nigeria if the country is plugged into a crisis situation as experienced in some nation’s in the continent.
“If there is instability in Nigeria, the whole of Africa will suffer, because other African countries cannot contend with the large population that will be affected.”
According to Lumumba, Nigerians on February 25 and March 11 took to the pools and elected leaders at national and state levels, it behoves all to protect the motherland and ensure that the country remain united and stable.
The renowned Pan-Africanist crusader who said as a Lawyer, he would not discuss matters relating to the elections results that are still sub judice called on Nigerian politicians to accept whatever outcome of the election.
He urged Nigerian politicians to give priority to the unity of the country and preserve it for the next generation and tasked politicians to emulate the life of Honesty, Transparency, True Leadership and Sacrifice that the Late Ahmadu Bello lived and died for.
He argued that what the continent of Africa need is a change of character of its citizens and sincere leadership and followers to fix its system and not technology or machines.
He said that no matter the introduction of technology in the electoral system, if citizens are bad and corrupt the system would still not work because it would be compromised.
“What is more important for us to provide good governance and improve the system is the human beings and not the machine created by the human beings themselves,” added.
