Africa needs statesmanship as offered by Nelson Mandela, if the continent must meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030, said Comrade Issa Aremu.
Speaking at the weekend in Ilorin, Kwara State, Aremu, a member of the national executive council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and convener of the 2019 Nelson Mandela International Day, said it was time African leaders led like the late Madiba in terms of statesmanship as distinct from what he called “current pervasive brinkmanship.”
The Nelson Mandela International Day was launched by United Nations on July 18, 2009, to commemorate the lifetime of service Mandela gave to South Africa and the world. This year’s edition marked the 10th anniversary of Mandela Day.
According to Aremu, emulating Mandela’s leadership style must start with “little but tangible values such as time-consciousness and punctuality.”
Mandela, he observed, “was a stickler for punctuality. Mandela decried the concept of Africa time.”
“Africa must be time-conscious like Mandela. Africa was unable to meet most of the eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) launched in 2000 and terminated in 2015. For Africans to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) of 2030, statesmanship must start with punctuality to development agenda, we must be time-conscious and get the work done at the right time and avoid proscastination.”
He noted that Mandela, having gained freedom on February 11, 1990, after 27 years in prison, in record time, achieved great feats such as negotiated establishment of democracy and freedom in South Africa in 1994. He became the first President of post-apartheid South Africa, enthroned unprecedented racial harmony, forgiveness and reconciliation and though personal integrity got the first hosting rights for FIFA World Cup for Africa.