Kofi Annan on the Ivory Coast and Africa’s Future

The former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan has said that the refusal of the incumbent President of the Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo to concede defeat in an election that was independently monitored and certified to be fair, risks embroiling the country in a new civil war.

“Africa” and the “world-cannot afford such a development.” Mr. Annan added because, “if Gbagbo is allowed to prevail, elections as instruments of peaceful change in Africa will suffer a serious set-back.”

In a lecture to a packed audience of faculty members, diplomats, business executives and students at Oxford University on, The Future of Africa: Challenges and Opportunities, he was of the opinion that if there is one area which will determine the direction of Africa’s future, it is the quality of its governance and leadership.

The lecture, organised by Exeter College, one of the constituent colleges of the University was to usher in the 700th anniversary of its founding in 2014. It was also given to coincide with the publication by Ayebia Clarke Publishers of Oxford of, Pilgrims of the Night-Development Challenges and Opportunities in Africa, a 240 page anthology of development essays edited and co-authored by the Ghanaian writer, Ivor Agyeman-Duah. It has a Foreword by the British economist and Rector of the Exeter College, Frances Cairncross. Other contributors are former Ghanaian President, John Agyekum Kufuor (an alumnus of the College), Nigerian Noble laureate Wole Soyinka, a world leading trade economist and former Chief economist of the UK government’s DFID, Prof. Anthony J. Venables and five other academics from the University, as well as the presenter of London Channel 5 Series on Architecture and Patronage, Elsie Owusu and others.

Delivered as an optimist’s view of Africa, Mr. Annan’s lecture explained that it was again due to bad leadership that Africa cannot easily make a profound impact on poverty eradiation.

On the recent uprisings in North Africa which has led to the collapse of the governments in Tunisia and Egypt, Mr. Annan said the democratic aspirations of people cannot be taken for granted and that human rights were not a luxury let alone a plot from outside.

“Wherever people live, they want their voices to be heard, their rights respected, and to have a say in how they are governed” he added.

It is this generation of Africans to resist oppression, their dynamism, their determination and ambitions, Mr. Annan explained, that was the major confidence in Africa today.

But not only that, Africa’s future is promising because it also has a new generation of African policy-makers who are managing economies better, paying attention to social development and institutional capacities.

According to Mr. Annan, Africa’s current economic success is not also simply tied to its natural resources or to one country. World class African companies are also making inroads in these markets.

Other sectors of the Continent’s economy such as telecoms, financial services, agribusiness, construction, and infrastructure are also thriving, creating both income and jobs; Africa’s demographics, labour force, rapid urbanisation and increasing middle class are such that Africans cannot be avoided in the affairs of the world.

Because of this, it is better for Europe and the western world to find new strategies in Africa instead of blaming or been critical of China’s role because the Chinese sometimes do useful infrastructure and other development works that years of relationship with Europe failed to accomplish.

Kofi Annan’s optimism about Africa’s future, he said is, “based on strong economic growth which even the global financial crisis was only to reverse briefly.”

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Andrew Hamilton praised Mr. Annan for his stewardship during his tenure as the UN Secretary General and for helping to resolve some of the complex issues the world faced.

Earlier before his lecture, Mr. Annan officially opened the African Studies Centre at Oxford. Dr. David Pratten the Director made it known that a three year scholarship is to be given Students from Nigeria, Angola and Ghana to study at the University.