There is a mentality among African leaders that we must change. The mentality of perpetual victimhood. That the West owes us something. That the world must give us a seat because we shouted injustice.
I listened to President William Ruto of Kenya at UNGA demanding two permanent seats with veto power for Africa. That our exclusion from the UN Security Council is unfair and unjust. President Ruto is right to demand dignity for Africa, but dignity is built, not begged for. I respect President Ruto, but I disagree with the approach.
If Africa wants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, we must work for it.
We must build our economy and make it globally competitive. We must build our society so it produces progressive citizens, not economic migrants and refugees. We must build our defense and national security so we can secure our own streets and not outsource our security to Russia or the United States. We must build our healthcare so our presidents don't run to London when they have an ear infection. Our house must be habitable so our presidents will not spend most of their time living in Geneva, or hiding in Paris and Dubai doing nothing spectacular while their own country is uninhabitable for their own citizens. We must build our education so our young people can be productive and add value to Africa. It is only then that we can say Africa has come of age and deserves a seat at the table.
Africa has 54 countries and 1.4 billion people. That is true. But what is our share of world trade? What is our share of global manufacturing? What is our share of global patents? What is our share of global GDP? We are less than 3 percent of the global economy, but we have over 60 percent of the world's extreme poor. We contribute peacekeepers, but we also contribute the largest number of people living on aid.
The UN Security Council was not built on pity in 1945. It was built on power. America, Russia, China, Britain, and France got permanent seats because they won a war and they had built economies and militaries that the world could not ignore. They did not beg for it. My position is simple: Fix your home first.
Nobody respects a man whose family is poor, dependent on neighbors and relatives to eat, unstable, crisis-prone, and whose house is leaking so badly that his own children are running away to live in other people's houses. That is what we have done. Our children are on boats to Europe. Our doctors are in Canada. Our engineers are driving Uber in America. Our best brains are everywhere except home. And we want to go to the UN to demand a permanent seat?
For Africa to be respected, we must rebuild the system. We must phase out the old unproductive order that has dominated member states across the continent, an order that has left Africans in extreme and terrible situations despite our huge potential, and build Africa just like others built their societies.
This is what the Citizens Democratic Alliance is committed to building in Nigeria. A Nigeria that is secure, productive, democratic, technologically advanced, and globally respected, built on justice, accountability, inclusion, innovation, equal opportunity and shared prosperity. A Nigeria where lives and property are protected, where education and healthcare are accessible to all, where economic opportunities are available regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender, where citizens are safe, where our communities are habitable, where our economy is just and industrialized, and where every Nigerian can realize their full potential.
Let's Work To Make Africa Work. Let's Work To Make Nigeria Work.
Tamunotonye Samuel Solomon Inioribo
Founder and National Chairman
Citizens Democratic Alliance