No leader has spoken for Africa like Tinubu did at UNGA, says Agbakoba

Olisa Agbakoba, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), says no African leader has spoken for the continent the way President Bola Tinubu did at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

Tinubu had on Wednesday addressed world leaders at the 78th session of UNGA, during which he said unfair treatment and foreign exploitation have stunted Africa’s progress.

In a post on the X platform, Agbakoba said the speech was a “well-received statement” with which the president asserted that “Africans are not beggars but equal partners”. 

“A well-received statement at UNGA!,” Agbakoba wrote. 

“Never in the history of UNGA has an African President spoken for the entire African continent, asserting that we are not beggars but equal partners with the geopolitical blocs of the world.

“Not since Kwame Nkrumah and his vision for a pan-African agenda for development has any African leader delivered a speech on behalf of the 54 nations of Africa.”

He added that Africa would have itself to blame if it failed to act on Tinubu’s significant policy speech.

“Let all of us in Africa rally our collective energies and declare to the world that we are awake and not beggars but partners,” Agbakoba said.