Two former African leaders, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia and Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, as well as former prime minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, are to deliver keynote addresses and lecture at the 83rd birthday of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The director, Centre for Human Security and Dialogue, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Peter Okebukola, made this known at a press conference on Monday, ahead of Mr Obasanjo’s birthday scheduled to hold between March 3 and 5 in Abeokuta.
Mr Okebukola, a professor, accompanied by Leke Adebiyi and Adebola Labiran as well as Kehinde Akinyemi, the media aide of Mr Obasanjo said, the topic of the lecture to be delivered by the two former presidents is, ’The Place of Pan Africanism in an Emerging World of Besieged Liberal Democracy’.
He said the event will also include a policy round table with a formal presentation of the book, ‘the Asian Aspiration’, authored by Gre Mills, Olusegun Obasanjo and others. They added that this will be followed by a birthday carnival with mosaic presentations of African Cultural Heritage.
Mr Okebukola stated that the activities, scheduled to hold at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library International Conference Centre, is the brainchild of the Centre for Human Security and Dialogue (CHSD) with the support of the Brenthrust Foundation.
He explained that the roundtable on ‘The Asian Aspiration’ aims to share lessons from Asia’s development for strengthening Africa’s integration and cooperation in the area of socio-economic development.
‘‘The roundtable will bring together former Heads of State and Government in Africa, especially from ECOWAS sub-region, heads/representatives of United Nations agencies, Ambassadors of foreign missions to Nigeria, leaders from the public and private sector, the media, development experts and stakeholders,’’ Mr Okebukola said.
He added, ’The roundtable will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 3-4,2020 at the OOPL International Conference Centre. On March 3, the event will kick off by 2pm while on March 4, the program will start by 9am.
Mr Okebukola also added that the Ambassador of China to Nigeria and the Head of Chancery of the High Commission of India to Nigeria will give perspectives of their countries on the Asian aspiration and lessons for Africa.
“As you may be aware, the birthday celebration of His Excellency, Olusegun Obasanjo, since leaving office as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2007, has been used as a platform to promote the development of Africa and the World in general,” he told journalists.
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