Former Botswana leader Festus Mogae has said Africans should take responsibility for the continent’s ills. Addressing a news conference in Addis Ababa on Monday, Mr Mogae said Africans needed to move beyond blame game and accept responsibility for some of the continent ills (AU Monitor)
Mr Mogae is the chairman of the advisory board of the newly-created Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA). ‘Not everything is the fault of foreigners and foreign interests. Some of the faults are our own and we want to be able to say that,’ Mr Mogae said. After the official launching of the Coalition in Addis Ababa, Mr Mogae explained that the main difference between CoDA and other existing think tanks in Africa was that ‘it is African owned, African led and largely African financed.’
Mr Mogae said that CoDA would welcome participation from outside the continent, but that the main issues to be addressed would be decided by Africans themselves. He said that issues such as election disputes, bad governance, and corruption were necessarily controversial, but that the important thing was for Africans to discuss them frankly and openly.
The Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA) is a joint venture of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and has the full support of the African Union Commission (AUC). The inaugural meeting of the coalition began holding today and is expected to set priorities, determine and steer CoDA’s activities.
