A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Olisa Agbakoba, has hailed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his inaugural address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
OsunDailyNG reported that Tinubu had on Wednesday addressed world leaders at the 78th session of UNGA, during which he said unfair treatment and foreign exploitation had affected Africa’s growth and development.
In his speech, President Tinubu emphasized the urgency for UN member states to take concrete actions against companies and individuals involved in illegal arms and mineral smuggling in and out of Africa.
Tinubu also highlighted the need to protect Africa’s mineral-rich regions from exploitation and conflict, citing the example of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the role of foreign entities in illegal resource extraction.
The President expressed concern about the impact of resource pillaging on African nations, calling for international cooperation to end this injustice and eliminate poverty in the region.
Reacting to the development in a post on the X platform on Wednesday, Agbakoba said no African leader has spoken for the continent the way President Tinubu did at the UN event.
The former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) said the president’s speech was a well-received statement which stated that Africans are not beggars but equal partners.
He asked Africans to rally their collective energies and declare to the world that we are awake and not beggars but partners.
He wrote: “A well-received statement at UNGA!
“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.
“Let all of us in Africa rally our collective energies and declare to the world that we are awake and not beggars but partners.“
