We are here to celebrate the Sun newspapers group and to listen to President Kufuor on the very important topic of Religion, Strife and the Future of Democracy in Africa. I am very honoured to be part of this celebration and to welcome our brother, President Kufuor, the Guest Lecturer.
Permit me to say that the topic of the lecture could not have been more appropriate and timely. As we are gathered here to celebrate this 10th anniversary of this publishing outfit, different parts of Africa, and indeed Nigeria, are being torn apart by ethnic, religious and regional conflicts. The cost to Africa in terms of human lives, property, productivity and trade is clearly enormous. And this is a continent that continues to be weighed down by other developmental challenges including poverty, disease, unemployment, drought, low productivity due to lack of infrastructure and near insignificant contribution to world trade.
There is an urgent need for us as a people, as a continent to quickly and decisively tackle these conflicts whether they are religious or otherwise not only to stem the needless waste of lives and property but so we can also focus on developing our human and material resources to provide our people better lives. Let us encourage our people to acknowledge our differences but to see these differences as a source of strength, as basis for pooling together, for unity, for peace and for development. In doing so we must always try to do what is just and fair to all. And, as leaders, we must avoid trying to score political points with the very serious security challenges facing us but rather show responsible leadership and commitment in searching for solutions to them wherever that search takes us.
I congratulate the Sun newspapers group on its ten years of robust and fearless journalism, and hope and pray that its next ten years will be even more successful than the previous ten.
Once more, I thank the Guest Lecturer, President Kufour for being here and sharing with us his thoughts on this very important topic.
Thank you and God bless.
Being the remarks of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar at the 10th anniversary lecture of Sun newspapers in Abuja on Tuesday.
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