Johnson-Sirleaf: Africa’s Future Depends on Good Leadership

Liberian President, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf  has said the future of African continent depends on good leadership.

She noted that the leaders presently occupying the position of authorities must learn from the past despair, with a view to establishing a better future for Africans.

Sirleaf dropped the hint yesterday in Abeokuta, when she received a honorari causa award from the University of Agriculture (UNAAB).

“I am proud to be part of this leadersship, to have the opportunity to shape the course of Liberia’s and Africa’s future. To the women of Liberia, of Africa, I dare say the world, I say we are no longer bystanders and beneficiaries, we are now full participants in the evolution of our world. Let us go forth and make it a better world”, Sirleaf stressed.

She said  African Universities and colleges of agriculture have  a critical role to play in the revitalisation of the agriculture sector by reforming their curricula to become more relevant and respond to the changing needs of farmers, the agriculture business community  and other stakeholders.

She said the universities of agriculture in Africa need to make their training programmes more responsive to adequately prepare graduates whether as researchers, teachers, extension workers, policy makers or administrators to deal with the complex agricultural development situation in the 21st century.

Serleaf said Africa remains basically an agrarian society and faced with the challenge of extreme poverty, poor health and famine.
According to her, social injustice, economic inequity and political crisis have plagued the continent, while low agriculture productivity and famine have always been the foundation upon which social miseries afflict Africa.
Also speaking  Nigeria’s Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who was represented by the Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, reiterated the Federal Government’s full support for the principle and objectives behind the establishment of universities of agriculture across the nation to accelerate food security and poverty eradication in the country.

He said that various programmes have been developed to enhance the skill of the students to prepare them for better performances and motivate them into agricultural entrepreneurship after graduation.

“As a post-conflict country emerging from a 14-year civil war, Liberia by all accounts, has made tremendous progress. As was mentioned in the citation, we have formulated a national strategy comprising four pillars-Peace and Security, Economic Revitalization, Governance and the Rule of Law and Infrastructure and Basic services. We have undertaken the first census in 20 years, build a new army, earned the lifting of UN sanctions, advanced toward settlement of our massive external debt of $4.9billion under the HIPC relief programme, made significant progress in the restructure of the economy.

Source: www.thisdayonline.com