Africa needs statesmanship as offered by Nelson Mandela, if the continent must meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030, National Executive Member, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Issa Aremu, has said.
Speaking in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, Aremu, who is also the convener of the Nelson Mandela International Day, said it was time African leaders led like the late Madiba in terms of statesmanship as distinct from what he called “current pervasive brinkmanship.
The Nelson Mandela International Day was launched by United Nations on July 18, 2009, to commemorate Mandela. This year’s edition marked the 10th Mandela Day.
According to Aremu, emulating Mandela’s leadership style must start with little but tangible values, such as time-consciousness and punctuality.
He said Mandela was a stickler for punctuality. Mandela decried the concept of Africa time.
“Africa must be time-conscious like Mandela. Africa was unable to meet most of the eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) launched in 2000 and terminated in 2015. For Africans to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) of 2030, statesmanship must start with punctuality to development agenda, we must be time-conscious and get the work done at the right time and avoid proscastination,” Aremu said.
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