Interesting people from Africa

Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki is the Executive Governor of Kwara State and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum. He has won several leadership awards, both national and international. In 2004, he won the ThisDay Newspapers award for Best Governor of the Year. In 2004 and 2005, he won the City People Magazine award for Best Governor in North Central Zone, as well as for Best Governor in Nigeria. In 2006 he won the Kenneth Kaunda Foundation award for Best Governor in Africa. In the year 2009, he won the ThisDay Newspapers award for Best Governor in Food Security.

Many people are familiar with the name of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki. What people are less familiar with are his ideas. In fact, it is the quality of his thinking, and soundness of his ideas, which above other things have won him the approbation and respect of his contemporaries. Dr. Bukola Saraki is a man, who is deeply concerned with development and economic growth. He has thought hard, read much, consulted widely, and spoken often about these issues. The impact of his ideas can be seen in his conduct of his administration of Kwara State. Indeed his ideas on the development and economic growth have national and continental relevance.

INVESTING IN AREAS OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
One of Dr. Bukola Saraki’s core beliefs is that the countries of Africa must invest massively in areas of strategic competitive advantage if they are to grow economically and develop sustainably. His strong interest in economic growth lies in his belief that economic growth can serve as a major tool for driving development. It is no secret that Dr. Bukola Saraki considers agriculture to be Africa’s area of strategic competitive advantage. This view can be traced to his work as the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Non-Oil Revenue Generation (2000 – 2001). Indeed in his in his 2005 paper “BEYOND NATURAL RESOURCES: DEVELOPING AFRICA’S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE” delivered at the Harvard Business School, he stated:

“While working as Special Assistant to the President on Budget Matters in 2001, I was chairman of a committee requested to devise strategies that would shore up Nigeria's non-oil earnings by $1 billion annually. One key experience that I took away from that committee was that no other sector holds so much promise for economic growth, especially that which integrates a large number of our people into the core productive sector, like agriculture sector, which employs more than 70% of Nigeria, and indeed, Africa's population…”

Under his administration, the Kwara State Government has invested heavily in commercial agriculture. This decision of the Kwara State Government to invest in commercial agriculture was not taken arbitrarily. It can be traced directly to Dr. Bukola Saraki’s belief that economic growth is be driven by massive investment in areas of strategic competitive advantage. The decision to invest in commercial agriculture not based merely on a love of agriculture. It was based on the potential of the sector to bring about economic growth, it being an area of strategic competitive advantage. This is the true motivation, and underlying foundation of the Kwara State commercial agriculture project.

Indeed the administration of Dr. Bukola Saraki has been characterized by a focus on strategic mega-projects, based on the belief that they stand the greatest chance of moving the state forward. His administration has been defined by a rejection of short term gratifications in favor of long term benefits. Instances of mega projects undertaken by his administration, which represent vital economic assets for his state, include the Ganmo Power Substation, the Cargo Terminal at the Ilorin International Airport, The Kwara College of Aviation, The Kwara State University, and the Ilorin-Kosubosu-Benin border road.

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
Another core idea of Dr. Bukola Saraki is that economic growth must be private sector led. There is no doubting the fact that economic growth needs to be driven by organizations that are efficient, responsive and innovative. The role that he believes government should play is that of a facilitator of business. Specific roles, which he believes government can perform include:

* Investing in physical infrastructure
* Ensuring the civil service is responsive and efficient
* Provision of targeted incentives to grow the private sector

The influence of these ideas can be clearly seen in Kwara State. Under his administration, most ventures of the Kwara State Government have been designed as private-public partnerships. Such partnerships include the Shonga Farm Holdings, the Kwara College of Aviation, and Kwara Ethnix Design. In the same vein the Kwara State Government under Dr. Bukola Saraki has invested heavily in infrastructure designed to make the state attractive to investors. Such infrastructure includes roads, the cargo terminal at the Ilorin International Airport, the Ganmo Power Substation. In addition, he has championed the institution of various investor-friendly policies and wide-ranging civil service reforms.

EDUCATION
One area Dr. Bukola Saraki is passionate about is education. It is one of his core ideas that economic growth on the scale that can lead to significant development is only possible by significant investment in education. The belief of Dr. Bukola Saraki in the importance of education to development and economic growth can be seen as the basis for his administration’s focus on primary education. This also would account for the establishment of the Kwara State University under his administration. There is a direct line between these developments and his belief in the crucial role of education.

POLITICAL STABILITY
Dr. Bukola Saraki is a great believer in political stability because of the link, which he sees between political stability and the twin issues of development and economic growth. In his 2005 paper “BEYOND NATURAL RESOURCES: DEVELOPING AFRICA’S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE” he said:

“There is no doubt political development, represented by genuine democracy and the rule of law is a basic sine qua non for economic development, especially as it relates to attracting the right investments for growth.”
In his 2009 paper “VISION 2020 AND THE CHALLENGE OF REBRANDING NIGERIA” he stated:

“Politics is the Achilles heel of many countries and emerging democracies like ours. The nature of politics is central to any economic and development plans. Many years of economic gains can be undermined by a few weeks of mindless politics. This is so crucial that many have argued that unless we get our politics right, we may achieve little or no economic progress at all in the years ahead”

Speaking in an interview on May 29, 2010 on the role of the Nigeria Governors Forum, of which he is the chairman, he said:

“I believe that there is a role we are playing. I will assure Nigerians that we are responsible stakeholders, and we will continue to play our role to ensure that democracy is sustainable and the polity is stable.”

If there is a recurring theme in Dr. Bukola Saraki’s discussion of politics, it is political stability. Apparently, this is not unconnected with his keen appreciation of the necessity of political stability to development and economic growth.

While these ideas are by no means exhaustive. They do serve to illustrate that Dr. Bukola Saraki is a man who works from a solid framework of ideas – ideas, which are topical, and pertinent for Nigeria today, and Africa as a whole.

REFERENCES
1. Saraki, A.B (2009), Vision 2020 and the Challenge of Rebranding Nigeria
2. Saraki, A.B (2005), Beyond Natural Resources: Developing Africa’s Competitive Advantage

Dele is the CEO, Publisher at Timbuktu Media.
After becoming the first African-born journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize, for his reporting on Rwanda for Newsday, Dele Olojede, 49, returned to Nigeria determined to create an independent news organization. In a country where the ruling elite routinely bribe the media to influence coverage, Timbuktu's reporters can't be bought or bullied. (How else to explain the four armed men who stormed Olojede's offices recently?) According to Google Analytics, his news site 234Next has become the country's most-visited online news source since launching in late 2008; it has broken stories on oil and banking corruption and recently exposed the government's attempt to cover up the president's debilitating medical condition. "We look like revolutionaries for reporting the facts," chuckles Olojede.
Check out http://www.fastcompany.com/100/2010/66/dele-olojede

What a beautiful story.

Yazmin Nanji (Kenya), Internet Entrepreneur. The CEO of the Nairobi-based MailAfrica, the world's first African language e-mail engine, which in 2001 continued to create e-mail databases for various African languages. By October, among the languages taken into the Internet era were Oromo from Ethiopia, Hausa, Ibo, and Yoruba from Nigeria, and Ewe from Ghana.

Nanji was, at year's end involved with a new, non-profit web site called AfricaLive, intended to create a virtual community across Africa.

This was more than just a business investment --- it is the first serious attempt to adapt African languages and the African heritage to the 21st century world of information technology.

Molotlegi Nat Mokgosi became the first forex dealer in South Africa. The Apartheid regime had reserved corporate banking for whites. The African Bank was the first and only black bank then. The Apartheid State President withdrew the Bank's forex licence. The government feared the likes of Mokgosi and Gabby Magomola who had a close affinity with the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, and Curtis Nkondo of the ANC; Victor Mtutuzeli Tyalimpi who had obtained a Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators (CIS); a qualification that Black people were not allowed to study for.

Mooya Chilube was born on the 9th September 1947 in a rural village in a place called Kasiya, west of the tiny township of Pemba in Zambia.

He was born into a Roman Catholic Christian family and brought up, therefore, as a Catholic especially having gone for his academic education at Christian schools such as St Peters in Kasiya and the nation-wide famous St Canisius College at Chikuni within his home area, a Roman Catholic Missionary Centre run by the Jesuit Fathers.

For a person who saw his parents-to-be, beforehand at the end of his journey back to Earth from his starry home planet, his childhood, school and even working adult life has all been but a spiritual and miraculous experience. He had been a Disciple, right from birth, of the LOGOS Masters of the Universal flock of Spiritual Travellers. Among these, the Son Christ Jesus Joseph and above all, his own ageless Teacher the Cosmic Father Dove Christ, the Lord Maitreya, then of Changier Monastery in the Himalayas, whom he was to succeed later, on the early morning of 28th July 1996, to become the Cosmic triune person of Lord LOGOSOGO, the LOGOS and Cosmic Eagle, coming fifth - but only in transit, upon the shortest Cosmic Lineage.

Mooya has written many books, amonst them the LOGOS Cosmic Holy Books, New World Order, The African Renaissance and many more.

www.logos-im.org.za

A recent interview with South African grammy award nominated pianist Petronel Malan http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/a-13-2009-10-05-voa28.html

George Lilanga was born in Northern Mozambique (probably 1934) and passed away in June 2005. He lived in Dar es Salaam/Tanzania and belongs to the most important contemporary African artists. His works are established in the spirit world of the Makonde tribe and standing out due to an own, unmistakable style. Lilanga can be regarded as a universal artist. He is sculptor and painter. His work covers sculptures, paintings, drawings, etchings, batiks and metal work. By a number of expositions Lilangas works have become known to the art lovers and collectors in Europe, America and Asia.

Authentic works of the artist can be seen here:
www.lilanga.info
www.flickr.com/photos/21416772@N03
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1858&id=1344502391&l=ed1d83d5fc

Africa’s most decorated football star, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and founder of the Kanu Heart Foudation, Nigerian born Nwanko Kanu, shares his opinion on how an African country can win victory at 2010. Kanu speaks about his own journey to international fame and how other young Africans can reach the same success.

According to Kanu, “…the good thing with Africa is that whenever any country is playing, the other countries are supporting it, which is very very massive and very very good for the continent. So right now, this I believe, this is the time we can really make an impact in the World Cup. When I say an impact, either winning the World Cup or being in the finals.”

For an insight into the future of African football and to hear more from this football legend, watch Kanu on CNN’s African Voices on Saturday the 6th of June at 13h30 and again at 20h30.
http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/africanvoices/

Or learn more about his heart foundation and how you can help at
http://www.kanuheartfoundationng.com/