They spoke at the 2008 Kwame Nkrumah African Leadership Awards, which held at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence.

Both governors were among 10 distinguished Africans who received leadership awards at the annual event, now in its 11th year, which the All Africa Students Union organises to raise discourse on critical issues affecting Africa. “Living The Dream” was the theme of this year’s wards.

Governor Uduaghan who spoke on “Good Governance: Key To Africa’s Sustained Development,” enumerated the leadership problems that the continent has faced after its first set of leaders.

“The key to a government’s effectiveness and its ability to lead the nation lies in a combination of three elements,” Uduaghan said, quoting Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s former President. “First, its closeness to its people, and its responsiveness to their needs and demands, in other words, democracy.

Secondly, its ability to coordinate and bring into a democratic balance the many functional and often-competing sectional institutions which groups of people have created to serve their particular interests.

And thirdly, the efficiency of the institutions (official and unofficial) by means of which its decisions are made known and implemented throughout the country.”

He explained the roots of bad governance. “I dare say that our institutions are weak because they tend to be built around individuals and for the interests of those individuals. They contribute to bad governance.”

Uduaghan recommended that, “Africa needs to start thinking of the future beyond yearly budgets or 10-year development plans. Where would the AU be in the next 25 or 50 years? 

How important would Africa be to the world in 2050? Our research centres, institutes, think-thanks and other great centres of learning should share in the task of finding ideas that would make Africa relevant and competitive in the coming decades.

“The ideas have to be original and related to the well-known situations in our continent. The time is long past for the regurgitation of ideas because they have worked elsewhere. The fact is that Africa is unique in many ways and prescriptions for its various ills must take into consideration the reputation of this patient for defying earlier medications,” he said.

Governor Ohakim, who spoke on “Realising The Dream Of The Africa Union,” drew extensively from the election of Kenyan-American Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America, to emphasise the importance of Africans dreaming big.

“That the son of a Kenyan has been elected to the most powerful office on earth is the greatest challenge for the rest of us in Africa— leaders and the youth,” Ohakim said.

He said the change from the Organisation of African Unity to the African Union was a major shift from liberating Africa, which the OAU concentrated on, to the involvement of each African state in the strive for better governance in each country.

According to Ohakim, “African youths of today are as good as their counterparts anywhere”. He asked them to dream with confidence, quoting John H. Johnson, founder of Ebony magazine who said, “men and women are limited not by the place of their birth, not by the colour of their skin, but by the size of their hope”.

He lamented corruption and lack of respect for democratic values in African countries. “Of the 53 countries in Africa, only 16 are fully democratic. Of this 16, only 10 enjoy political peace and stability,” he said, challenging African leaders to shun corruption and make “Africa the continent of the future.”

The awardees were President John Kufour of Ghana; Guillaume Soro, Prime Minister of Cote d’Ivoire; Governors Uduaghan and Ohakim; Mr. Lamptey Mills, Ghanaian educationist; Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, President ECOWAS; Mrs. Cecilia Ibru,Managing Director of Oceanic Bank; retired footballer, Abedi Ayew Pele; former Secretary-General of OAU, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim; and Mr. Moses Ogbe, the INEC Commissioner in Lagos State.

Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, was among dignitaries at the event.

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