Admin I Monday, April 13.26
LAGOS, Nigeria – Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has issued a sweeping call for Africa to break free from external manipulation and build a security framework rooted in accountable governance, continental solidarity, and technological sovereignty.
Speaking at the third Mashariki Cooperation Conference (MCC III), he urged African intelligence chiefs and security leaders to confront the continent’s deepening geopolitical vulnerabilities with radical clarity and courage.
Under the theme “Emerging Geopolitical Dynamics and Africa’s Security Architecture,” the 89-year-old statesman—who turns 90 this year—drew on over six decades of experience as a soldier, head of state, and mediator. He argued that Africa’s conflicts are not inevitable, but the direct result of leadership failures and external interference.
“We are witnessing the fracturing of the post-1945 multilateral order,” Obasanjo told delegates. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine… and the international community’s deeply inconsistent response to conflicts from Gaza to the Sahel have demonstrated that the rules-based international order is applied selectively.”
He painted a stark picture of a “new scramble for Africa,” pointing to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Russian proxy forces operating across the Sahel and Horn of Africa, and the expulsion of French forces—moves that have created security vacuums quickly filled by others. Terrorism, violent extremism, and a “coup epidemic” since 2020, he warned, have compounded the crisis.
To counter these threats, Obasanjo laid out five concrete propositions for a renewed African security architecture:
Primacy of the human being – Place ordinary citizens, not elites, at the centre of security policy.
Genuine continental solidarity and interoperability – Fully resource the African Standby Force and Continental Early Warning System.
Confront the financing of insecurity – Intelligence agencies must lead the fight against illicit financial flows, which dwarf official budgets.
Technological sovereignty – Develop African-owned capabilities in AI, cyber, and drone warfare instead of relying on foreign systems.
Accountable governance – The indispensable foundation without which no security strategy can succeed.
Returning repeatedly to the crucial role of intelligence, Obasanjo declared that early warning signs in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burundi, the DRC, and Sudan were ignored for too long. “Intelligence is indispensable to conflict prevention… and woefully underused,” he said, urging Africa’s intelligence services to build “a continental intelligence community worthy of the name,” starting at the regional level.
The former Nigerian leader did not shy away from self-reflection. He recalled Nigeria’s pivotal role in Zimbabwe’s independence, ECOMOG interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone, his chairmanship of the Arusha peace process in Burundi, and mediation efforts in the DRC and Zimbabwe. In each case, he said, success hinged on accurate intelligence, courageous honesty, and leadership willing to subordinate personal power to the common good.
For the first time in this forum, Obasanjo introduced his “Obasanjo 55+20 Leadership Framework”—55 measurable attributes and 20 core values for transformational leadership, forged in the crucible of African conflict resolution.
Among the most critical attributes, he stressed, is “courageous honesty”: the willingness to speak truth to both allies and adversaries.
Addressing the intelligence chiefs directly, Obasanjo offered a sharp rebuke to those who equate subordination with weakness: “Intelligence services that operate with integrity… that are genuinely subordinate to civilian authority… are not weaker services. They are stronger ones.”
The address was delivered before an audience that included Director General Noordin Mohamed Haji of Kenya’s National Intelligence Service and heads of intelligence agencies from across Africa and beyond. Organisers described MCC III as one of the continent’s most influential closed-door forums on security and statecraft.
Obasanjo closed with a personal note and a challenge: “I am going to be 90 years of age. I have seen Africa at its most hopeful and at its most despairing. Africa’s conflicts are not inevitable. They are the product of specific, identifiable failures of leadership. What is required is the will to do it—and the courage and audacity to get it done.”
