Money doesn’t build nations – Kaberuka

Dr. Donald Kaberuka
Dr. Donald Kaberuka

Trust between the governed and their leaders is what builds nations and not money, Dr. Donald Kaberuka has said.

“The people want to trust that their governments won’t steal their taxes, they want to trust their governments to be accountable,” he said.

The African people, he said want to trust that the African Union’s shared values are indeed shared values.

“The people want to go to Jerusalem, they don’t want to be shown it,” he said.

The outgoing president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) was delivering the ‘Adebayo Adedeji Annual Lecture’, on the sidelines of the ongoing 2015 Ministers Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Monday March 30, 2015.

The economist comes to the end of a two five-year term at the AfDB in May 2015 when a successor would be elected.

Dr. Kaberuka who is being hailed as the most successful president of the AfDB so far, noted that the African people want to know how many of the resolutions that they have passed are being implemented.

“The people would ask, is NEPAD being implemented?” He said.

Recounting the history of development in Africa, he said, at one point the continent’s development was outsourced. He therefore called on African leaders to take responsibility for the continent’s problems.

He indicated that about 600 million Africans are under the age of 25 years and did not experience colonialism. For these young people, he said, it is the future that matters.

“What is the future? Is what they want to know,” he said.

Referring to the Yamoussoukro Accord, he said implementing it doesn’t require money.

Urging African leaders to move and take action on developing the continent, he said, “our ability to succeed is not pre-ordained, but based on our ability to die a little.”

Commenting on the impending election of his successor at the AfDB, Dr. Kaberuka said he has confidence in all the eight candidates, and therefore, believes that whoever is elected is capable of doing the job.

“I have no doubt in their abilities. I have no doubt in their abilities. Anyone of them who is elected would do well,” he said.

Dr. Kaberuka said he believes that whoever is elected would continue from where he left and ‘move on to the next level’.

The following are the eight candidates contesting for the presidency; Sufian Ahmed of Ethiopia, Dr. Cristina Duarte of Cape Verde, Dr Samura Kamara of Sierra Leone, Dr Akinwunmi Adeshina of Nigeria, Mr Jalloul Ayed of Tunisia, Dr Kordjé Bédoumra of Chad, Mr Birama Boubacar Sidibe of Mali and Thomas Z. Sakala of Zimbabwe.

He called on the AfDB to make efforts to get India, China and Brazil on board.

He also urged commitment to climate change issues in the pursuant of the development agenda.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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