Africa Needs To Speak With One Voice; Show Up As Shapers Of Policy And Not Just Takers

LECTURE DELIVERED BY PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, IMMEDIATE PAST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 8TH ANNUAL BABACAR NDIAYE LECTURE, ORGANISED BY AFREXIM BANK THEMED: 'SAVING LIVES TODAY VERSUS SAVING THE PLANET FOR THE FUTURE: CAN THE AFCFTA RESOLVE THE CLIMATE CHANGE DILEMMA”, IN WASHINGTON DC, ON THE 26TH OF OCTOBER, 2024


PROTOCOLS


Thank you very much, everyone. I feel a bit sorry for you all this evening because here you are all ready for dinner and I'll be speaking for at least three hours! But fortunately, President Oramah has already made most of my speech for you, so I don't think I'll be speaking anywhere near that long anymore.

But let me say how deeply grateful I am to the President of Afrexim Bank and his team for affording me the honour to memorialize Babacar Ndiaye, a far-sighted visionary who before 1993, when the bank was founded, saw today the day when Afrexim would be a leading global force for development finance in Africa.

The exploits of this very committed Pan-Africanist who used to say, and I quote, “Senegal is my village, Africa is my country”, are rightly the stuff of legend today. His place in this generation, as we've heard already, as the foremost contributor to the ideation and execution of development finance policy and practice in Africa, is firmly secure. May his memory always be blessed.

I'm speaking on the topic: “Saving Lives Today Versus Saving The Planet For The Future, can the AFCFTA, (the free trade agreements), Resolve The Climate Change Dilemma?” The topic, of course, deliberately creates a false choice since we really cannot choose to live today as a bargain for dying tomorrow.

The topic, I think, is meant to provoke our response to the crucial point that Africa faces two existential crises, not one; climate change and poverty. And then, of course, to answer the question, by what means can the free trade agreement resolve the dilemma of African nations who desperately need growth, jobs, livelihoods, and food security, without at the same time worsening the climate crisis?

Regarding the climate crisis, we all know of course, that Africa is warming faster than any other region, and practically everywhere in Africa, the catastrophic consequences are evident. The Horn of Africa has been facing its worst drought in 40 years, with five consecutive failed rainy seasons since 2020, with prolonged droughts in Kenya, in Somalia, and intense flooding in West Africa, especially Nigeria, Niger, and Ghana.

In Southern Africa, Cyclone Freddie wreaked havoc in Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar. Yet, Africa as we know, is the least emitter of dangerous gases, barely 4% of global emissions. The cause of these catastrophes is the result of historical and cumulative emissions from mainly global north countries. Ironically, Africa experiences greater devastation and is far less capable of mitigating the damage and losses caused by these extreme weather events. But Africa's other existential crisis is poverty.

Over a third of Africa's population lives in extreme poverty, with a population growing faster than GDP, unemployment, and food security, of course, are huge challenges. The major economic sectors, such as agriculture, mining, and energy, are resource intensive and that contributes to environmental degradation, of course, at great cost.

Africa's leaders face very difficult trade-offs between accelerating growth in sectors that worsen climate change or delaying development for environmental concerns. A significant contributor to the poverty situation is energy poverty, which essentially means a lack of access to energy, and electricity for cooking, heating, and cooling, and this of course inhibits any real growth or job opportunities. All the evidence that we see demonstrates that the availability of energy directly correlates with income, wealth and development, both at the individual and societal level. And the energy poverty issue in Africa is massive. As we've heard, over 600 million Africans have no access to electricity, and another 150 million have irregular access.

But let us throw in the mix yet another problem. Most African countries depend on fossil fuels for their energy needs. And for fossil fuel-rich African countries, this is also a major source of export earnings and fiscal revenues. But ostensibly in keeping with their net-zero obligations, there has been a growing trend among development finance institutions to withdraw from fossil fuel investment.




***Full speech on www.yemiosinbajo.ng***


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Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo is a Nigerian Lawyer and Politician who served as the Vice President of Nigeria from the 29th of May 2015 - 29th of May 2023

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