Nigeria’s former president Goodluck Jonathan, at the mayor’s
office in Newark, New Jersey, United States, on Friday, spoke to the Friends of
Africa coalition on strengthening democracy and elections and also touched on some
of the legacies of his administration.
Speaking to the elite group,
Jonathan said real democracy would continue to flourish in Africa as long as
leaders “value the process (of elections) more than the product of the
process.”
Dr Jonathan said that if the process
that brought leaders to power “did not flow through the people, they naturally
administered their governments to serve the constituencies that brought them to
power.”
He said he was fulfilled that during
his tenure as president, the nation emerged as the largest economy in Africa
and the 24th largest in the world.
Jonathan also met with the head of
Moskeeto Armor, Robin Crespo and his team as part of events leading up to the
World Malaria Day on April 25th, 2016.
Moskeeto Armor manufactures clothing
to protect against malaria, the zika virus, Dengue and other vector-borne
diseases.
Moskeeto Armor was successfully
clinically field-tested in Nigeria in 2014. When worn by children as a
standalone product, Moskeeto Armor was 90 per cent effective at reducing the
malaria infection rate, and when combined with a bed net, the Moskeeto Armor
combination was 97 per cent effective at stopping the spread of malaria.
The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation is
partnering with Moskeeto Armor to protect African children against malaria and
other vector-borne diseases.
“The simple principle of ‘Love your
neighbor as you love yourself’ lays a foundation of commitment to protecting
nations,” said the former president during the meeting.
Continuing, he said “these crises caused
by such small insects, transmitting these deadly diseases, have devastated so
many lives across Africa and the world, but with one just as small idea, there
is hope for a better tomorrow.”
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Politics