Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday said one of the bottlenecks hindering Africa’s development is the inability to harness available resources to provide customised home-grown solutions needed to address the challenges confronting the continent.
Obasanjo made the remarks during the launch of the independent task team of the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA) on equitable and universal access to vaccines and vaccination in Africa, held in Igbinedion University Okada (IUO), Ovia North-East local government area of Edo State.
The former president expressed concern about the way health workers and researchers regularly leave the country and use their intellects to develop other continents where they are not acknowledged for their intellectual investments.
Represented by Abdoulaye Bathily, former head of the African Union and Convener CoDA, Obasanjo said through initiatives like CoDA, Africa would be able to encourage and retain its talents and support them in finding solutions to its age-long healthcare challenges.
“We need to reverse this trend and begin to take actions to harness our local resources to solve our local problems. I have always believed that Africa’s main challenge is not the lack of funds or resources,” Obasanjo said.
He was hopeful that the continent would rise again to take a lead role in vaccine development, production and distribution in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
“This initiative has the potential to positively change the vaccine and vaccination landscape across the continent and set precedence for vaccine entrepreneurship in the continent. If we carefully nurture the initiative through to maturity, we would have laid a good foundation for a healthier Africa using largely resources from within the continent.
“I am glad to let you know that today’s launch is in fulfilment of that promise and it marks the beginning of new partnerships and collaborations that will see our continent play a lead role in vaccine development, production and distribution.
On his part, Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki lauded the initiative, saying that his government is currently implementing a wide range of healthcare reforms geared towards achieving high quality healthcare and universal health care services for Edo people.
Nigeria’s minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, who spoke through zoom commended CoDA, Igbinedion University and the Africa Union for their determination in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier, Souad Aden-Osman, executive director, Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA) said the initiative was aimed at generating demand for vaccine development, production and distribution in Africa.
