Consul General Lagos

CG Browne Discusses Elections, Democracy and Good Governance at PAN African Democracy Symposium in Abuja

Date: November 2 , 2006
Venue: Abuja

CG Browne delivering his lecture on Nigeria's Election at the Africa Dialogue Mission lecture

“What Nigeria does today, Africa will do tomorrow and what Nigeria becomes today, is what Africa will be tomorrow.” U.S. Consul General Brian Browne used those words to aptly capture the great responsibility ahead of Nigeria as the country prepares to hold free and credible elections in 2007. Browne was the key-note speaker at the 2006 PAN African Democracy symposium organized by the Africa Dialogue Mission on November 2 in Abuja.

In April, Nigerians are expected to fill various political offices including that of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in an election that is considered crucial not only to Africa but also to the rest of the world.

In a country with so much talent and resources, Browne said current happenings do not give much confidence to this great responsibility. Politicians, Mr. Browne counseled, should see politics as a vocation of innovation, an avenue of cumulative advance as Nigeria stacks progress upon earlier progress. Right now, according to Browne “the politics of disorder and the disorder of politics” can be used interchangeably to describe too much of what has been taking place across this land.

More than 25 NGOs including pro-democracy youth organizations and a large number of diplomats attended the lecture. Former South African President Nelson Mandela, Noble Laureate Wole Soyinka, and Ghanaian President John Kufuor, are some of the past guest speakers at the PAN African Democracy Symposium