Tackle Instability With Inclusion, Economic Empowerment, Jonathan Charges African Leaders

LAGOS – Former President Goodluck Jonathan has charged African leaders to prioritise inclusion and economic empowerment as a means of ensuring polit­ical stability and sustainable development.

The former president also urged African nations to invest in education, digital infrastruc­ture, and skills development to be able to transform the con­tinent’s youthful population into a force for innovation, leadership and global compet­itiveness.

Jonathan made this call in a keynote speech he presented on Saturday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the launch of a re­port on ‘Advancing Inclusive Development: Policy Options for Burkina, Faso, Guinea, Ga­bon, Mali and Niger’ produced by the African Union Commis­sion, UNDP’s Africa Facility to Support Inclusive Transitions (AFSIT) and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

Stressing that the future of Africa could no longer be left to chance, Jonathan declared that governance must be rooted in legitimacy and inclusion.

To address instability, he charged African leaders to take decisive steps to build a conti­nent that is strong, self-reliant and prosperous by governing wisely and investing in econo­mies that create jobs, industries and sustainable wealth.

He said: “Political stability cannot be sustained without trusted institutions, rule of law and leadership that earns its mandate from the people. We must invest in building respon­sive governance structures, fos­tering constitutional integrity, and ensuring that democratic processes deliver tangible div­idends for all citizens.”

The former president also made a case for profound eco­nomic transformation, stating that fragile states do not emerge solely from political upheaval, “but are by-products of eco­nomic exclusion, underdevel­opment, and the absence of viable livelihoods… Africa’s economic future lies in indus­trialization, technology-driven growth and regional trade in­tegration.”

On the need to empower the youth, Jonathan said: “We must shift from treating demograph­ics as a challenge to embracing it as a strategic advantage.

“Our youth must not be seen as a demographic burden, but as a generational force for inno­vation, leadership, and global competitiveness. Investing in education, digital infrastruc­ture, and skills development is no longer optional — it is im­perative!”