Saraki: Africa Must Stop Digging for Others to Profit, Gets Democracy Award in Nairobi

•Dedicates honour to Odinga

Oluwaseyi Adesotun

Former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has called on African leaders to break the continent’s long-standing cycle of dependency and reclaim control of its economic destiny through visionary leadership, institutional reform and self-reliance.

Speaking at the Democracy Union for Africa Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, Saraki declared that “Africa must stop digging for others to profit” and instead “harness its people, resources, and innovation to shape its own future.”

Delivering a keynote address titled: “Ending Dependency: Rethinking Africa’s Path to Prosperity”, the former Nigerian Senate President said six decades after independence, Africa still operated on economic and political models that reflected colonial legacies rather than continental aspirations.

 “Our economies still echo colonial designs: systems of extraction and export, where raw materials leave our shores at minimal added value and return as finished products commanding prices we do not control,” he said.

Saraki’s address bore strong undertones of political introspection, as he decried leadership failures, weak institutions, and misplaced priorities that have entrenched poverty and dependency across the continent.

He said: “Too many of Africa’s leaders have held power without the strategic vision to invest in long-term transformation,” he said, noting that, “Public office has too often been treated as a possession rather than a stewardship, a means of control rather than a platform for service.”

He warned that when institutions were weak and politics short-sighted, dependency would become self-reinforcing.

 “Vision is easily short-circuited and governance becomes transactional rather than transformational,” he noted.

Reflecting on his time as Senate President, Saraki recalled confronting executive resistance while demanding transparency in Nigeria’s foreign borrowing process.

 “When I challenged the executive on foreign-loan approvals, I received political pushback because the system did not support scrutiny,” he revealed, drawing attention to what he called “a culture that welcomes loans without accountability.”

According to him, much of Africa’s foreign aid and concessionary loans “are accepted as if they are free gifts,” yet they “often create markets and jobs for donor countries, not for Africa.”

Saraki was however conferred with the Nana Akufo-Addo Africa Democracy Award in recognition of his “long-standing record as a champion of democracy and good governance in Africa.”

A former President of Ghana, Akufo-Addo after whom the award was named, presented it at a ceremony attended by leaders of Centre-Right political parties across the continent, policy makers, business leaders, academics, parliamentarians, and international development partners, who exchanged ideas on how to address Africa’s most pressing challenges.

Akufo-Addo stated that the award represented a challenge for the recipient to continue his steadfastness in improving the democratic process on the continent and ensuring it leads to improved standard of living for the people.

Accepting it, Saraki, who expressed appreciation to the ADU led by Ms Louisa Atta-Agyemang for considering him worthy, dedicated the award to Kenyan politician and former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, who passed some days before the award on October 15, 2025.

Saraki described Odinga as an African patriot and recalled how during his travails under the Buhari administration, the Kenyan leader mediated and sought to achieve reconciliation between him and the former President.