Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo says the death of Zambia’s founding father and long-term leader, Kenneth Kaunda, has ended a long list of African leaders who fought colonialism and took over the reins of power at independence.
Obasanjo in a statement he issued on Thursday evening, said Africans should be consoled by the fact that Kaunda who died at 97 is taking a well-deserved rest. “The demise of President Kaunda at the grand old age of 97 years brings to end the pioneers and forefathers who led the struggles for decolonisation of the African continent and received the instrument of Independence from the colonial masters in Africa,” he said of Kaunda who ruled Zambia for 27 years.
“Let all Africans and friends of Africa take solace in the knowledge that President Kaunda has gone home to a well-deserved rest and to proudly take his place beside his brothers such as Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia, Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d’Ivoire, Patrice Lumumba of Congo, Nelson Mandela of South Africa to name but a few.”
The former Nigerian leader described these nationalists as people who toiled to see to the development of the countries and the continent at large. “We are consoled that God granted President Kaunda a long life to witness the progression of Africa through five decades of proud and not-so proud moments,” Obasanjo added
