Dakar, Senegal — Unofficial rumblings of discontent among senior government officials in Senegal, and outright irritation, annoyance and even anger by some Senegalese people, have greeted the absence of two key African leaders at a summit of the New Partnership for Africas Development, Nepad, in the capital, Dakar.
The targets are the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria - the powerful anglophone leaders of the two most important economies on the continent.
Obasanjo and, especially Mbeki, are also key players in Africas new project to swing the chequered economic fortunes of the worlds poorest continent and propel the new-look Africa centre-stage in the global econmic arena.
Mbeki excused himself, saying he was busy trying to help broker a deal to bring peace to the deeply divided Democratic Republic of Congo, which has sucked in at least 6 African nations.
Obasanjo, who was supposed to chair the Dakar Nepad summit and sent out the invitations, pleaded bilateral engagements, and stayed home in Nigeria to play host instead to the visiting Chinese president, Jiang Zemin.
A third architect of Nepad, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, was also absent from the opening ceremony of the Dakar summit.
AllAfrica.coms Ofeibea Quist-Arcton spoke to Senegalese foreign minister, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio about the issue.
What is the Senegalese government view of the absence of President Thabo Mbeki, President Olusegun and others. Were told the Senegalese regard this as a slap in the face and that President Abdoulaye Wade feels slighted.
Not at all, not at all. And Im surprised that people who dont get the information from the inside start speculating and making statements that they cannot prove.
Actually, it would have been wonderful for President Wade, for Senegal, for Nepad, for Africa, that our leaders be in a position where they can all come to Dakar and be part of this, because President Obasanjo worked hard, by inviting, extending the invitations to the heads of state to this meeting.
And, by helping in any way he could, President Mbeki also gave his full support to this meeting until the last minute.
Now the two reasons that were given to us are acceptable, despite the fact that we would, like I say, have wished to have had them here with us - because we are strong allies in this Nepad project.
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Just as when President Obasanjo organised something in Abuja, he called us and said, "I want President Wade to be next to me." Same thing, we would have loved to have them here; but there is no resentment. On the contrary, when you have 900 business people responding to the call of Africa - showing that Africa is attractive to them - instead of concentrating on that, trying to magnify what we have achieved, people want to concentrate on two or three absences and, that, we dont think is right. Its not fair.
So are you saying there is no rivalry amongst Nepads founding fathers?
It just cannot be rivalry, because you cannot compare apples and oranges. The leaders are different in terms of background, in terms of what they can do for the continent. And they complement each other.
When you see President Bouteflika, who is a wonderful diplomat, who has had 17 years in the business of diplomacy; when you see President Obasanjo who fought for freedom and democracy in his country, and President Mbeki who fought for freedom through the apartheid context; and you see President Wade, a professor of economy and law and a lawyer by training who, after 26 years in the opposition comes to power - those people have so much to share and so much to put on the table, that they have no time to fight each other or argue against eachother.
For that reason, I believe that this is not a fight for leadership. We have 53 African countries. To have four, five, six, seven, eight African leaders is just wonderful. No Im serious, its no problem whatsoever.
