FORMER PRESIDENT OLISEGUN OBASANJO ENDORSES PAN-AFRICAN CHARITY CONCERT AGAINST XENOPHOBIA

PRESS RELEASE 

Former Nigerian President, Foremost Pan Africanist and renowned statesman,

His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,GCFR has thrown his full weight behind the proposed Pan-African #endxenophobia charity concert to promote African unity and oneness.

The concert, being put together by The Bridge Concepts, on the platform ONE UNITED AFRICA, a Nigerian initiative with global affiliations, is scheduled to hold early next year. 

It is conceived as a necessary supplement to ongoing diplomatic efforts to address the black-on-black recriminations, which became dominant in recent months and the potential threat it harbours for the continent, if allowed to fester.

The latest xenophobic attacks in South Africa culminated in the repatriation of nationals of various countries, including about 500 from Nigeria, at the height of the impasse.

In a correspondence personally signed by Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of the organisers of the concert, Congressman Bimbo Daramola, Obasanjo stated that "..xenophobia or Afrophobia which is ongoing in South Africa is a most unfortunate issue not only for South Africa, but indeed for the whole of Africa.."

This situation, Obasanjo noted, calls for "..concerted efforts and partnership from all well-meaning individuals within and without Africa, to curb it so that great, positive impact can be made in the lives of African people across the continent.."

Obasanjo who recently visited South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to call for the activation of extant bilateral agreements aimed at promoting multilevel rapprochement between the two leading African countries, restated his identification with the laudable initiative by The Bridge Concepts, and pledged his support and encouragement to the successful realization of the idea.

The concert is billed to attract an array of frontline African musical artists who will also develop an end xenophobia theme song" in what the organisers describe as a new paradigm, aimed at taking the crusade to the real people on the streets of Africa, reminiscent of the '#USA #For #Africa #We #Are #The #World' anthem of the 1980s, conceived to drum up global support for Africa's poor and underprivileged.

Concert performances will be held in select countries and cities across the African continent to restate the imperative for Africans to rediscover the basis of their brotherhood and oneness, irrespective of geopolitical distances.

Dele Omoyeni 

Manager, Public Communications,

ONE UNITED AFRICA

The Bridge Concepts.

Abuja.

28th October 2019.