 Oby, Ezeka, yw Willie, fel y rydw i'r Ffordd, Ffordd, Rob, o'r bollwch yn Berlun. Rydw i'n fynd i'r colli Elsie Cynedd, yng Nghymru, a'r Ffordd, yng Nghymru, yw'r Ffordd. Yn ymwysg yma, yn ymwysig yma, y dyfodol yma, o'r Gweithio Gweithlun o'r Ffordd, i'r Ffordd, Iwer, South Africa, Nigeria, a'r Hwyllwch i'r regio. Oby, rydw i'n ymwysig. So, thank you very much, Oly. I think that the first thing for us to put our mind to is how Africa's growth and progress is empirically established to be very much dependent on the scale of economic activities that would happen on this continent in the next couple of decades. There is an urgency for Africa to produce the economic growth that would lift majority Africans out of poverty. We still have almost half of the continent's people in dire straits of poverty, and that must quickly be reversed. That's why fragmentation of the economies of Africa doesn't make any sense. You need scale, massive scale, and its economic integration that enables that scale to be achieved. In order for that scale to be achieved, the two economies of South Africa and Nigeria have to lead by example. Leading by example means that they should be the champions of the latest agreements as a result of the treaty for the Africa free trade agreement. They should be champions of it. They should exhibit the tendencies that show that progress will be made through the ASFTA. Now, empirically, we know that 1% growth in Nigeria or in South Africa creates a half a percent growth for the rest of the continent. You can't have Nigeria and South Africa not understand this leading role. It is unfair to the continent for it to be that any part of this continent would reverse the gains that are possible through closer integration of African economies. I believe that we have a crisis that is mounting, but we can de-escalate the crisis. The reason that a platform like WEF has been useful for us as a continent is that it has enabled public-private dialogue to happen. We need to put our voices as citizens on the continent and say to our leaders, rise to leadership, it is wrong for there to be no consequence for bad behavior that would reverse the gains of economic integration for a continent. I believe only that there are some important steps that the government of South Africa should be able to take immediately in order to send a signal to the people that have been victims of what I call Afrophobia. It's not xenophobia. I haven't seen any Italian or any European. I haven't seen any Chinese or Indian being harmed, being maimed, being killed, losing properties. I haven't seen that. I have seen a targeting of especially my country Nigeria and I have seen a lot of single story where people are saying things like, and I read something recently that was released where it was all Nigerians engaging criminal activities in South Africa. Well, I also know that that's a single story. 18% of the people that teach in higher institutions in this country are Nigerian academics. Many Nigerian doctors are the ones who serve, provide health services in the rural areas of South Africa. They have lived visibly here. This danger of a single story must be taken on by the government immediately to de-escalate any further degeneration and deterioration of relationship. So, one, I think that the president of South Africa and the government should place it out there clearly that there would be speedy and conclusive prosecution of those that have been arrested so far for the latest violent upheaval. And then, second, the government, the reason that I want that speedy prosecution is that that's a departure from what we've seen in the past. In the past, we never really saw that there was consequence for that behaviour. So, if they did that this time, it would send a sharp signal, unequivocal, that they would punish anyone who lays their hands on people who are resident in South Africa from the rest of Africa. Second is that the government must go out there and engage with the victims of the violence. There is almost a sense that there is no link and connection between the government right now and those who have been victims. It shouldn't happen because what is sense is a signal. Some people are saying there's a tacit approval of this conduct by the government. I don't want to believe that. But if the government does not engage with the victims of these violence in the way that has happened so many times, it's a serial act that is almost a mountain to savagery. We shouldn't in any way not punish this. Let the president, let his government connect with the victims, have a discussion with them, assure them that they are welcome in this country. It would help in giving them the social licence that they require to be calm and to feel a part of this country. Yesterday only I met with Nigerians who live in Western Cape and they were saying some of us have lived here 25 years. Many of us are married to South Africans. We have children that are South African Nigerian. What exactly is going on? This has to change. Minister Unbiweni, yesterday during the opening plenary, mentioned that any Nigerian that wants to live in South Africa is welcome to live in South Africa. You urged South Africans and people from all over Africans to call themselves Africans. He also mentioned the continental free trade agreement as the greatest biggest thing that's happened to Africa since the post-colonial era. Are you satisfied by the language and the strength of the signal that he is putting forward on behalf of the government? I am not. I am not. It's not adequate. It is too tentative. It is not as reassuring as it should be. So what I think the problem is, is a failure to act. There's a failure to act and that needs to change. Let's just also look because this is an issue that moves beyond South Africa, of course, back to Nigeria. What do you say to people back home in Nigeria who are criticising you and others at this meeting for attending this meeting here? You see, when there is a failure on the part of the governmental systems, the citizens must make sure that there's no failure on their part. It was very important for me to be able to put my voice out here that South Africa must do the right thing. My own country must do the right thing. The two countries need to come to the table immediately and de-escalate this. You see your message to the Nigerian leadership is? My message to the Nigerian leadership is that they should be open to an overture by the government of South Africa to de-escalate this on the basis that the South African government would do a number of the things that I have said. Visit the people, make a swift prosecution process to punish people who have done this kind of behaviour, make sure that you can even consider a set aside for compensation to victims of these kinds of acts. Number four thing that I think that the government of South Africa needs to do is that it really needs to offer a sincere apology to the whole continent. Across the continent right now, people need to hear that. I'll have questions we'll follow. Elsie, representing the World Economic Forum, of course we are the World Economic Forum. We see we like to build our aspirations for better societies around the economical progress. What's our view? What's your message to the leadership here in South Africa, in Nigeria and your message to leaders across Africa? The World Economic Forum will turn 50 years next year. A big part of what we do is fostering trust and supporting and enabling dialogue between different stakeholders. It's not just public-private sectors we had, but also opening up the space for other critical voices, particularly when there are failures in leadership by government and business in particular as being the power brokers. During that time what we have seen across the world in different areas is that conflicts easily escalate and move into positions that are very difficult to recover from. Therefore we spend a lot of our time enabling conversations to bridge the gaps in understanding and address grievances by different parties so that we can support progress. We can support the ensuring that we're able to deliver to the citizens, which is what we purport to stand for. We all want a better world. Conflict does not allow for that. These kinds of tensions had everyone. Both in South Africa and Nigeria, it's not just Nigerians who suffer in South Africa and it's not just South Africans who suffer in Nigeria. Properties are owned by locals in some cases. You have employees who are local. As Madame Obie shared, you have integrated societies as well, where there's intermarriage and other forms of integration. Particularly in the context of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, what is a great concern to me is, if you allow me to date, to just walk back a little bit into a history of two years, which was that in Durban during the last World Economic Forum on Africa 2017 meeting, our youngest youth community, the global shapers who were there from all around Africa, committed to drive an open Africa initiative. So during that time, the FCFTA was still under negotiation. Already they were sharing concerns about issues and whether the people are being brought along on this integration journey. And they undertook to try to travel across Africa by bus, not by air, and see how easy or difficult it is. The truth is, they were not able to, visas, infrastructure. But wherever they went, they also held local conversations about what open Africa meant to ordinary Africans. And the reality is stark. There's this serious resistance and fear about others coming in and taking jobs, et cetera. So the second concern here is, we really need to listen to the people and see how to address differences in perspectives. Very often it's not factual. We assume a lot and we have to also advocate for responsible leadership to correct misperceptions because misperceptions and information has consequences and the consequences can be grave. And the last aspect which has become increasingly clear here with respect to urgency is that critical voices are not being heard. And so we as the forum are trying, as we are with this, to expand the space for the voices of ordinary people to be heard such that leaders realize that they need to take action on things and too often the spaces for that kind of dialogue are missing. This meeting is the largest meeting for our strategic partner community outside of Davos. There's a tremendous and growing interest amongst the world's largest businesses, deep pocketed, far-sighted organizations that see long-term value and potential in this region. What do you think the message will be coming from them? It's an interest of all of us to resolve such tensions as fast as possible, as amicably as possible and as peacefully as possible because it is very easy to destroy through violence but very difficult to rebuild. And at least the commitment from the foreign's perspective, we launched a peace building platform last year, which is not necessarily for major conflicts per se, was etc. But we're seeing an increase in a proliferation in seabold protests which are violent across Africa just over the past two years, which means that we need to be much more deliberate about the dividends that were fought for to create peaceful democratic societies because once it's very easy to burn, we can't afford to burn. Questions? Okay, lady of the back row. Just because I know you doesn't mean everybody else does, so please give us your name, tell us where you're from. Sure, Heidi Juckers from ENCA. I just want to pose a question to you about, you know, you're speaking about xenophobia but I also know that you're very vocal about and you've been very involved in the movement of bring back our girls. And currently we have a major problem in South Africa with gender-based violence and the President addressed the nation yesterday about, you know, action that wants to be taken. But what is your approach on dealing with gender-based violence and issues around the abduction of young children? Okay, so gender-based violence will take two or three at a time. Lady there, please, yes. Hi, it's Prenesian Idio from Bloomberg News. I just want to get your take as to whether the tensions between two countries pose any threat to the African continental free trade agreement and progress that's being made there. Okay, risks to the trade agreements? Lady next to you. It's Llamise Ongodegi from FIN24. Yesterday President Sororama Posa sent out a message to the citizens. It was firstly about gender-based violence and then he ended it off discussing xenophobia. And I wanted to hear from you. Do you think that's been taking the right steps as a government or would you want him to have said more and actually apologise at that in that message? Okay, last lady there. Thank you. Hi, my name is Lillian Chijingi from RIS News. Sorry, I'm going to deviate a little bit from the xenophobia. I'm going to talk about Robin Mugabe. We just heard he died today. What do you think he should be remembered for and what can you see about his economic policies because he's been criticized in that regard? Let's take the lady here on gender-based violence, Heidi's question. Heidi, you should have come to our press briefing yesterday. What I can tell you is in the closing plenary which will start, one of the key outcomes will be the deliberations and the action that was taken as a result of this press conference. And from the lady to my immediate left yesterday who's got to get a bit of a coalition and we can actually announce that something is happening as a result of this meeting. We'll be hearing more about that in the closing plenary. But, Obi, it's definitely a good platform for you to remind us what you think the actions from this meeting should be with regards to gender-based violence. So part of what we agreed is that it has to be a sustained focus on it and that the platform of web, now having taken this on in a very significant way, starting with what was discussed at a meeting yesterday, can be a major global voice for addressing gender-based violence. And that second, there are legal issues involved and that enforcing the laws and also making sure that countries that don't have the laws that punish that bad behaviour must have those kinds of laws and the ones that have but are not enforcing, it is urgent for there to be consequences for violating the rights of women. And then we talked about the voice, the fact that any violence against a girl or a woman is to shut down their voice. No one has a right to do that and that the agency and the power that people must have to be able to express an opinion, be a woman, a tribe in the workplace, live peacefully at home and not be discriminated because of the agenda that that right needs to be enforced and needs to be respected. And we also talked about the role of the private sector in this process. We went all the way to the role of family level, this social conditioning that the male child is preferred to the girl child and therefore that grows through and the patriarchy and the misogyny that it entrenched within society, we need to radically end it and that it would take a coalition of effort at international level, at national level and family as well as business level and government. There are also issues of policy, there are a number of policy measures that can be taken that would help to reduce the scourge of gender-based violence. I think that all in all people left that conversation as shared of the many tools that we can use to attack this because it's a global problem and it is reducing the productivity of the world for women to be scared that they would be beaten, they would be shot down, they would be raped and all kinds of things would happen to them and there would be no consequence. That's impunity, the world cannot live with this impunity going on against women. Right now, we have only a few minutes before the closing of plenary starts so I'm going to ask you just to cover very, very quickly a few words, answers for the rest. Elsie, you wanted to make a quick comment about this. Yes, just talking about the inclusivity of voices and building on what Madame Obby said. I've had a number of men approach me and say, you know, we're not all bad but there's no space for dialogue that includes us in the conversation so that we can also be part of the solution in addressing the bad apples among them. So this is just an input. Let's not leave the men who are supportive of a different reality and a safer space and a more secure world for women. Great point. Okay, free trade agreement, any risks, quick, yes, no one? Big risk because you need national domestication. Fine. Robert Poser, he sent a strong message yesterday. I suspect I know what you're going to say. Not strong enough. Okay, that's enough Elsie. I'm thinking about time here, nothing else. Elsie, as you've had throughout this meeting, people are tired of talk, they want action. So for everything we've said with these issues, with other issues, action will speak louder than words. Yes. Okay, one word on some, Ogarfi, how will he be remembered? As if it's a conflicted, as a conflicted legacy, conflicted legacy. I concur. Great. Thank you so much. This is now over. We have a closing plenary to attend.