Fr. Aleakwe’s Welcome Address at the AFRICA MEMORIAL DAY 2026
Theme: Political Leadership and Governance in Africa – What Is the End Product?
Correct Connect Africa Foundation – CCAF
Lagos – Nigeria / June 6th 2026
by Fr. Aleakwe Odior
Distinguished elders, traditional custodians, government officials, scholars, artists, activists, partners, and guests from Africa and the diaspora.
The young people, heirs to a rich and ancient history, strengthen this shared heritage.
Welcome to Africa Memorial Day 2026.
We are here for more than a ceremony.
We gather because memory is a political act. People who cannot account for their past cannot govern their future. And the silence around our history has cost us dearly – in identity, in self-determination, and in the quality of those we place in power.
Five years ago, the Correct Connect Africa Foundation lit a flame in Nigeria. Not because the timing was perfect. Not because resources were abundant. We lit it because we believed, and still believe, that Africa deserves voices that will not grow silent, platforms that will not be bought, and one day each year when Africans everywhere are compelled to stop, to remember, and to ask the hard questions.
Today, that flame burns with greater purpose.
The theme of this year’s Africa Memorial Day poses a question that cannot be answered with applause: Political Leadership and Governance in Africa – what is the end product?
Let us be honest. The evidence around us does not yet speak of triumph.
