Addis Ababa, August 24, 2026 (FMC) — For two former African presidents who have watched the continent’s struggles and aspirations from the frontlines of leadership, Ethiopia’s National Dialogue represents more than the conclusion of a national process. It is a moment of possibility—one that could strengthen Ethiopia’s own journey while sending a powerful message of peace, confidence and renewal across Africa.
At the closing of Ethiopia’s first National Dialogue Conference in Addis Ababa, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta placed Ethiopia’s experience within a much larger African story. Their reflections carried a shared conviction: a peaceful, united and stable Ethiopia can become an important force for regional security, African prosperity and the continent’s continuing search for African solutions to African challenges.
For Obasanjo, the Dialogue has opened a path toward the kind of peace that can unlock Ethiopia’s immense potential. After four years of preparation, 46 days of deliberation and the participation of about 4,000 Ethiopians, he described the undertaking as historic and an example for Africa.
He stressed that peace cannot be partial or exclusive. It must be comprehensive, inclusive and sustainable, with space for those who were not part of the conference to contribute to the implementation of its recommendations.
For him, the value of the Dialogue will ultimately be measured by what follows it. Its recommendations, he argued, must move from paper into institutions, policies and practical action capable of strengthening national unity, security, development, dignity and prosperity.
But Obasanjo also looked beyond Ethiopia’s borders. He presented peace in Ethiopia as part of a wider architecture of common security and shared prosperity stretching from communities to the region, the continent and the wider world.
His message was especially striking when he linked Ethiopia’s stability to its economic possibilities. In his assessment, if Ethiopia secures peace, stability, unity and predictable conditions for development, it could double its GDP within seven years and become Africa’s largest economy, eventually joining the ranks of the developed nations within a generation.
That vision places Ethiopia’s peace not merely as an end in itself, but as a foundation for a larger national transformation with consequences far beyond its borders.
Kenyatta approached the same moment through the lens of Ethiopia’s extraordinary place in Africa’s history.
Standing in Addis Ababa, which he described as the living capital of the continent, he recalled how Ethiopia’s story has repeatedly intersected with Africa’s own search for dignity and self-determination.
He invoked the Battle of Adwa not simply as an Ethiopian military victory, but as an event whose message travelled across Africa and the African diaspora. He recalled Ethiopia’s stand against colonialism, its voice at the League of Nations and Addis Ababa’s role in the establishment of the Organization of African Unity.
For Kenyatta, that history gives Ethiopia a distinctive responsibility and opportunity in the continent’s present.
Yet his most compelling observation concerned Ethiopia’s people.
Moving in words from Tigray and the northern highlands through Afar, Somali areas, Harar, Oromia, central and southern Ethiopia, the southwest and Gambela, he painted a picture of a country whose richness lies in its extraordinary variety of peoples, cultures, faiths, traditions and systems of knowledge.
He pointed to Gadaa as an indigenous African tradition of governance and deliberation, arguing that Africa possesses political wisdom of its own. Ethiopia, in his view, carries an exceptional reservoir of that wisdom.
Rather than seeing diversity as a burden, Kenyatta urged Ethiopians to recognize it as a national resource—a tapestry whose strength comes from the many threads woven into it.
His message was equally clear on the country’s regional significance. Ethiopia’s peace, he said, is not a favor to its neighbors; it is a condition for their own stability. When Ethiopia chooses peace, he argued, trade routes can open, economies can become steadier, borders more secure and confidence across the continent can grow.
That is where the two former leaders’ messages converge.
Obasanjo looked toward the Ethiopia that could emerge from peace: more secure, prosperous, predictable and economically powerful. Kenyatta looked at the Ethiopia that Africa already knows: a historic center of African self-determination, a home of civilizations and an extraordinary meeting place of peoples and traditions.
Together, their reflections cast the National Dialogue as both a national achievement and a continental opportunity.
The message is ultimately one of confidence in Ethiopia’s capacity to turn dialogue into a lasting political and social foundation, and to transform its diversity, history and human potential into sources of strength.
For Africa, the stakes extend further. A peaceful Ethiopia can contribute more strongly to stability in the Horn of Africa, deeper regional cooperation and the continent’s pursuit of sustainable prosperity.
And for Ethiopia, the words of the two former presidents offer a warm reminder of the country’s place in the African imagination: not simply as a country navigating its own challenges, but as a nation whose peace, unity and progress can inspire confidence far beyond its borders.
As Kenyatta put it in his closing blessing, “May Ethiopia’s journey inspire Africa, may Africa’s unity inspire the world.”