Obasanjo warns that ANC risks becoming irrelevant

South Africa's governing African National Congress will have to be given a ‘fight for its money’ before it fixes itself. That’s the view of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo who told Business Day that liberation movements could ‘convert themselves’, but when they failed to do so, they risked becoming irrelevant. Obasanjo was among the strongest and most vocal supporters of the ANC when South Africa was under apartheid. Visiting South Africa to launch Making Africa Work – A Handbook for Economic Success, a book he co-authored with political analyst Greg Mills, he said ‘you will not get it right until the ANC can be given a good fight for their money’. He said both South Africa and Nigeria ‘must get our houses in order’. ‘We must act as we should act because we must be the powerhouses to drive the subregions that we are in – the Southern African Development Community for SA and the Economic Community of West African States for Nigeria,’ he said.