18/05/2026
President Bio Urges Resilient, Reform-Driven African Leadership at Oxford Conference 2026
University of Oxford, England-17 May 2026-Sierra Leone’s President and ECOWAS Chairman Julius Maada Bio has called for bold, practical, and resilient leadership across Africa amid global disruption, political uncertainty, climate pressures, and technological change.
Delivering the keynote address at the Oxford Africa Conference 2026 under the theme “Anchoring Africa: Grounded, Game-Changing Leadership in the Age of Disruption,” President Bio stated that Africa’s future depends on reclaiming its voice and building durable institutions.
“I spoke last year about African agency,” he said. “This year, we must ask something harder: Can what we define endure? Can it survive shocks?”
Addressing scholars, policymakers, diaspora members, and students, Bio stressed that Africa’s interconnected challenges cannot be tackled in isolation. “A drought becomes a food crisis. A food crisis becomes a revenue crisis. A revenue crisis becomes a security crisis,” he noted, urging African states to treat constitutional order, economic resilience, security cooperation, climate adaptation, youth opportunity, and technological agency as shared public goods.
Drawing from Sierra Leone’s experience with civil war, Ebola, economic hardship, and climate vulnerability, Bio presented his country as an example of steady reform. He highlighted the Free Quality Education Programme and the Feed Salone agricultural initiative as meaningful, if imperfect, efforts. “When policy is sustained and aligned with national priorities, progress becomes tangible,” he said.
On regional stability, Bio warned that coups across West Africa reflect deeper governance failures and eroding public trust. “Democracy goes beyond elections,” he argued. “It must work in substance and mean something in citizens’ daily lives.” He added that instability in one country spreads through conflict, migration, arms flows, and economic shocks