Former presidential candidate, Oby Ezekwesili, has bagged the Richard von Weizsäcker Fellowship at Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin, Germany from September 2019 to February 2020.
Announcing Ezekwesili’s award of the fellowship, the academy said she would “design a pathway for Nigeria out of its stagnant politics” after the programme
.Other fellowship recipients include an international mediator from South Africa, Brian Currin; former Irish ambassador, David Donoghue; a former Mayor of the city of Wroclaw, Rafał Dutkiewicz among others.
Mrs Ezekwesili is a co-founder of global anti-corruption group, Transparency International, and was Vice President of World Bank’s Africa programme.
In a statement, the academy said the fellowship was offered to her and others for being “decision-makers, opinion leaders, and experts who are solution-oriented on global affairs.”
The statement said: “The fellowship offers a residency of several months in Berlin to outstanding personalities from around the world. Residencies at the Robert Bosch Academy provide fellows with the intellectual and physical space to pursue individual research and outreach activities on topics beyond their normal professional commitments.
“During her fellowship, Obiageli Ezekwesili, a technocrat who recently ventured into politics and ran for the office of President of Nigeria in the 2019 election, will investigate the nexus between politics and the unsatisfying results of economic management and nation-building process of Nigeria and more broadly, Africa.”
Ezekwesili, in a statement by her spokesperson, Ozioma Ubabukoh, said: “My time as a Richard Von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin will combine academic, experimental and experiential activities to design a #RescuePlan.
The overriding goal is that #FixPoliticsDotOrg will transform politics as we currently know it in Nigeria and Africa.”
