President Buhari Tops BBC’s Africa’s Best Quotes Of 2015 (See Full List)

1. President Buhari
“I belong to everybody and I belong to
nobody”
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on
the day of his historic inauguration in May
2. President Buhari said four months later
on Nigeria’s independence day
“We must change our lawless habits, our
attitude to public office and public trust. We
must change our unruly behaviour in
schools, hospitals, market places, motor
parks, on the roads, in homes and offices.
“To bring about change, we must change
ourselves by being law-abiding citizens”
3. Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini
“The time for vision has come. I request our
South African government to help us clean
our land of lice. We need to remove all
itching bedbugs and lay them bare in the sun.
“We request that all foreigners should take
their baggage and be sent back”
South Africa’s Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini,
who denied that his comments in March
fuelled xenophobic violence
4. US dentist Walter Palmer, who killed
Zimbabwe’s famous Cecil the lion in July
“If I had known this lion had a name and was
important to the country or a study obviously
I wouldn’t have taken it. Nobody in our
hunting party knew before or after the name
of this lion.”
5. South Sudanese model Nykhor Paul,
who got more than 20,000 likes on
Instagram after she posted the comment
in July
“Dear white people in the fashion world!…
Why do I have to bring my own make-up to a
professional show when all the other white
girls don’t have to do anything but show up.
“Don’t try to make me feel bad because I am
blue-black – it’s 2015”
6. Ghana’s President John Mahama, being
dismissive in March of the protests
against his government. The quote has
earned him the nickname “The Goat”
“I have seen more demonstrations and strikes
in my first two years. I don’t think it can get
worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and
you frighten it with a knife, it doesn’t fear
the knife because it is dead already. I have a
dead-goat syndrome”
7. South African comedian Trevor Noah as
he made his debut hosting Comedy
Central’s satirical news show in
September
“This is surreal for me, I’m not going to lie,
growing up in the dusty streets of South
Africa, I never dreamed that I would one day
have two things really: An indoor toilet and a
job as host of the Daily Show.
“And now I have both, and I’m quite
comfortable with one of them”
8. Zimbabwe’s leader Robert Mugabe,
mocking a US Supreme Court decision in
June to legalise gay marriage
“I’ve just concluded – since President Obama
endorses the same-sex marriage, advocates
homosexual people and enjoys an attractive
countenance – thus if it becomes necessary, I
shall travel to Washington DC, get down on
my knee and ask his hand”
9. US President Barack Obama on his visit
to Ethiopia in July
“I love my work. But under our constitution,
I cannot run again… I actually think I’m a
pretty good president – I think if I ran I
could win. But I can’t.
“When a leader tries to change the rules in
the middle of the game just to stay in office,
it risks instability and strife – as we’ve seen
in Burundi. Nobody should be president for
life”
10. Zimbabwe’s first lady Grace Mugabe in
November, after her 91-year-old husband
was caught on camera struggling to walk
“We are going to create a special wheelchair
for President Mugabe until he rules to 100
years because that is what we want. That is
the people’s choice. We want a leader that
respects us”
11. Tanzania’s newly elected President
John Magufuli, telling parliament in
November about his drive to root out
corruption and lazy workers
“The way to treat a boil is to squeeze it out,
and I have made it my responsibility to do
that. I know squeezing out a boil hurts but
unfortunately there are no two ways about
it”
12. Togo football star Emmanuel
Adebayor, denying in a Facebook post in
May claims that he failed to support his
family financially
“I organised a meeting in 2005 to solve our
family issues. When I asked them about their
opinion, they said I should build each family
member a house and give each of them a
monthly wage… I just want other African
families to learn from this”
13. Pope Francis on his visit to a mosque
in the Central African Republic in
November
“Christians and Muslims are brothers and
sisters.
“Together, we must say no to hatred, no to
revenge and no to violence, particularly that
violence which is perpetrated in the name of
a religion or of God himself. God is peace,
God salaam.”
14. Kenya’s Oscar-winning actress Lupita
Nyong’o told the BBC
“Relaxing your hair was a rite of passage. My
hair suffered a lot with those chemicals and I
cut it all off and my hair grew and I realised
it wasn’t that bad after all”
Being African: What does hair have to do
with it?
15. Judge Dunstan Mlambo, who criticised
the South African government for letting
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir leave
the country in June despite an
International Criminal Court arrest
warrant
“A court is the guardian of justice, the
cornerstone of a democratic system based on
the rule of law. If the state  does not abide
by court orders, the democratic edifice will
crumble stone-by-stone until it collapses and
chaos ensues”
16. Undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw
Anas, whose documentary this year
exposed corruption in Ghana’s judiciary
“It’s not about unmasking Anas. It’s about all
of us putting our hands together and
ensuring we have a better continent. I think
that anonymity has always been my secret
weapon and I have always used it to the
benefit of society”
Source: BBC