Mandela: Jonathan, Obama, Cameron, other world leaders mourn

Leaders including President Barack
Obama of the United States of America,
United Kingdom’s Prime Minister David
Cameron and President Goodluck
Jonathan on Thursday condoled with
South Africans over the death of the first
black president of South Africa, Dr.
Nelson Mandela.
Reacting to Mandela’s demise, Obama
described the South African leader as “a
man who took history in his hands and
bent the arc of the moral universe
towards justice.”
Obama, who spoke some minutes after
Mandela’s death was announced, said
Mandela’s life had inspired his own
historic path to the White House.
“And like so many around the globe, I
cannot fully imagine my own life without
the example that Nelson Mandela set. And
so long as I live, I will do what I can to
learn from him.
“Through his fierce dignity and unbending
will to sacrifice his own freedom for the
freedom of others, Madiba transformed
South Africa and moved all of us.
“His journey from a prisoner to a
president embodied the promise that
human beings and countries can change
for the better.”
For Cameron, with the death of Mandela,
a great light has gone out in the world.
He said, “Nelson Mandela was a towering
figure in our time; a legend in life and
now in death – a true global hero. Across
the country he loved they will be
mourning a man who was the
embodiment of grace. Meeting him was
one of the great honours of my life.”
“I watched in wonder as Nelson Mandela
had the remarkable capacity to forgive his
jailers following… wrongful imprisonment
– setting a powerful example of
redemption and grace for us all.”
A former American President, Bill Clinton,
who occupied the White House when
Mandela was elected the first black
president of South Africa in 1994, had the
closest relationship with him of any of the
living US presidents.
“Today the world has lost one of its most
important leaders and one of its finest
human beings, and Hillary, Chelsea and I
have lost a true friend,” Clinton said. “We
will remember him as a man of
uncommon grace and compassion, for
whom abandoning bitterness and and
embracing adversaries was not just a
political strategy but a way of life.”
A former US President, George W Bush
described Mandela “as one of the great
forces for freedom and equality of our
time”.
“He bore his burdens with dignity and
grace, and our world is better off because
of his example. This good man will be
missed, but his contributions will live on
forever,” he said.
Jimmy Carter, the former US president,
said, “The people of South Africa and
human rights advocates around the world
have lost a great leader. South Africa’s
archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu
lauded his compatriot and fellow Nobel
peace laureate as the man who taught a
deeply divided nation how to come
together.
“Over the past 24 years Madiba taught us
how to come together and to believe in
ourselves and each other. He was a
unifier from the moment he walked out of
prison,” Tutu said marking Mandela’s
passing.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan
in a condolence message to South Africa
described Mandela’s death as the loss of
one of history’s “greatest liberators.”
He said “Mandela will always be
remembered and honoured by all
mankind as one of its greatest liberators,
a wise, courageous and compassionate
leader, and an icon of true democracy.”
He described the former South African
president “as a source of inspiration to
the oppressed peoples all over the world.”
Mandela’s “death will create a huge
vacuum that will be difficult to fill in our
continent,” Jonathan said.
“In the course of his life-long epic
struggle for freedom, fairness, justice,
equity and the human rights of his
oppressed people, Dr. Mandela made
unparalleled personal sacrifices. The
indefatigable spirit which he
demonstrated throughout his life will
continue to inspire present and future
generations,” Jonathan said.
Also, United Nations’ Secretary-General,
Mr. Ban Ki-moon in his tribute, sais
Mandela was “a giant for justice” whose
“selfless struggle for human dignity,
equality and freedom” inspired many
people around the world.
“No one did more in our time to advance
the values and aspirations of the United
Nations,” he told reporters soon after
Mandela’s death was announced.
Ban said he was deeply touched when he
met Mandela in his residence in South
Africa in February 2009.
“When I thanked him for his life’s work, he
insisted the credit belonged to others,”
Ban said. “I will never forget his
selflessness and deep sense of shared
purpose.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, said Nelson Mandela was of
“the most honorable figures of our time.”
He went on to say: “He was the father of
his people, a man of vision, a freedom
fighter who rejected violence. He set a
personal example for his people in the
long years he spent in prison. He was
never arrogant.
“He worked to mend the tears in South
African society and with his character
managed to prevent outbursts of racial
hatred. He will be remembered as the
father of new South Africa and as an
outstanding moral leader.”
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on
Friday hailed Nelson Mandela as “a truly
great man and one of the great figures of
Africa, arguably one of the great figures of
the last century.”