MESSAGE FROM THE COMMONWEALTH CHAIRPERSON-IN-OFFICE,

HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO

As Commonwealth Chairperson-in-Office and as a Commonwealth citizen, I believe it is important that today, on Commonwealth Day, we remind ourselves of what our association means to us.

Commonwealth Day is an opportunity for us to express our commitment to the values we all share. Chief among those is the value of freedom.

This year's theme for Commonwealth Day - Building a Commonwealth of Freedom - enjoins us to recognise that building freedom and strengthening democratic principles is our joint responsibility, as people of the Commonwealth. When democratic rights are upheld, we all benefit. When they are violated or denied, the whole world is the poorer for it.

Events throughout the world remind us everyday that freedom can never be taken for granted. The quest for freedom – freedom from persecution, freedom to express one’s political and religious beliefs, freedom to live out one’s chosen way of life – is never achieved once and for all. Even in long-established democracies, there is always room for improvement.

We should also recognize that freedom and development are intimately linked. If you do not have enough money to feed your family, if you do not have access to education and healthcare, you are not free. Development is as important to freedom as freedom is to leading a fulfilling, meaningful life.

That is why, at the Heads of Government Meeting held in Abuja last December, my fellow Commonwealth leaders and I discussed ways in which we can make democracy and development mutually reinforcing. Our challenge is to make freedom work for development and make development work to reinforce freedom, delivering greater opportunities, greater equality and better life chances for children, women and men everywhere in the Commonwealth.

With its diverse membership and its long track record in promoting social and economic cooperation, the Commonwealth represents a unique forum for global decision making. By working through its time-honoured principle of consensus, it can help redress the balance between the rich and the poor. It can help ensure small and vulnerable countries and other developing countries have more influence on the global stage. And it can help lay the foundations for a less divided world, building bridges between people and strengthening our sense of global solidarity.

Olusegun Obasanjo

March 8, 2004