Mathieu Kerekou

Whether we are poor among the poorest, or less poor among the wealthier, let us stand proud and noteworthy, united and strong, comforted by our belonging to the Community of the Free Nations of our Planet.

Poverty should not be viewed by us as a humiliation and even less so as a position of honour or a fatality.

I would like to solemnly reaffirm, that poverty is not a fatality.