The Minister for Defence, Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, has proposed the formulation and implementation of a Marshall Plan for Africa to steer the continent out of the murky waters of poverty, economic degradation and conflicts.
In that connection Dr. Addo-Kufuor has challenged the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS) to redefine its mission to include a campaign for the Marshall Plan for the continent and lobby the United States government to support this agenda.
He was speaking at the opening session of the first Sub-Regional Security seminar in Accra yesterday.
The four-day seminar, which is being organised by ACSS, has the theme, "Preventing Conflicts in West Africa". It is aimed at assessing options and opportunities for long-term conflict prevention in the sub-region. Senior personnel in the military and high-ranking government officials from 15 ECOWAS countries in the sub-region as well as representatives of civil society organisation are attending it.
The Minister said conflict prevention could not become an end in itself, adding that, "undemocratic, corrupt, cruel and myopic leadership, as well as severe poverty were the true causes of intractable conflicts".
Dr. Addo-Kufuor is hopeful that as the continent tries to embrace good governance and evolve measures to curtail conflict on the continent established democracies would increase. In his view, the successful and prosperous democracies in Africa would be the best antidotes to conflict.
There was the need for ACSS to include in its programmes poverty reduction activities and to lobby the United States for the channelling of investment to those parts of Africa that were free of conflicts, for instance Ghana, where democratic governance has been established, he said.
Dr. Addo-Kufuor observed that the international media had been purveying negative information on Africa to the West, which impeded the flow of investment into the continent. He suggested that the negative perspective that many have about the continent should be corrected.
He said due to the phenomenon of globalisation, the idea of 'African solutions for African problems' no longer holds. According to the Minister, the continent had little control over her problems. He mentioned the unfair international trade practices, lack of foreign direct investment and many other disadvantages that are associated with globalisation as some of the problems confronting the continent, which need urgent attention.
The Minister said that because of the legacy colonialism, attempts at integrating her economies were being undermined and urged African countries to tackle the causes of artificial divisions among them in order that the vision for an African Union would become achievable.
"Whatever the interest of the US, this is the opportunity for Ghana to use this initiative to get closer to Francophone countries to ensure that regional integration is achieved," he said.
The US Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Kathryn Dee Robinson, observed that conflicts had become endemic in parts of West Africa. She said the US had been focusing attention on conflict areas in the sub-region with a view to resolving them and to assist the region to achieve her full potential.
She said that the devastation and human suffering associated with conflicts could not be ignored and hoped that the seminar would focus on the preventive aspects of conflicts and the need for long term strategic outlook to shape the security environment in the sub-region.
