By Honourable Saka
The Chairperson
African Union Commission
Addis Ababa
17 July, 2012
Madam Chairperson,
A Pan-African Appeal
“African leaders must first and foremost recognize that unity in Africa is in our
best interest and the only option we have if we want to attain peace, stability and
economic development. We all must recognize that we can only make progress if North,
South, East, Central and West Africa come together as one, act together as one and
speak with one voice”. Lord Aikins Adusei
Madam Chairperson, before I proceed, let me first take this opportunity to
congratulate you on your election into the office of the African Union Commission,
the highest political office on the continent. The African people especially the
women and children are proud of your determination to lead us to the promise land: a
land of unity and prosperity where Africa’s vast resources will ultimately benefit
the African people. The African people wish you all the best in your new job.
Introduction
African leaders, time is running out. The talk must be over. It is time to take real
action. The business of the AU should NOT be about fighting malaria, tuberculosis
and promoting sanitation. These should be the task for the World Vision, WHO and the
USAID. The business of the AU should only focus on working towards the total
liberation of Africa, promoting unity among Africans especially unity among our
governments as well as fighting for Africa's economic independence. We must focus on
removing the borders, ensure free trade among ourselves and promote the free
movement of Africans on the continent. These should be our major focus. The talks
and the distractions have been too much. It is time for real action. Some of these
steps that require immediate action are as follows:
1. Industrialization and Economic Integration
“So long as Africa remains divided, it will therefore be the wealthy consumer
countries who will dictate the price of its resources”. -Kwame Nkrumah
(Neo-Colonialism, page11)
As a matter of fact, the whole of Africa’s economy is geared to the interests of the
foreign capital that dominates it. Currently, processing plants for Africa’s
resources are still held in Europe and Asia but not in Africa. This arrangement
ensures that, Africans cannot at any time disrupt operations while they (the
producers) continue to hold monopoly over the price for the finished products. This
must change if we as a people are determined to exert some control over the price of
our resources. It is very humiliating that, Africans continue to import a lot of
soap, steel, iron rods, plastic, rice, sugar, chicken. But as you know, we have all
the raw materials right here and a very fertile soil.
The 21st century has no place for the African people if we continue to serve as the
“producers of raw materials” for Western and Asian industries and the “dumping
ground” of European, American and Asian commodities which often come at cut-throat
prices. African countries must focus on industrialization. We must make all effort
to produce what we use and use what we produce.
We must focus on building more industries, and expanding the power grid to sustain
these industries. It is completely imprudent for Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Niger, Guinea,
Mali among others to continue exporting ‘raw’ uranium and other strategic resources
to power the nuclear reactors of Europe and Asia at a time when many African
countries do not have reliable electricity. If nuclear and solar energy are good for
Europe and Asia, then they must certainly be good for Africa. The African countries
with these resources must also consider producing nuclear energy and exporting it
overseas. We must not allow the future of our economy to be determined by decisions
in Europe, America nor Asia. We must strategize so that we can determine the future
of our own economy.
We must first pursue the technology by sending our youth overseas for training and
also creating the platform for them to return and lead the charge. African leaders
must unite and focus on shifting the industries from overseas back to Africa and get
the African youth to work. We have all the resources. What is needed is for us to
focus on putting the industries in place so that we can make the products right here
and sell it to the outside world. The time when Africa was seen as the supplier of
raw materials must end.
Today, Asia and Latin America are rising. Europe and North-America are in deep
financial crises. Yet, Africa still remains a sleeping giant: very confused and
doesn’t to seem to know the way forward. It is time for economic integration among
African countries. Africans must begin to focus on trading among themselves. For
instance, Ghana has a huge stockpile of salt which goes wasted every year. Yet, it
is very sad that every year, Nigeria and many African countries, import salt from
Brazil for their textile industries (which are gradually collapsing because African
leaders themselves have abandoned African fashion for suits and tie all the time).
Oil producing countries in Africa are shipping their oil to Europe, America and
Asia at cheaper prices, while many other African countries turn to the Middle East
for oil and gas! West Africa has wide savannahs, ideal for the growing of cotton,
with the right irrigation. Yet for many years we spent millions of pounds importing
richly-patterned cloths from abroad. The whole situation in Africa is like waging
trade and economic war among ourselves. Africans, please come together and protect
your collective interest!
2. Movement of People, Goods and Services Across borders
Artificial borders were meant to divide Africans, making them weak and easy to conquer
Perhaps, the major challenge we have in Africa which affects our ability to trade
freely among ourselves is directly as a result of the lack of trade agreements and
also the current restrictions we have imposed upon our people. African citizens have
been limited from travelling to Europe and America with tough visa restrictions.
Unfortunately, travelling within our own continent too has become another burden. On
the average, a Ghanaian visitor has to go through a period of 2 to 3 months visa
routines, before he can travel to Zimbabwe or Uganda! Meanwhile, as a matter of
fact, the Ghanaian can travel to Nigeria, Mali or even Kenya without needing a visa.
Now the question we must ask the African leaders is: what are the differences
between Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe? How can Zambians travel to
South Africa without visa but this same people have to wait for a period of 2 months
for visa before they can travel to Kenya, Togo or Ivory Coast?
Why can’t we break these chains of visa restrictions which prevent the African
citizen from feeling free on his motherland? Something seriously has to be done
about these travel restrictions to allow inter-African trade. The African must be
allowed to travel freely on the African soil so that we can experience our
diversity in order to foster unity. The current visa restrictions must be removed
and allow the African people the freedom to explore our beautiful continent.
Another challenge we face on this issue is the cost of transportation itself. It is
very difficult to travel from one African country to the other due to the fact that
Africa’s road and rail infrastructure still remains underdeveloped. Air transport
has therefore become our major option. This is however too expensive. According to
the current estimate, the cost of flying from Abuja to London is at least US$700. At
the same time, the cost of flying from Abuja to Accra is more than US$800. It is
even more expensive to fly within the ECOWAS region than to fly to Europe.
Meanwhile, the cost of a flight from London to Paris or anywhere in Europe could be
as cheap as US$100 and below. If in doubt, check www.easyjet.com and find out how
cheap it is to travel by air within Europe. All these are happening to Africans
because “our leaders” have not taken the issue of industrialization very serious.
For how long can poor Africans afford to pay ten times the
cost of the same services offered to their European counterparts?
The current exorbitant cost of air tickets in Africa is similar to what Africans had
to pay for telecommunication and internet services few years ago. It is a fact that
the charges for internet and mobile phone services in Africa were the highest on the
planet. Today, thanks to Gaddafi and a few African leaders’ initiative. The
introduction of RASCOM (Regional African Satellite Communication Organization) has
paid off. This joint African project is expected to lower the continent's dependency
on international satellite networks such as Intelsat, saving Africans a whooping
US$500 million every year.
Consequently, telecommunication services are now affordable in Africa. This is a
clear indication that if African leaders take similar bold steps and solve the
challenge posed by the huge cost of transportation in Africa we can save more
billions of dollars every year on transport. We only need the political will to do
this and our burden will reduce.
Gervais Djondo, a former industry minister of Togo has recently set himself a
mission to create a pan-African airline serving for the continent. Like other
Pan-Africanists, Djondo believes the way forward is for African carriers, instead of
trying to compete with each other and jealously guarding their national markets,
should rather combine their resources and create a consolidated service/network of a
strong African airline company owned and managed by Africans. This idea must be
welcomed and supported by the African leaders. African governments must invest in
this project to help ease the burden.
3. African Central Bank
"It must be understood that the less developed world will not become developed
through the goodwill or generosity of the developed”. –Kwame Nkrumah
(Neo-Colonialism, page xviii).
This is the reason why we must be determined to put Africa’s future into our own
hands. The West may pretend to be helping Africa. But we must be ready to map out
our own strategies to facilitate our own development. The future of Africa cannot
continue to remain in the hands of donor countries, the European Central Bank, the
World Bank and IMF.
The existing African Development Bank has finally been hijacked by the West.
African governments must come together and establish an African Central Bank or a
Bank of Africa where all African governments will deposit part of their national
reserves. I must however stress that; this bank must be under the control and
management of Africans. Instead of Francophone African countries to deposit their
foreign reserves in France to later loan this moneys to the Africans at a huge
interest rate, all such moneys can be deposited in the African Central Bank where
it can be used for our own benefits. If each African country were to deposit about
$2billion (or more) of our national reserves into this fund, we could mobilize for
ourselves more than $100billion in a matter of months.
African leaders or the millionaires could also be encouraged to save with this bank.
When this is done, the interest that will be generated on this money will belong to
the African people instead of giving this lucrative opportunity to the Western banks
year after year. At the same time, African governments and the AU itself could have
this reliable source of funds to finance their projects without the need to depend
on aid from the West all the time.
Money does not grow on trees. The West has always generated money out of thin air
and is using this system to enslave African nations into debt. African leaders
please wake up! Our destiny is not poverty. We only need to take these bold
decisions today. The EU has got its central bank. Asia and Latin America are
recently following suit. This has saved some of them from selling their sovereignty
to the World Bank and the IMF. Currently, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China
and South Africa) are also considering such an idea. Therefore what are the African
leaders waiting for? How long must we continue to wait because we believe the time
is not right? If the African leaders of today think they cannot do it, whom are they
looking up to come and do it? Is it the youth they expect to be able to solve the
challenges they themselves feel they cannot solve?
Our African politicians are piling up billions of African money in European and
American banks while poverty continues to enslave our people because our own banks
do not have the money to loan out to African business investors. Why can’t we set up
these banks and encourage our politicians to deposit part of their moneys there?
4. Africa’s Security
Nkrumah held that, no single part of Africa can be safe, or free to develop fully
and independently at a time when any other part is torn up in conflict; remains
un-liberated or under the control of puppet regimes.
As a result, Kwame Nkrumah wrote:
"Unless we meet this obvious and very powerful threat with a unified African front,
based upon a common economic and defence policy, the strategy of the imperialist
will be to pick us off and destroy us one by one", (Africa Must Unite, page xvii).
African leaders need to establish a joint security force whose major responsibility
will be to defend the African people from terrorism and foreign aggression. We must
also commit needed resources to equip this security force to be able to defend our
security and our sovereignty. We cannot continue year after year to put our security
into the hands of the UN. What happened in Libya and Ivory Coast recently, clearly
shows the urgent need for such an idea.
5. African Court of Justice
Today, the whole world bears witness to the fact that, the current International
Criminal Court is only a tool that targets African leaders. Many more serious war
crimes have been committed by leaders of Western countries. Notably among them are
George Bush and Tony Blair. Yet, for many years, the ICC has paid a blind eye to
crimes committed by the West. African leaders must therefore take immediate steps to
establish for ourselves a court of justice which will deal with crimes committed by
our people. The current form of imported justice must end. We must boycott the ICC
and set up our own courts. Time is running out because sooner or later, any of you
African leaders could become the next victim of this “kangaroo court” which is seen
by the African people rather as the “International Court of Criminals”.
6. The Educational Sector
According to Kwame Nkrumah: (Africa Must Unite, page 49):
“We were thought to regard our culture, our norms and values as barbarous and
primitive. Our text-books are books that tell us about English history, English
Geography, English ways of living, English customs, English ideas”.
These are past mistakes that must urgently be corrected. Instead of focusing on
English customs, and Western ideas, our educational systems must be integrated with
African culture, norms and values. We must begin to implement educational policies
that harness our cultural heritage, be determined to sell African value to the
outside world and to promote unity among Africans. We cannot lose our African
fashion and our way of life for the sake of meeting the economic interest of the
West. The current theory-based courses, with little or no practical models are not
helping. Today, many Africans have all the paper knowledge but they lack the
practical knowledge to solve real-world problems. We must create the conditions for
the youth to learn to be able to build our industries. We must henceforth focus on
technical education, science and technology and do more on practical courses.
“It is time for us to nurture our own culture and history if we are to develop that
African personality which must provide the educational and intellectual foundations
of our Pan-African future”. -Kwame Nkrumah, (Africa Must Unite page 49).
Therefore our educational system must also focus on training Africans in areas that
will enable us to directly manage our resources and be able to resist
neo-colonialism and the imperialists who often come in the form of “advisers”,
“consultants” and policy makers, working at our expense. We must device educational
systems that are aimed at fixing our political and economic challenges by ourselves
instead of always taking orders from foreign capitalists.
“To allow a foreign country, especially one which is loaded with economic interests
in our continent, to tell us what political courses to follow, is indeed for us to
hand back our independence to the oppressor on a silver platter.” (Kwame Nkrumah,
“Consciencism” pg.102).
Africa has invested so much to help develop the educational systems abroad while
ours are falling apart. For many years, Africans have been paying so much money to
European, Canadian and American educational institutions. According to a UNESCO
report, more than 200,000 tertiary students from sub-Saharan Africa studied abroad
in 2006. Currently, it is estimated that more than 500,000 Africans study abroad
every year. The average African student pays more than $15,000/yr for his/her
studies abroad. By a simple calculation, Africans spend at least $7.5billion to
study abroad each year.
“…Today, an international student who leaves [the United States] with a good feeling
is a life-long advertisement for the [U.S. business] community. For purely economic
reasons, the U.S. should protect this market share. With over 500,000 foreign
students and more than $11 billion per annum at issue, American education as export
industry has become our chasse gardée”, -Robert Scott.
Europe and America are benefiting because our educational systems are not receiving
adequate resources and infrastructure. But for how long must this cycle continue
because we do not have confidence in our educational institutions?
There is no doubt that the Western educational institutions were one of the best in
the world. However, it must be pointed out that they currently have their own issues
which to some extent affect their integrity as well. Just
visit: www.ukessay.co.uk and find out for yourselves how thousands of students in
Europe have been buying degrees online with impunity. All they have to do is to pay
some £300 to these agencies; email them their courseworks/dissertation topics and
bingo, the work is delivered at their door steps as soon as possible.
I was very fortunate to have had my education (up to degree level) in Africa, and I
must say by my practical experience abroad, I can confidently say that the
educational institutions we have in Africa are very good. Though not perfect, they
are not as bad as we’re often made to believe. African leaders must invest enough
resources into developing our educational systems to the highest standard so that we
can attract more students to study in Africa and reap its economic and the cultural
benefits. We must encourage foreigners to study in Africa to be able to appreciate
our culture and our society.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we must always strive to remember the struggle of our founding
fathers and their dedication to Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanism cannot be seen as
irrelevant in our political future. For it is this pillar which forms the basis of
our political independence, and gave us the freedom we enjoy today: freedom from
slavery, and freedom from colonial rule. It is this same idea that can provide the
key to our economic challenges in the 21st century. We must therefore work hard to
teach the African youth this concept. Copies of all books and speeches by our
founding fathers such as Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Nelson Mandela, Thomas
Sankara and many other Pan-African books must be provided to the African youth to
study and be able to think and act in this direction. This will help create millions
of of their kind, to take Africa through the next stage of our economic
independence.
We at Project Pan-Africa (PPA) are willing to cooperate with the AU in this regard.
To succeed, we must seek first the “political kingdom” (African Unity) and all the
freedom and the economic emancipation shall follow. We need political unity to be
able to fulfill the dreams of our founding fathers and meet the aspirations of our
people. Time is running out. Every single day counts. We must act now.
I am therefore appealing to the African leaders to take immediate decisive steps to
alleviate our people from poverty in order to avert any imminent revolution from the
youth, which may ultimately target the AU itself.
“The great millions of Africans are growing impatient of being the hewers of wood,
the providers of unskilled labour, the drawers of water, and being the dishwashers
and the cleaners of Europe and America”. Kwame Nkrumah, (Africa Must Unite page
ix).
Long live Africa!
Long live the African Union that must be!!
CC/
All African Leaders
The President, Pan-African Parliament
Executive Secretariat, Africa Forum
The President, African Youth Union
NOTE:
* Kwame Nkrumah (1964) “Consciencism”. Panaf Books: London
* Kwame Nkrumah (1963) “Africa Must Unite”, Pana Books: London
* Kwame Nkrumah (1965) “Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism”. Panaf
Books: London
Yours faithfully,
Honourable Saka
(Coordinator, Project Pan-Africa)
saka@projectpanafrica.org
Honourable Saka
The author is a regular writer and a political analyst on African affairs, and a
well-known social commentator in Africa. Hes is currently seeking the establishment
of the "Project Pan-Africa" to create a mental revolution across Africa. He is the
editor of “The Doctor’s Report”, your most reliable source of critical analysis on
African affairs. He is a strong Pan-Africanist, and the founder of the “Leaders of
Tomorrow”, a transformational and inspirational group of possible future
leaders. Please visit his blog at: www.honourablesaka.blogspot.co.uk and Email him
at: honourablesaka@yahoo.co.uk
