The Nation Newspaper

Tag: continent

  • A Continent of Hope

    SIR: Far too often, the world views Africa through the prism of problems.  When I look to Africa, I see a continent of hope, promise and vast potential.

    I am committed to building on those strengths and establishing a higher platform of cooperation between the United Nations and the leaders and people of Africa.  This is essential to advancing inclusive and sustainable development and deepening cooperation for peace and security.

    That is the message I carried to the recent African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — my first major mission as United Nations Secretary-General.

    Above all, I came in a spirit of profound solidarity and respect.  I am convinced that the world has much to gain from African wisdom, ideas and solutions.

    I also brought with me a deep sense of gratitude. Africa provides the majority of United Nations peacekeepers around the world.  African nations are among the world’s largest and most generous hosts of refugees.  Africa includes some of the world’s fastest growing economies.

    The recent resolution of the political crisis in the Gambia once again demonstrated the power of African leadership and unity to overcome governance challenges and uphold democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

    I left the Summit more convinced than ever that all of humanity will benefit by listening, learning and working with the people of Africa.

    We have the plans in place to build a better future. The international community has entered the second year of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an all-out effort to tackle global poverty, inequality, instability and injustice.  Africa has adopted its own complementary and ambitious plan: Agenda 2063.

    For the people of Africa to fully benefit from these important efforts, these two agendas need to be strategically aligned.

    It starts with prevention. Our world needs to move from managing crises to preventing them in the first place. We need to break the cycle of responding too late and too little.

    Most of today’s conflicts are internal, triggered by competition for power and resources, inequality, marginalization and sectarian divides. Often, they are inflamed by violent extremism or provide the fuel for it.

    The United Nations is committed to working hand-in-hand with partners wherever conflict or the threat of conflict endangers stability and well-being.

    But prevention goes far beyond focusing solely on conflict. The best means of prevention and the surest path to durable peace is inclusive and sustainable development.

    We can speed progress by doing more to provide opportunities and hope to young people. More than three out of five Africans are under 35 years of age.  Making the most of this tremendous asset means more investment in education, training, decent work, and engaging young people in shaping their future.

    We must also do our utmost to empower women so they can play a full role in sustainable development and sustainable peace.  I am pleased that the African Union has consistently placed a special focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

    I have seen it again and again:  When we empower women, we empower the world.

    I travelled to Africa as a partner, friend and committed advocate for changing the narrative about this diverse and vital continent.  Crises represent at best a partial view.  But from a higher platform of cooperation, we can see the whole picture – one that spotlights the enormous potential and remarkable success stories in every corner of the African continent.  With that perspective, I have no doubt we can win the battle for sustainable and inclusive development which are also the best weapons to prevent conflict and suffering, allowing Africa to shine even more vibrantly and inspire the world.

     

    • António Guterres,

    Secretary General, United Nations.

  • 2015 Bamako Biennale Again, Nigeria rules the continent

    2015 Bamako Biennale Again, Nigeria rules the continent

    Nigeria’s Uche Okpa-Iroha surprised many, last Wednesday, when he won, for the second time, the Seydou Keita Prize at the Bamako Biennale in Mali. As he shed tears of joy, Iroha mumbled: “I dedicate the prize to Jesus Christ.” Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME
    was there.

    Nigerian photographer Uche Okpa-Iroha has, at the African Biennale of Photography Bamako Encounters in Bamako, Mali  repeated his 2009 feat – he is the winner of the Seydou Keita prize at this year’s 10th anniversary edition. Iroha got 5000 Euro, thus becoming the first to win the grand prize twice since the festival started over two decades ago. His winning entry, The Plantation Boys, which is in tandem with the festival theme, Telling Time, is a 40-piece photograph series on imbalance in the representations of African identity.

    According to the jury, Iroha inserts himself in a familiar scene of The Godfather to subvert the prevalent Hollywood view which has been excluding the other.

    “He lays bare the film’s system of representation, interjects a powerful redress of history and sets an alternative story in motion. The Plantation Boy clearly refers to the conditions of African Americans and claims a freedom that is opposed to the slavery time. We recognize the importance and urgency of this work as it relates to popular culture and questions the notion of power by subverting the invisibility of minorities in the film industry,” the jury said.

    Stunned by the jury’s announcement, Iroha, wearing a white top on a pair of jeans trouser, managed to respond by saying that he dedicated the prize to Jesus Christ as well as his friends at the festival.

    “Six years ago, I was here for the first time. Today, I have made it as winner of the overall best prize. Bamako is my second home,” he said, commending the organizers of the Bamako Biennale for a job well done.

    The biennale which is curated by Bisi Silva, assisted by Antawan Byrd and Yves Chatap will run till December 31. It is featuring several monographic and thematic exhibitions, educational targeted workshops and visits.

    Other winners were Lebohang Kganye and Simon Gush from South Africa (Jury prize), Abubacar Traore of Mali (OIF prize), Em’ Kal Eyongakpa of Cameroun (Tierney Bamako prize), Georges Senga of Congo Brazzaville (Royal Air Maroc prize) and Lucia Nhamo of Zimbabwe (Lanchonete.org award) Members of the jury are Solange Farkas, Ngone Fall, Kenneth Montague, Simon Njami and Alioune Ba.

    Iroha’s The Plantation Boys beat 38 other African artists’ entries – photographs and videos – to emerge overall best. The work consists of two series of images that collectively examine the power of structures of race and the hegemony of Western culture, signaling central concerns in his artistic practice. The title situates the work within the Black and African quest for freedom and self determination that arose in the slave plantation and and continues to impact the lives of black subjects globally.

    In The Plantation Boys, Iroha ‘meticulously places himself in the frame of the images through strategies of reconstruction and reenactment. He intervenes in Francis Ford Coppal’s 1972 Hollywood movie The Godfather by isolating and appropriating 40 original film stills from the movie. Through a process of digital deconstruction, Iroha disrupts an iconic Hollywood image with the presence of an African man amongst the familiar gangs of Italian-American culture.

    “He uses this to draw attention to the politics of representation in Western culture that is marked by a striking absence of Black actors and actresess -a challenge of the stereotype and subservient representation of African identity by taking centre stage.”

     

    Bamako Encounters

    makes big return

     

    After a four-year break, following political crisis in Mali, the Bamako Encounters, African Biennale of Photography made a successful return on Saturday, October 31, with an increased artists’ entries rising from 250 in 2011 to 800 this year. The festival, which opened at the Musee National du Mali, in Bamako is featuring 39 artists drawn from across the continent and Diaspora in exhibitions, screenings, talks and educational programmes for the youths. This tenth edition has as theme Telling Time, curated by Bisi Silva and assisted by Antawan Byrd and Yves Chatap.

    Delegate-General for the Bamako Encounters Mr Samuel Sidibe said the biennale has provided a unique platform for photographers in the continent and Diaspora. He stated that for over 20 years, the Encounters have displayed works of artists to public not confined to Bamako but that also includes visitors from all over the world.

    Sidibe described the biennale as a key agent in the emergence of African photographers adding that for many of them it is a powerful engine for creativity, hope and for dreams to come true- the fact of being recognized and being able one day to make a living from their works.

    “The Biennale is a unique window for my country, Mali. We are proud to be hosts to artists and professionals from all over the world during the opening week-October 31 to November 4,” Sidibe said.

    Director-Genral Institut Francais Anne Tallineau described Africa as truly a continent of art and culture, and the Encounters, with its international and Pan African dimensions, is eloquent evidence that creativity in today’s Africa is thriving, inventive and compelling from north to south and from east to west.

    Tallineau said few years ago, African artists were disturbingly absent from major international events but that now, in galleries and auction rooms, real progress is visible. “In addition this year’s Venice Biennale has provided a handsome panorama of the continent’s contemporary creativity and we are delighted to see this spotlighting of African photographers first revealed to the world by the Bamako Encounters,” Tallineau added.

    She reassured the commitment and support of France to the cultural cooperation between her country and Mali in sustaining the hosting of the Bamako Encounters. “This tradition of cultural cooperation between our two countries is a strong, long standing one. And with the organization of this tenth edition, after a break in 2011, we restate today our commitment alongside Mali, to the holding of the Rencountres de Bamako,” she added.

    Curator of the biennale Bisi Silva said the theme of the festival was inspired by both Mali’s rich cultural traditions of storytelling and the nation’s recent political upheavals, noting that it would also question the methods by which artists narrate real and imagined experiences through different economies of time. According to her, photographic images have been routinely interpreted as refractions of time and space relations, serving to advance visual arguments about the particularities of a given reality. “Within this context, Telling Time presents a nuanced array of lens-based projects that differently opened and reframe conventional interpretations of time through discrete structures of the past, present, and future. The artists assembled use photography, film, video and animation to construct perspectives on time that are fragmented, disjunctive, or recursive in nature, offering alternative methods of engaging histories, experiences and desires,” Silva said.

    Events of the week will hold in other venues such as Memorial Modibo Keita, Musee de Bamako, Maison Africaine de la Photographie and Institut Francaise. The biennale will run till December 31.

  • Unionists blame govts for continent’s woes

    Unionists blame govts for continent’s woes

    African leaders must take the blame for the various socio-economic challenges limiting the continent’s emergence as an economic giant, unionists have said.

    They spoke at the “Human and Trade Union Rights Network of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), African Region”, hosted by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja.

    The two-day event, which drew participants from some African countries, noted that the insecurity challenge, though a universal issue, overwhelmed African countries due to greed and corruption of the leaders.

    NLC President Comrade Ayuba Wabba, in his opening address, noted that corruption was at the heart of the problems in Africa and Nigeria.

    “The problem of unemployment could not be isolated from the issue of insecurity, which has been a real threat to all of us, until recent time. There is no doubt that we are sitting on a time bomb when we look at the rate of migration across borders,” he warned.

    He condemned the government’s position on privatisation, warning that it was only abandoning her responsibility.

    He lamented that the government had mortgaged most of the achievements made by the past leaders who emerged just immediately after the nation’s independence.

  • Africa’s private sector must play leading role in continent’s development —Tony Elumelu

    Africa’s private sector must play leading role in continent’s development —Tony Elumelu

    Idea rules the world. This certainly explains why many business men and women, upwardly mobile business executives in particular,  hold their ideas close to their chests to prevent others from stealing them and reaping from where they did not sow.

    This business mindset was however punctured last weekend when Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of United Bank of Africa (UBA) and the founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation, generously shared his business ideas and principles with 1,000 young entrepreneurs drawn from 51 African countries.

    It was a day that the celebrated business mogul lavishly  emptied  his business ideas and knowledge on the young entrepreneurs. The participants were in no small measure overwhelmed by their encounter with Elumelu who interacted with them in a camaraderie atmosphere. He enjoined them to ask  questions without holding anything back. Riding on this, the participants, threw a barrage of questions bothering on his personal life and businesses at him and had all their questions answered to their satisfaction.  They unanimously called on other established entrepreneurs to follow the Elumelu example by deploying their knowledge and resources to helping budding entrepreneurs.

    The occasion was the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme(TEEP) boothcamp held at the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Bishop David Oyedepo of Faith Tabernacle, Mr Lionel Zinsou, the Prime Minister of Benin Republic  among  other dignitaries graced the event.  The participants had the benefits of learning first hand from successful entrepreneurs across the continent.

    Sharing his business principles with the participants, he said:  “If you must be successful as an entrepreneur, you must have principles that you must not compromise. As an entrepreneur, I have my principles which would be of immense benefit to you if you follow them.

    The first principle is hardwork.  If you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, you must be hardworking and as they say, hardwork doesn’t kill. You have to imbibe this principle and follow it to the letters.

    “You also need discipline to excel as an entrepreneur. Any entrepreneur that is not disciplined cannot succeed. The fact that you own your business should not be an opportunity to behave the way you like, instead, it should make you to be focused and always exercise self-restraint.

    “The third principle you must have is the ability to think in the long term. You must learn to forgo short term gains in the interest of the future. Keep visualizing yourself in the long term and not in the short term.”

    He continued: “ As an entrepreneur, you must dare to dream. You must not be afraid of dreaming. Have a dream first and ask yourself what to do to achieve it. You must set milestones for yourself.

    “As an entrepreneur, you must learn how to save and make sacrifices. You must learn not to eat with you ten fingers. You must equally learn to partner with others and also close your ears to a lot of things people say because a lot of people say all manners of things in this clime. Always put issues on the table and not under the table. Be disposed to discussing issues and appreciate where the other person is coming from. By and large, you must not compromise the interest of the business in all you do. Lastly, you must make integrity your watchword in your dealings as an entrepreneur.”

    The idea of the event, Elumelu, said, was borne out of the economic philosophy “ I call ‘Africapilism’   – the belief that Africa’s private sector must drive our economy and social development. The vision is to unleash the inherent ingenuity and passion of African entrepreneurs by empowering them to create businesses that will drive the continent’s transformation.

    Africapitalism in the words of Elumelu  is predicated on the belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s  development.

    The foundation strongly believes that entrepreneurs are essential to Africa’s development-many Africans are already running homegrown businesses based on deep insights into local consumer demand. “They also spot unique  gaps in the market for specific products  and services, tap into local networks, and often create innovative and disruptive solutions to complex changes.The model of Africapitalist entrepreneurialism  is one that empowers individual Africans and harnesses the power of innovation, personal initiative, hard work and market driven ingenuity previously intractable problems and change our continent forever.

    “TEEP is a holistic 10-year N100 million commitment that will identify, grow, and create 10, 000 African entrepreneurs. A programme built by Africans for Africans. Africa’s destiny lies in the hands of Africans and I am a testimony to entrepreneurship in Africa. If I could succeed in this environment, then younger ones can also succeed,” he said.

    President Muhammadu Buhari, in a letter to the foundation, said he was pleased to see that the efforts aimed at promoting self-help and creating jobs and opportunities for Africa’s youths are gaining ground without overt government intervention.

    “This demonstrates that the work of rebuilding our country as well as the wider continent is one all the patriots and stakeholders must actively engage in.

    I am proud that a Nigeria and a Nigerian is taking the lead in this effort to promote self-worth, encourage entrepreneurship, create jobs, build and promote networks for intra- African trade, business collaboration and investment.”

    He added: “ Our administration is committed to unlocking all such opportunities to restore dignity to our people. This programme is one example I hope others will emulate ad I commend Tony Elumelu and his foundation for their endeavour and leadership in this area.”

    Elated that the economic transformation of Africa is starting in the country through Elumelu, former President Olusegun Obasanjo  said: “I am delighted that the spark of transformation of Africa through entrepreneurship , has been ignited in Nigeria. I congratulate the 1000 African entrepreneurs who made it to TEEP. I urge you to use the TEEP experience as a roadmap to help your entrepreneurship journey. And may the road lead you to  prosperity that benefits the entire continent.

    Commendations for the soft spoken business executive were not limited to the country. Other African leaders also appreciated the gesture and sent their words of gratitude to the foundation and its founder.

    President Boubacar Keita  of Mali in his terse  remark of gratitude said: “ Tony Elumelu, we appreciate your work supporting young Malian entrepreneurs. Thank you for this.

    His Senegalese counterpart, President Macky Sali, while expressing his unreserved delight about the programme,  spoke about his expectations from the nationals that attended it, saying: “ It was a pleasure to meet the five young men from Senegal who were selected into Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme. I know they would make Senegal proud and that collectively, the 1,000 entrepreneurs from all corners of Africa will leave Lagos with the right networks, knowledge and inspiration to make our beloved continent  a better place.”

    Aware of the impact that the programme would have on individual participants, their countries and the continent at large, Dr Nkosangana Diamini Zuma, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said: “ As a public servant tasked with advancing African unity and cooperation,  I believe there is no stronger evidence of the potential of private sector to promote Africasn unity than self changing initiative conceived in one member state to be accessible to citizens in all member states.

    “The Tony Elumemlu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP)  embodies the spirit of African unity. Beyond that, it stands for African solutions to African problems. Congratulations to the 1000 African entrepreneurs that made it to the TEEP boothcamp in Nigeria. Through TEEP, you have been empowered and with that empowerment there are no limits to your success and no excuses. Individually and collectively, you can help create ripples and waves of economic transformation across the continent, that will be observed and felt on other shores.”

    In spite of the accolades showered on him and the foundation, Elumelu remained humble, strictly concerning himself with liberating the continent from poverty and economic dungeon.

    Defining success, Elumelu, said: “ Success to me is for young Africans to succeed.”

    One of the participants,  Anthony Nwajiugo said: “ The booth camp has added value to our businesses. We all came here with different challenges bedeviling our businesses and I can boldly tell you that we have been equipped with skills and practical ways of tackling the challenges.  For me, the booth camp will help me to transform my challenges to economic gains.

  • African continent under siege, Buhari warns AU leaders

    African continent under siege, Buhari warns AU leaders

     •Seeks end of illegal migration to Europe

    President Muhammadu Buhari has warned his colleagues at the 25th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in South Africa that the continent was under siege.

    He said the continent is facing challenges of terrorism and insecurity, poverty, youth unemployment and underdevelopment.

    Buhari noted that Africa has progressed in the past one and a half decades from mainly political goals to more diverse aspirations since the transformation from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the AU.

    The President said: “It is, however, clear, Mr. Chairman, that some of the greater challenges to our peoples within this union still lie in the political, economic, as well as peace and security spheres. Our continent is currently bedevilled by the twin evils of terrorism and insecurity; poverty, youth unemployment, and underdevelopment.

    “The destructive effects of the inhuman and criminal campaigns of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and neighbouring countries; the Al-Shabab attacks in East Africa, and the activities of the Al-Qaida in the Maghreb, all bear testimony to a continent under siege.”

    He used the opportunity to comment on the role former President Goodluck Jonathan played after the March 28 presidential election.

    Buhari said: “I cannot fail to acknowledge the very positive role played by my predecessor, H.E. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in averting the feared crisis, and in facilitating the peaceful transition of power between the two parties.

    “My election has been described as historic. I agree that it is indeed historic because for the first time in the practice of democracy in my country, an opposition Party has defeated the ruling Party in a keenly contested election.

    “The election was also held against the backdrop of the fears and concerns expressed both in Nigeria and among our international friends abroad and partners that the outcome of the election could spell doom for Nigeria. I am glad that even though those fears and concerns were not without basis, the outcome was totally different, to the relief of all of us.”

    The President told the African leaders to do everything possible to stop the illegal migration of Africans through the Mediterranean sea to Europe.

    He said: “The images in the international mass media of African youths getting drowned in the Mediterranean sea on their illegal attempts, and often times illusory hope of attaining better life in Europe is not only an embarrassment to us as leaders, but dehumanises our persons.  Indeed, they combine to paint a very unfavourable picture of our peoples and countries.

    “Those of us gathered here today owe it as a duty to reverse this ugly trend. We must put an end to the so-called push factors that compel our young men and women to throw caution to the winds and risk life, limbs and all, on this dangerous adventure.”

    To this end, Buhari called on the leaders to redouble efforts to sustain the economic development of their countries, ensure empowerment of the youths, create more jobs, improve and upgrade infrastructure, and continue to enthrone a regime of democracy, good governance, respect for human rights and rule of law.

    He added: “These and other measures that engender peace and stability must be pursued relentlessly. In this connection, we must persist in our collective endeavour to work together through the African Union and our respective Regional Economic Communities (RECs), to uplift our continent and provide the African peoples the enabling environment for the realisation of their legitimate dreams and aspirations.

    “At this juncture, let me assure you of the unflinching commitment of Nigeria to the ideals and aspirations of the African Union as explained in the Agenda 2063, which is geared towards ensuring a peaceful, prosperous and integrated Africa in the next 50 years. It is for this reason that Nigeria is fully and irrevocably committed to the ECOWAS vision.

    “We do so because we believe that African integration is best attained through the instrumentality of our Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as the building blocs of viable continental institutions. Nigeria will, therefore, continue to play her part in supporting the African Union Commission and other continental and regional institutions in their efforts to prioritise African development in all sectors of human endeavour.”

     

     

  • Africa: Once upon a continent

    You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree. You can’t hate Africa and not hate yourself – Malcolm X

    Today, Monday May 25 is Africa Day! What then about it when a billion Africans worldwide in 2015 muddle through without African consciousness? We have all the structures: Africa Union, (AU), African parliament ad ifinitum but we lack the real thing that would drive the African institutions, African consciousness. How many Africans remember Africa (Liberation) day? It’s time we reinvented pan-Africanism with a demand for a continent-wide obligatory observance of Africa Day. We must promote the education and consciousness about African Renaissance! On May 8, every year, Europeans in unison pause (with public holidays!) to mark the Victory over Nazi Germany’s aggression and oppression in Europe during the Second World War. Sixty million people (including thousands of Africans) reportedly died during the Hitler’s war of attrition. But lest we forget; as many as some 100 million African lives were lost to 19th century European brutal colonial terrorism and

    300 years of the transatlantic slave trade earlier! Younger Africans must be aware of the enormous sacrifices of the founding fathers who through resistance and nationalism fought for African liberation. Otherwise we lose them permanently to complacency and complicity that may nourish a repeat of the tragic history of enslavement and colonization. No thanks to loss of memory, Africa is sliding back into primitive tribal wars (witness South-Sudan), xenophobia, crude and violent tribalism (ala South Africa), ethno- religious wars (Nigeria’s Boko Haram and Central Africa Republic). These mutually destructive war-types in the past undermined African communities before the colonial predators came calling. Modern-day visa lotteries and serial Mediterranean tragedies with boats carrying thousands of African migrant workers sinking underscore the truism that lack of memory ruins a continent.

    Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the chairperson of the African Union Commission must bring some renewed energy and pro-active activism into the Africa Union (AU) secretariat if Africa must matter in a globalized world. I searched in vain for the 2015 theme of an anniversary of the Africa Day. One recalls an OAU of Togo’s Edem Kodjo (1978 – 1983), Nigeria’s Dr. Peter U. Onu (1983 – 19 85) and Tanzania’s Dr Salim Ahmed Salim (1989 – 2001). OAU commendably offered Africa the needed leadership in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and last vestiges of colonialism in Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. Nigeria is better positioned by its chequered history in the struggle for African liberation to lead a renewed pan-Africanism. But that is if its outgoing leaders halt the last minute reported criminal scramble for “take away” of the commonwealth.  Or better still, if the incoming ruling party officials stop agonizing over sharing (as distinct from

    production) formula based on their zones, regions, villages and clans. On assumption of office this weekend, President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari must definitely act local to re-fix Nigeria. He must however with equal energy think and act African and indeed global. General Murtala Muhammed almost single-handedly roused Africa to action over southern African liberation with the famous Africa-has-come-of-age speech. Africa today begs for quotable leaders! We need self-reliance. If poorer Africa built OAU Secretariat independently, why would Africa with triple figure GDP rely on China to remodel AU secretariat years after? Contemporary Africa parades big chieftains, with their wives, wealth and power but little vision, idealism and love of the continent. Africa Day raises the nostalgia of eminent great African statesmen like Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe, Tafawa Balewa, Sekou Toure, Murtala Muhammed, Samora Machel, Amilcal Cabral, Thomas Sankara,

    Nelson Mandela  and non-state pan Africanists like Mariam Makeba, Ngugi Ngig) wa Thiong’o, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, my late dear friend and pan-Africanist, Dr Tajudeen Abdulraheem who died on Africa Day in a tragic accident in Nairobi six years ago.

    At the founding of Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, Nkrumah rightly observed that independence “is only the prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our own economic and social affairs”. IMF and World Bank taunt Africa as an emerging market with alluring growth rate of seven per cent. But market for whose goods?  In the 70s, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang and enjoined us to “Buy Africa”.  Apart from South Africa, which accounts for 27.3 percent of the subcontinent’s total Manufacturing Value Added, the whole continent is littered with smuggled, second hand and imported goods from Europe and China. Nigeria scandalously exports crude and imports refined petroleum products. It’s time to Make-in-Africa, add value to the abundant raw materials, and create jobs for the youths. Africa should be the value addition and beneficiation/job destinations – impossible without electric power. In 1963, Nkrumah had noted that “Our continent ….exceeds all the (other continents)  in potential hydroelectric power, which some experts assess as 42% of the world’s total”. Fifty years after, Africa economy groans under the weight of power poverty.. We cannot drive industrialization with power outages in Accra, Lagos or Johannesburg!

    Fifty-four heads of government Africa are almost thrice heads of government that make up the Euro zone of 19 countries. European Union, (EU) remains unapologetically insular, tightening immigration laws by the day. Recently its leaders said they would “destroy boats used by smugglers to bring migrants across the Mediterranean”. Indeed the EU is set to present a resolution to the UN Security Council to that effect. No voice so far is heard from the continent whose territorial waters are now an arena of gun-boat diplomacy. Who then speaks for Africa?  Some 29 billionaires in Africa are distributed almost between Nigeria and South Africa. Yet the two countries harbour as many as 100 million poor! We must urgently compliment the well-being of the few with the total well-being of all Africans. The challenges of production and distribution in Africa call for bigger economy of scale which is only possible with economic integration and United States of Africa!

    Again Nkrumah saw it all earlier: “Our objective is African union now. There is no time to waste. We must unite now or perish”. The Maastricht Treaty which established European Union was signed on November 1, 1993, 30 years after OAU was formed by far sighted philosopher-leaders – kings of Africa. EU today exhibits robust common big market and common citizenship. What is good for Europe has long been envisioned by African founding fathers. Let’s realise the vision. Happy Africa Day.

     

    • Aremu, mni, is Secertary-General, Alumni Association of the National Institute, AANI, Kuru Jos.

  • Warri Wolves: a place on the continent is not a do or die affair

    Warri Wolves: a place on the continent is not a do or die affair

    •Pray for fair officiating in Lafia

    Warri Wolves have insisted that getting a place on the continent is not a do or die affair  and  they would ensure they approach their final premier league game of the season against Nasarawa United in Lafia with utmost respect for the rule of the game.

    Wolves are third on the league table with 60 points from 37 matches and are in need of at least a draw in Lafia in their quest for a place on the continent at the end of the season while the Soild Miners are also still in contention for a place in Africa with a home win over the Seasiders.

    Wolves’ Media Manager, Moses Etu explained to SportingLife that the Seasiders are praying that the rule of the game is observed to the letter in Lafia and that fair officiating should be observed .

    Etu told SportingLife:“The players are motivated and they have been charged to ensure that they get a decent result in Lafia. We are also hoping that fair officiating would be allowed to rule and that no law of the game would be breached on Sunday.

    “We are not desperate to qualify for the continent and it is neither a do or die affair for us. We are canvassing for a professional run league, one that is devoid of rancour and bickering,”he said.