Africa: Continent Has No Reason to Be Poor, Says Odinga
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This Day (Lagos)
10 October 2008
Posted to the web 10 October 2008
Ademola Adeyemo And Gboyega Akinsanmi
Lagos
Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Amolo Odinga, yesterday identified mediocrity, bad governance, lack of respect for the rule of law, injustice and inequality as some of the factors responsible for the underdevelopment of Nigeria and African countries alike.
Odinga, who spoke yesterday in Lagos while delivering The Guardian Silver Jubilee lecture at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), criticised the African Union (AU) for not doing enough to put African on a path to greatness.
Odinga, who emerged Kenyan Prime Minister after a widely disputed election and post-election violence that claimed hundreds of lives, stated that Nigeria and the rest of Africa have no reasons to remain in the class of poor countries, given the abundant human and material resources on the continent.
He described Nigeria as the country that inspires Africa, noting that out of every black person walking on the earth, "one is a Nigerian."
"In soccer, when other African countries have been eliminated, only Nigeria is left carrying the African flag," he said, and joked: "But in Olympics, Kenya is the leader!"
He said increasingly, Afri-cans have shown that they want democracy, as evident in Kenya and Zimbabwe this year.
"Eighty per cent of Africans want democracy," he said. "In the last four years, about 50 democratic elections have been held on the continent."
He noted that at independence, most African countries inherited the Westminster system of government from the colonial masters "and this allowed for checks and balances and separations of power. However, our leaders soon neglected the interest of the people and went for personal enrichment, adopting one-party system under the pretext of building consensus the African way. Democratic principles were jettisoned. The prosperity of the people was overlooked. Today, 15 million Africans die yearly from diseases related to poverty."
He said Kenya was at par with Korea at Independence, but those countries have now left the country behind.
"We must ask: what did the Koreans do to develop that our leaders did not do? We should go ahead and do it and our continent will develop," he said.
Calling for a change of attitude in governance, Odinga said: "What we should do is to create conditions for things to work in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. Africa should put behind the past and stop blaming the colonial masters for her economic and political woes. Rather, Nigeria should pool her resources together and attract her best brain from the world over to engender development.
"It is Africans that will develop Africa. I believe she has the ability to kick-start people-oriented development. Nigeria and Kenya must find out why South Korea, Singapore and other Asian tigers are making socio-economic breakthrough. With 600 million people, Africa should be great," he said.
In what he called the dream of former Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, Odinga made case for African peace and unity, the conditions he believed would assist the continent to create an atmosphere for development and foreign investment.
Speaking on the AU, however, the prime minister scored the pan-African institution low.
He said the institution was not doing enough to address the socio-economic and political problems of Africa.
He also spoke on the global financial crisis, questioning the expertise of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Saying the strategies of the institutions have failed, Odinga urged Africa to develop her own strategies in order to mitigate the global financial crisis.
He said: "The financial crisis in the Western nations will affect Africa. We must avoid the situation where if US sneezes, Europe catches cold, Asia gets pneumonia and Africa's tuberculosis worsens. Africa needs to quickly develop its own strategies to mitigate the impact of this situation."
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua who was the special guest of honour at the occasion was represented by the Minister of Information and Communication, Mr. John Odey.
Yar'Adua urged the entire people of Nigeria to support and promote the seven-point agenda of his administration if Vision 2020 will be achieved.
Emphasising that the implementation of the seven-point agenda "requires the collaboration of all Nigerians at home and in diaspora," the President linked the country's breakthrough in the age of globalisation to the extent to which Nigerians embrace peace and support the seven-point agenda.
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Calling for demonstration of the spirit of positive thinking, the President added: "Nigerians should be committed to the successful implementation of the seven-point agenda of this administration so that by 2020 Nigeria will be among the most developed countries in the world.
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It is very difficult if not impossible for Africans to actually believe in the potential of Africa/Afrikans given the fact that most have been beaten down most or all of their lives. The fortunate few that have been able to "escape" and go and make a better life for themselves have been successfull for the most part. Barack Obama, an offspring of a Kenyan, a good example of African potential considering his father did not raise him, but an American did. Obama's leadership should provide a guide to restoring Africa,(take advantage of this moment) it also demonstrates the Power of… [Read Full Text]