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African Universities
tasked to propel continent’s development
Cape Coast, Nov. 7,
Ghanadot/GNA – African Universities have been tasked to take
the lead in the rethinking of strategies that would
facilitate accelerated development of the continent.
President Benjamin William Mkapa, former Tanzanian
President, who made the call on Friday, stressed that
economic growth would require much more than leadership at
the national level.
He made the call when delivering the third and last lecture
on the topic “Developing in Dignity: Self-Reliance and an
Afro-Centric Strategy”, to climax the eighth edition of the
“Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lectures” on the theme ” Rethinking
the political, social and economic paradigm of African
Development”.
President Mkapa noted that intellectual leaders on the
continent had an obligation to explain issues and analyze
factors that had led to the break-down of socio-economic
development on the continent.
He pointed out that although democracy and good governance
were international values, they were not cults that needed
to be copied, and said there was the need for Africa to have
“a home-grown new democracy”, based on African
characteristics.
President Mkapa cited the example of China, which had
developed her own systems to facilitate socio-economic
growth, and observed that unfortunately, the growing trend
was that the western nations were pressurizing Africa to
adopt their systems, and asked why their democratic
structures should be considered superior to that of Africa.
President Mkapa said it was of utmost importance for
Africans to take charge of their own destinies, stressing
that development could not be achieved from outside but
Africa needed to find resources from within, especially in
the face of the current global financial crisis.
“We must take control of our national resources and
selectively disengage ourselves from the present system of
globalization which is just being used by the north to pry
unto African markets.”
He said it was therefore imperative to reverse the pull of
these strings and develop strong regional markets before
going on to negotiate on the international markets, and
observed that trade treaties such as the Economic
Partnership Agreements(EPAs), between the ACP and EU
countries, were “taking Africans for a ride”.
“The EPAs are aimed at fragmenting Africa and ‘in fact
regionalism in disguise’. Therefore Africa should demand
fresh negotiations of the agreements from the EU,” he added.
President Mkapa urged countries on the continent to join
hands with other countries in the south with common goals,
and deplored that while the West was trying to prevent
Africa from aligning itself with countries like China, India
and Brazil, it was doing business with them to the exclusion
of Africa.
He stressed that Africa must not allow a re-engineering of
the world behind its back, adding, “we should not allow them
to ignore us” and said the western countries should strive
from interfering in the affairs of the continent.
President Mkapa called on Africa to end the dependency on
aid, pointing out that aid was not charity and said Africa’s
so-called development partners, were not “really partners”,
because their trade policies were anti-development.
He said the problem with aid was that it was highly inflated
and that aid to the continent had been steadily declining,
and expressed regret that many African leaders had a
pragmatic attitude towards aid, and donors were therefore
using the “aid carrots” to get Africa to agree to
unfavourable conditions.
President Mkapa stressed the need to ensure peace and
security as the basis for protection of human rights and
said peace and security were the bedrocks for economic
growth, as well as evolve strategies to combat climate
change, since Africa was not being allowed to take the
necessary adaptation measures.
He referred to the various structures within the African
Union (AU) and NEPAD, and asked whether they were adequately
empowered to perform, noting that the AU could not even
agree on which two members should be made permanent members
of the UN Security Council.
President Mkapa pointed out that only a pro-active AU could
arrest the attention of the political powers, and wondered
if Africans themselves were not responsible for the under
development of the continent.
He called on the media and civil society in Africa to
endeavour to develop an African agenda because Africa needed
to guard against the constant propaganda being waged by the
western media against developing countries like China.
Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Vice-Chancellor of UCC,
echoed calls on the need for Africa to re-examine itself and
to endeavour to develop on its own terms.
GNA
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