The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Rwanda is ranked the 2nd least corrupt country in Africa after Botswana (TI, 2006); giving hope that President Kagame can as well provide the AU reform process with the formula he used to curb corruption in his country. The AU reform should seriously tackle the immoral culture of stealing public resources that hampers Africa’s development.
Africa does not belong to a third world by any standards in terms of natural resources, as it holds 90% of the world’s cobalt and platinum, 50% of Gold, 98% of chromium, 30% of world diamond reserves and much more. The DRC alone, has 70% of the world’s Coltan and a total estimated $24 trillion of untapped minerals, which if exploited makes the country number one richest country in Africa. Unfortunately, most African countries with massive mineral resources come at the bottom of the Global Human Development Index, with the highest infant mortality rates!
According to the African Development Bank, about 620 million people or 60% of the continent’s population have no access to electricity, yet DRC alone has the potential to produce 100,000MW, Ethiopia 37,000MW and Cameroon 23,00MW of hydro power, not mentioning other source of renewable energy.
The current trend of absurdity can be reversed if the AU takes a more proactive approach of collective ownership and use of Africa’s resources.
Though Agriculture supports 90% of Africa’s population, more than 70% of those employed in the sector are from poor communities. The African farmer remains largely poor due to inability to export processed commodities, yet Africa buys back processed products at exorbitant prices.
There are few agro processing industries for value addition. Though countries like Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya produce the best quality tea on the continent, the sweetest tea I have ever enjoyed was from a non-tea producing country!
Sadly, Africa spends $35billion annually on food imports when it has the potential of being a world’s food basket. Connecting farm production, processing and distribution can eliminate poverty from millions of poor households.
The Key decisions of the 28th AU summit give hope of Africa’s new approach meant to strengthen the continental body. The other good news is that Africa’s economy is on a positive trend with its GDP projected to reach $2.6trillion in 2020.
However, a few other challenges still prevail. The continent has a Union but seems to be still lacking Unity. Let me explain. When the continental body is making vital decisions that require voting, countries still group themselves along colonial ties; calling themselves Anglo-phone, Francophone, and so on. The spirit of oneness and unity is fragile. Africans must emancipate themselves from the mental slavery of accepting that they belong to other races or spoken languages. Africans are African; they are not French, English, Portuguese or anything else. They are also not some form of property to be owned by these former colonialists.
Again, the AU can do much better on security matters; especially on conflict prevention and rapid response to intervene in cases of escalated violence or war on the continent.
An important conversation about the `New Africa We Want’ looks to be in the offing with the proposed institutional reform of AU, although it comes more than 50 years after independence of most African states.
In the words of Frantz Fanon, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it”.
I believe that the current generation will not betray Africa. The AU entrusted President Kagame to spearhead the reform process with confidence that he is the right man who has in a period less than two decades, transformed a country called Rwanda from the brink of a failed state to a secure, unified, and hopeful nation.
The African heads of state and government have to take the lead to create a New Africa, with a renewed attitude and mind-set. The Outgoing AU chairperson, Dlamini Zuma, while opening the 30th session of the executive council of the AU, commented on what Africa needs to do to achieve its goal for 2063. She said: “First and foremost, it requires that we revive and strengthen the spirit of Pan Africanism, unity and solidarity. It means we have to guard our unity, and not allow ourselves to be divided and diverted from our agenda”. We could not agree more.
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Gerald Mbanda is a journalist and Pan Africanist. He lives in Kigali-Rwanda
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Email: GeraldMbanda@hotmail.com
Twitter: @GeraldMbanda
