Promote research to speed up Africa’s dev — Prez Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama has called on Pan-Africanists to promote research, particularly in science and technology, to further the development and integration of the continent.
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That, he said, was necessary to ensure that Africa caught up with the development of the advanced world.
Opening the 8th Pan-African Congress (PAC) in Accra yesterday, President Mahama also called on the congress to reactivate its secretariat and ensure that its activities became beneficial for the growth of all African countries.
The four-day gathering has brought together members of the global African family to deliberate on the theme, “the Pan-African world we want.”
Delegations will seek to revive the tenets of the first PAC in London held in 1900 to the seventh congress which took place in Kampala, Uganda in 1994.
The congress will also be used as a platform to discuss Africa’s political, economic and social problems and map out solutions.
The opening session was also attended by President Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin and special envoys from Iran, Equatorial Guinea, Togo and Algeria.
Dormant secretariat
President Mahama called on Pan-Africanists to pursue the African unity initiated by the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Sekou Toure of Guinea, among other African leaders.
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He expressed worry over how the secretariat of that body virtually ceased functioning after the last congress in Kampala, noting that the activities of the PAC, together with those of the African Union and the various regional blocs, could help in accelerating the development agenda of Pan-Africanism.
President Mahama said the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in some West African states was enough to encourage African integration to be able to uniquely solve their own and common challenges.
He said the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), for its part, was making frantic efforts to consolidate the move by both English and French-speaking countries in the region to have a common currency.
Address remnants of colonialism
President Mahama observed that decades after the continent’s forebears fought to emancipate it from colonial domination, Africa was still largely producing and delivering raw primary commodities to the international market in return for capital goods and other products that it had a comparative advantage to produce.
“Our Pan-African heritage enjoins us to work together in the face of adversity and challenge,” President Mahama said.
He, however, noted that great strides were being made in Africa despite the challenges confronting the continent, notably moves to attain a continental free trade area, establishment of an African Standby Force, ECOWAS common currency and a central bank.
PAC chairman
In his welcome address, the Global Chairman of the PAC, Major General Kahinde Otafiire, called on the congress to focus on building a more integrated continent that would maximise its potentials, opportunities and resources to enhance the lives of its people.
He appealed to African leaders to spearhead policies that would enable them to create wealth and jobs for Africans through exploitation of available resources in the continent and beyond.