Africans on the continent and those in the Diaspora will today observe African Union (AU) Day, an occasion to mark the emancipation and liberation of the people and their land from the shackles of colonialism.
For we in Ghana, this year’s celebration is particularly significant and historic because of the decision of the AU to include the celebration of the life of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, in the AU’s scheme of things and give it a continental push.
Students of African history and, indeed, the history of the entire Pan-African movement will not surprised by this gesture of African leaders to make the celebration of Dr Nkrumah an African event and dedicate the Union Day to his memory.
The reason for this is not farfetched.
For the greater portion of the struggle to liberate Africa, Dr Nkrumah represented the face and voice of the fight. Indeed, he was the symbol of the struggle to liberate the African continent from colonial rule.
Nkrumah’s place and footprints in that aspect of African history cannot be contested for a man who is recognised across the continent and beyond as the foremost personality who championed the liberation of every country on the continent and earned recognition as the African of the Millennium, following a survey by the BBC.
The Daily Graphic concedes that Dr Nkrumah’s vision to unite Africa for economic development has not been fully attained. Fifty-three years after the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, now the AU, that vision still appears an illusion.
Even at the level of self determination, Africa still has the uncertainty over the Saharawi Arab Republic to grapple with.
To a large extent, however, it can be said that Africa has attained self-rule, except that some of the countries are governed by people not chosen freely by their own people. Furthermore, the continent has made tremendous strides in democratic governance since the AU developed the capacity and the will to condemn coups d’état and isolate coup plotters from the respected club of the AU Summit.
All these strides are being made in the grim reality that the people of the continent are faced with serious challenges on the social and economic fronts. The continent is still faced with developmental challenges such as poor road networks, inadequate educational and health facilities, high levels of poverty, disease and illiteracy which governments across the continent must deal with in a more decisive manner.
In this day and age, African leaders can no longer have an excuse for failure. We need not reinvent the wheel, as the parameters for our children’s progress and improvement in the lifestyles of the people have already been set by the so- called developed world.
For us on the continent of Africa who live in similar circumstances like our brothers and sisters in Asia, we can learn useful lessons from countries such as South Korea, Malaysia, China, India and Thailand whose governments provided the necessary leadership to turn their economies into emerging giants capable of competing with the G-8 developed nations.
The Daily Graphic calls on the leaders of the continent to use the resources in their respective counties judiciously to improve upon the standard of living of their people.
Dr Nkrumah’s dream of the African continent is not the type that we are experiencing today. A truly liberated continent should be free from disease, poverty and squalor and, indeed, we have the means to achieve just that.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, commends President J.E.A. Mills for dedicating the year to the celebration of the centenary anniversary of Dr Nkrumah whose vision has served as a beacon of hope for Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora.
On this occasion, therefore, we call on the leadership and the youth of the continent to rededicate themselves to Nkrumah’s vision of a united Africa, from which will flow the real economic emancipation of Africa.
No comments:
Post a Comment