Africa-Press – Angola. Angolan MP Nelito Ekuikui, who leads the youth wing of UNITA, the largest opposition party, argues that the balance of 50 years of independence is “reasonable” politically, but there has been a setback in economic independence.
“Fifty years later, the assessment that can be made is reasonable. It’s reasonable to the extent that we achieved political independence. Today, we are a sovereign country, whose people enjoy political independence.
We can move around and speak on behalf of our country. This has been achieved.
“There’s a setback in economic independence,” he considers. Secretary-general of JURA, the youth organization of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the youth wing of Angola’s largest opposition party, Nelito Ekuikui was born 16 years after independence, when the country was engulfed in a civil war marked by foreign military interventions fighting on both sides of the conflict.
Nelito, baptized Manuel Armando da Costa Ekuikui, was born in Bailundo, Huambo province, into a family of guerrillas and is part of the royal lineage of the Ekuikuis, the Soma Inene (kings) dynasty of the Kingdom of Bailundo. His assessment of the 50 years of independence, which will be celebrated on November 11th, is bittersweet. While political independence is a fact, he laments that Angola continues to lag behind in economic independence.
“The two forms of independence must be united. Both political and economic. Unfortunately, there has been no progress in economic independence,” he emphasizes. “On the contrary. There have been setbacks, and these setbacks are visible.”
Fifty years later, the Angolan people, those who have some financial means, are emigrating. And from the former colony, no less,” he explains.
For Nelito Ekuikui, this trend “is the greatest defeat of a political regime. When its people have to turn to the former colonial power in search of better living conditions, health care, and education, then the system has failed.”
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