Africa-Press – Eritrea. IT is time Africa unites whole heartedly to solve Africa problems with Africa solutions and bring stability and integration to its citizens for prosperity to flourish, it was disclosed.
Making the revelation, Kalamba Member of Parliament, Josephat Kandege, at a one-day conference organized jointly by the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) and the Tanzania Peace Foundation (TPF) and attended by more than 100 participants with the theme -“The Imperative of Post-Covid Recovery: How Can the Resolution of the Sahara Issue Spur African Stability and Integration?” in Dar es Salaam, on Sunday further said the citizens should first be assured of food security.
Citing the legacy of the Casablanca Charter and that of African forefathers, such as the eminent Julius Nyerere and Jomo Kenyatta, the participants insisted on the necessity to put a stop to all forms of separatism (political secessionism, religious extremism, identity disintegration) to achieve absolute pan-African priorities such as the implementation of the African Common Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the 2063 Agenda goals. As highlighted by the participants, “there is no room for secessionism in African societies today”.
Other facilitators, among them 25 speakers – Members of Parliament, former Ministers of Foreign Affairs and ambassadors, business leaders, experts and academics as well as civil society and think tank representatives – from Tanzania as well as the East-African Community and Southern African Development Community countries: the Comoros, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda resolved that African problems would only be solved by African solutions as laid down by the founding fathers of the nations.
Mr Kandgege equally noted that African states should embrace peace and promote trade that would guarantee its population ample time to engage in raising livelihoods and making economies to grow, adding: “The divisions and border conflicts will not create jobs to the youth…will not empower us to fight Covid-19 jointly.
“For instance Morocco has factories manufacturing fertilizers, which should be shared in the continent to improve agriculture. Why should we divert from tapping this opportunity to feed and guarantee the continent food? He posed.
On his part, the Star Editor from South Africa, Sifiso Mahlange said it is time current Africa leaders unite as a bloc and urge Africa Union (AU) to promote mass covid-19 vaccination collectively, adding that if only a segment of people are immunized, the disease will still spread at our own risk.
Commenting, the Pan African Congress Kenya Executive Director, Orlando Simba said: “Fellow Africans, it is time when we need to be bold and emulate the actions of our founding fathers and work towards inspiring the unity of our continent.
At Casablanca in 1961, our founding fathers Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta, Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria) among others stressed on the need for African unity to guarantee peace and prosperity, something that we miss, because the unity of this continent must supersede Nationalism and Statism (a political system in which the state has substantial centralized control over social and economic affairs).
“We must also work towards ensuring that each and every African live peacefully with security, health and education guaranteed, It’s only through that, that we can achieve the ever elusive economic freedom,” he added.
Another facilitator, University of Rwanda Senior Lecturer and former Dean of School of Economics and Government, Ismael Buchanan, said it is a blessing Tanzania was chosen to host the conference, because the country values peace building as the best way to address conflicts in the bloc.
“Supposing Mwl Nyerere would be here, he would advocate for peace to amicably solve border conflicts in the Sahara area, he didn’t want to see any African suffering and being addressed as Internally Displaced Person,” he added.
