Poverty, main driver of conflicts in Africa – Achebe

Africa needs indigenous investment, not foreign aid
The fourth edition of the annual Chinua Achebe Colloquium has said that poverty, originating from leadership failure and bad governance, is the main cause of conflicts in the African continent, adding that what the continent needs is indigenous investment and not foreign aids.
The colloquium also raised concern that current security challenges and other acts of violence are a reflection of “deeper sociopolitical inequalities and pathologies. These were contained in resolution of the Colloquium released this week.
The colloquium, convened by Prof. Chinua Achebe, was held at the Brown University’s Perry and Marty Granoff Centre for the Creative Arts in the United States of America.
In attendance at the event, which held between December 7 and 8 with the theme: “Governance, Security and Peace in Africa,” were leading experts from the academia, business, non- governmental organisations, and governments from Africa, Europe and the USA. Features of the colloquium included discussions on “the complex security issues that confront African nations, security challenges surrounding the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, home-grown terrorism, and the persistence of ethno-religious insurgency,” which were noted as serious concerns that challenge institutions and good governance on the African continent.
Resolutions of the Achebe Colloquium include among others: urging African governments to work at growing “additional, dedicated indigenous investment and entrepreneurial groups rather than depend largely on foreign aid,” as according to one of the speakers, “foreign aid is morphine, what is really needed in Africa is a dedicated and thorough operation to remove debilitating poverty that robs the people of their dignity and makes them vulnerable to the manipulation of corrupt, selfserving, and divisive leaders and warlords.”
It also called on all Africans both home and abroad as well as the international community to promote good governance in the continent through the acknowledgement of outstanding remarkable African leaders like former presidents of Mozambique, Cape Verde and Botswana, Joaquim Alberto Chissano, Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires and Festus Gontebanye Mogae; recognition of the teeming African youth and children as the hope for a new cultural politics for the development of the continent, as the colloquium encourages African governments to create opportunities for citizens, especially the youth, to freely express themselves.
It added that: “By ensuring openness in governance, transparency, and increasing social spaces for young people to participate in the democratic process, African leaders could create a more conducive environment for politically negotiated settlements of conflict through dialogue instead of through arms.”
Other resolutions of the colloquium are the review of the strategic role of AFRICOM vis-a-vis African peace keepers and the African Union Mission in certain flashpoints around the continent like Somali, Sudan and Mali.
It also highlighted “the values and continuing roles of women in all African communities and countries and calling on all African governments to enhance and institutionally empower more women in leadership and government among other resolutions.

National Mirror