Move Africa out of poverty— Patrick Lumumba
Lumumba
Kenyan Pan- Africanist and eloquent lawyer, Patrick Lumumba, has urged African leaders to move the continent out of poverty in line with Africa Agenda 2063 aspirations.
He was speaking at the weekend in Mangochi District during the 2019 Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi Annual Lake Conference.
He spoke on Harmonising Africa’s Resources for Africa’s Development; from third world to first.
In his speech, Lumumba kept on referring to the agenda’s seven aspirations which include inclusive growth, political unity, good governance, peace, strong cultural identity, people-driven development and influential global player and partner.
“My message is that Africa has no choice but to begin to harmonise her resources for the general good, and to do so, every African country must play her part,” he said.
“Malawi must utilise her central position within the continent, using her resources for purposes of ensuring that the promises made by our forefathers and re-articulated under the Africa agenda 2063 [are realised],” Lumumba told journalists on the sidelines of the meeting.
He said it was important for Malawi to give practical meaning to Africa Continental Free Trade Area and not miss out on the fourth industrial revolution.
Statistics provided show that the continental bloc would unite 1.3 billion people, create a $3.4 trillion economic bloc and boost trade on the continent.
“African countries have been organising themselves at the regional level. That is the realisation that once you harmonise processes, then through the regional blocs, you can have a continental arrangement and that is what justifies the continental free trade area and then you can also move towards a single currency and once you have a single currency, the economies begin to move at the same pace,” Lumumba said.
Commenting on politics and governance, Lumumba said nations on the continent were taking a paradigm shift in their understanding of democracy.
He said Africans were beginning to demand that their leaders do things in ways that could not be done few years ago.
“With some of the demonstrations which are relatively peaceful that I have seen here in Malawi or in Togo, people are simply telling the leaders that we want to be involved and we want to be involved in a constructive manner. It is not for the faint-hearted. There are going to be successes and failures, but as long as we follow what [Kwame] Nkruma said that ‘forward ever, backward never’, we will get there,” Lumumba said.
