The minority leader in the National Assembly Honourable Halifa Sallah has said that 250 million Africans are living in abject poverty in spite of the abundance of natural resources on the continent, apportioning blame on inept leadership.
Speaking during a symposium organised by the Pan-Africanist Students Association of Nusrat Senior Secondary School recently Honourable Sallah said that continental Africans are hard done by as a result of increasing poverty amidst the abundance of fruits, fish and other mineral resources, which could have been used to transform Africa into a prosperous entity.
'We are still living in alarming poverty', he said, adding that African leaders are to be rightly held responsible for the continent's backwardness. Honourable Sallah vilified them as selfish seekers of state power, who enrich themselves by exploiting our natural resources.
He said that because African presidents like to prosper at the detriment of the masses, it would be difficult to banish poverty in which 250 million people live.
He said because of their selfish preoccupation our leaders could only do little to develop their countries. The rate of corruption unemployment and poverty continue to ravage the entire continent he said.
Honourable Sallah also apportioned blame on former colonial powers for the continent's underdevelopment. He urged participants particularly Roots homecoming delegates to seek knowledge as it is the tool for understanding the past.
He argued that a human being who has knowledge would easily know what he or she deserve.
Honourable Sallah informed delegates that African forebears were forced into slavery, which perpetually depopulated Africa and depleted its human resources. He said on the other hand millions of Africans were shipped from Africa to work in American plantations used to feed manufacturing industries in Europe with raw materials. He added that after American independence raw materials were no longer transported to Europe for manufacturing but were left in America, a situation which he said led gradually to the abolition of slavery, paving the way to colonialism. He said colonialism had the same exploitative characteristic with slavery as it meant the use of Africa's mineral wealth. He explained that during colonialism Africans were unnecessarily taxed, dehumanized and denied education. He said few Africans who were fortunate to be educated were only to serve as intermediaries or translators.
Honourable Sallah further criticised former colonial powers for not doing enough to engage Africa trade-wise to boost its economic development.
He said European companies bought African raw materials at negligible prices and processed them into finished goods, which were are brought back to Africa with a prohibitive price tags. 'While Africa gets poorer and poorer Europe develop' he observed.
Honourable Sallah said this was why Africans needed to take charge of their destinies and work collaboratively to eradicate poverty.