Cape Coast, Jan. 18, - African
leaders have been urged to accept the comment by the United States President,
Donald Trump, describing Africa as a "shithole" as the bitter truth
which should propel them to do more to change the African situation.
Dr Kwebena Sarfo Sarfo-Kantankah,
a Political Analyst, who made the call said the comment should encouraged
African leaders to put in place pragmatic and immediate innovative solutions
that would save the masses from endemic poverty, corruption, unemployment and
create wealth for all.
Speaking in an interview with the
Ghana News Agency, Dr Sarfo-Kantankah, a Senior Lecturer at the University of
Cape Coast (UCC), urged African leaders to provide the needed leadership that
would redeem the continent from the quagmire of problems that made the place
unpleasant for its citizens.
"If Africa is so pleasant to
live, why are many of its people running away. A lot of her energetic youth
trek on the Libyan desert for days while others die on the Italian coast every
year just to flee from the unpleasant conditions in the continent,” he said.
President Trump is reported to
have referred to Haiti, Salvador and African countries as “shithole countries’”
while discussing immigration issues with a bi-partisan group of senators at the
White House last week.
President Trump has since denied
using such vulgar language, tweeting that “the language used by me at the DACA
meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough
was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!”
Dr Sarfo Kantankah said although
the comment from President Trump was derogatory and distasteful, African
leaders should tread cautiously, not to do anything that would affect the
bilateral and multilateral relations between America and the Continent.
He identified some of the major
challenges facing the continent to include unemployment, hunger, displacement,
environmental degradation and humanitarian crisis amongst others.
He said the continent had enough
quality and qualified hands to move it forward but required good leadership.
Dr Sarfo-Kantankah also bemoaned
the increasing levels of corruption which was fast eroding business confidence
and destroying the basic fiber of the Ghanaian society.
"Ghana is gradually drifting
to the tipping point of irredeemable corruption. Is there some salvation on the
horizon? Not if you listen to the political class and the debate in the media.
For them, corruption is not the issue.
“The issue is who is better at
it, which Party has been more corrupt. It tells us that we are in danger of
coming to accept the inevitability of corruption as our way of life. And there
is plenty of evidence that points in that direction,” he added.
Dr Sarfo Kantankah stressed that
the alarming level of corruption was destroying business, undermining national
governance, frustrating individuals and above all, eroding international
confidence in the country.
“We must accept that it is part
of the problems afflicting the economy today and while we ponder over policy
options, we must cry out for some act of courage to tackle the scourge of
corruption, not on the peripheries, but at the top,” he stated.
Dr Sarfo-Kantankah charged
Africans to begin to look inward for solutions to the myriads of problems
confronting the continent, adding that “they must stop the blame game and
collectively seek ways to solve various challenges militating against their
progress”.
GNA
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