Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Charles Ogili, Conakry, Republic of Guinea
Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Paschal Agbodike, representing Ihiala Federal Constituency in Nigeria’s National Assembly, has urged members of the ECOWAS Sub-region, the whole Africa inclusive, to eschew mental slavery, and corruption for any meaningful development to occur.
Hon. Agbodike spoke on the sidelines of the just concluded ECOWAS Parliament Joint Committee delocalized meeting on Health/Education, Science and Culture/Telecommunications and Information Technology/Industry and the Private sector in Conakry, the Republic of Guinea.
Hon. Agbodike, who is a member of the committee on Industry, lamented that despite Africa’s rich endowment in human and natural resources that will support its development, Africa has stagnated.
According to the Parliamentarian, the orign of this could be found in what he termed “mental slavery,” whereby Africa is over dependent on western donors and former colonial masters for its development strides. He described this dependency syndrome as the albatross that has separated Africa from development.
His words: “The major issue we came to Conakry is Africa as it concerns our region, ECOWAS, the issue of health, how to achieve a healthy living in the ECOWAS region, education, and education for good health, industrialisation. Africa is richly endowed with every natural resource that will support its development and to excel, but the major issue that is bedeviling Africa is what I may termed ‘mental slavery’ , and that among others we are here to solve, proffering solution to our problems.
“Majorly, Africa can be said to depend on our colonial masters thereby falling prey to their deceptions and brainwashing. For this, we failed to realise that man is a bundle of possibilities. We are talking about health in Africa, if you go to the Western world today, the best doctors, the best nurses there, and all the health practitioners. The majority of them came from Africa. Why can’t we come together and build our place, so, that they will be coming to Africa for their medical check ups, for their treatment. But, after graduation from an African university, we travel to Europe seeking greener pasture. All these are part of those things African Parliaments, should come together, reason together and solve our ourselves, making us to believe that we are not second class citizens, rather, God created us to be first. ”
Hon. Agbodike regretted the ascendancy of brain drain in Africa with a spike in medical tourism consequent of Africa’s highly trained and skilled medical practitioners migrating to western countries for greener pastures. According to Agbodike, the dire situation of development in Africa should be a wake-up call to the leaders of Africa, to the leaders of ECOWAS to address the real enemy of Africa’s development, which is corruption. He further urged African leaders to be mindful of the main reason for Africa’ clamour for independence from the colonial masters which is to engender accelerated development.
He also warned African leaders to be wary of neocolonialism and strive to be independent in the real sense of the word instead of being too differential and slave to western strategic interests at the detriment of Africa’s interest.
According to Agbodike, with Africa as the cradle of civilization, all technological advancement and intrinsic knowledge in the world today have its roots in Africa. He further stressed that Africa should look inwards for its development and be united.
He said: “They show us little dollar, little pounds, so, whatever decision we are trying to make, they will now try to influence our deslcions we are to make. It will never support growth in Africa based on that reason and so many others, I am so much happy to be a member of ECOWAS Parliament, so that I can say the truth undiluted, the way it is because truth is that which can save us from this mental slavery we have been suffering from. I am not an abroad freak, I don’t need anything from them, rather my quest is to develop my country and develop Africa. I am not yearning tomorrow to go and live the western countries. As a law maker, I have my red passport, but I don’t use it. If I am sick, I treat my self in Africa, in my country. We should learn to be patriotic citizens of our countries and our region. Africa, we are one and we must maintain being one, we must love our brothers and sisters and think of Africa. Whenever you wake up, think of Africa, think of your country and ask yourself what have you done within 24 hours of the day to bring a lasting development, to be a problem solver as an African man. If I remember Julius Nyerere, the Nnamdi Azikiwe’s and those people who fought for independence of our various countries in Africa. In our national anthem, we used to say that the labour’s of our heroes past shall never be in vain. What are we doing to make the labour of those our leaders not to be in vain. Its not about amassing wealth, not about teaching our children the culture of the westerners forgetting our roots, forgetting that which make us to be an African man. We must maintain that reason God created us Africans and we shall remain so.”
According to Hon. Agbodike, the above reasons are why Africa found itself in a state of arrested development.
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