Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday said as long as adequate attention is not paid to youth unemployment, “all of us in Africa are sitting on a keg of gun powder”.
Obasanjo said this while playing host to Marcel de Souza, president, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, at his hilltop mansion in Abeokuta, Ogun state.
He lamented over the situation where African countries depend on food supply from foreign countries, wondering why a solution could not be proffered to the issue of starvation on the continent.
“I have maintained that all of us in West Africa, and indeed in Africa, are sitting on a keg of gun powder for as long as we do not pay adequate attention to youth unemployment,” he said.
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“A situation where more than 50 per cent of our youths are unemployed is extremely dangerous.
“We now have a situation in part of West Africa where people are dying of starvation. Is it that we are not producing enough food? Or if we are producing, are they not evenly distributed?
“It is shameful because that has led us to be begging international communities for supply of food to West Africa. It is not right.”
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The former president also said that a deeper economic integration among members of the ECOWAS would gradually stem the tide of youths’ unemployment in the region.
Obasanjo said it was high time the organisation started using single currency, saying the introduction of single currency by West African states would promote economic integration and progress within the region.
“We have decided that our unit of currency will be ‘eco’, let us now start using eco, let eco become our unit of currency,” he said.
“Single currency unit for ECOWAS states will bring about more development and growth among the states.”
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He stressed that economic integration of West African countries would guarantee development of the sub-region.
He contended that ECOWAS’s founding fathers never envisaged that internal conflicts would so much engage the sub-region’s attention.
“ECOWAS was established41 years ago, the expectation of all of us was very high, I think we will not be fair to ourselves if we do not say to ourselves we have not moved as fast as we expected,” he said.
“We must tell ourselves the truth that there has not been enough political will on our part to move the sub-regional organisation as fast and as far as we should have done.”
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He advocated a reform that would enable member countries to move beyond movement of goods and services.
The former president, however, declared that he would always make himself available for the ECOWAS services.
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“I will continue to make myself available in the service of ECOWAS, wherever you think my services will be needed, call upon me and am ready,” he said.
“What is important is that these communities of 320 million people will be lifted up, these communities should be marching along and we should get rid of internal conflicts.”
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Earlier, de-Souza said he was in Abeokuta to introduce himself to Obasanjo, as the newly appointed president of the commission and to also get his advice and orientation on matters concerning ECOWAS sub-region.
He emphasised that he was inclined to visit Obasanjo because the former Nigerian leader had always showed commitment to ECOWAS, adding that he came purposely to seek guidance.
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“Obasanjo is a special ECOWAS envoy to Guinea-Bissau, we have come to also find out if Obasanjo has come out with any solution to the crisis in Guinea-Bissau,” he said.
1 comments
It’s so strange that OBJ is aware of the marginalization of the youth and yet hardly did a thing to empower them during his years as the CEO of the most populous country in Africa. That’s a shame. Drawing on the issue of common currency, I believe we first need to redraw the continent and regroup the countries culturally, based on language and traditions to undo the commerce-driven div I sion employed by the colonial rascals. We must first free ourselves from that bandage tied to the loins of the West. In short, we must liberate the people first, restructure and indeed declare a country or at most two for Africa whereby the new structures or countries become States and unite as a country – United States of Africa. Do me a favor: close your eyes for five minutes and imagine a free, Western affiliated-free US of Africa with the potentials. A common currency would then make sense in bridging the economies of the States. Currently all of Africa are still the appendages of the colonial masters and modern slavery or human drainage is commonplace. I believe we can accomplish this in 50 years if we start now but definitely not with the Western-promoted advocacy for a common currency when indeed we can’t even print the currency bills by ourselves. We must stop deceiving our children and future generations that we are free. We are far from it. We’d be scammed, deceived, fooled and basterdized so perfectly most of us would remain and die that without the realization. Let OBJ, Buhari get off the scenes and empower the youth to appreciate the inherent potentials of the youths. We must allow their stars to shine. We must create the enabling environment to grab, free and restructure Africa, the potentially greatest clime yet to explode. C’mmon OBJ, let our people go; let the youths go!
[In a hurry]