Law Professor Patrick Lumumba is asking African leaders to sever ties with the world bank and the IMF because there will not be any solutions once they are tied to their strings.
Speaking on the second day of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial lecture series at the University of Cape Coast, the Kenyan professor of public law intimated that the solutions to the economies of Africa lie in fiscal discipline, reduction of deep-rooted corruption and the adoption of homegrown approaches.
He expressed disquiet about his unhappiness with African leaders throughout his series and said with the exception of the President of Tanzania, most Africa leaders are either engaged in one corrupt act or the other or supervising them with impunity.
Delivering a lecture on the economic re-orientation in Africa, Professor Lumumba stated that Ghana and most of the African countries will continue to wallow in poverty notwithstanding the abundant resources the continent is blessed.
This, he said, is as a result of the desire of many African leaders to mess up their economies and run to the IMF and the world bank for solutions, solutions he says are not available.
“If you remember the Latin Americans were in a similar situation not long ago, but they took a solemn decision that they were going to liberate themselves from the chains of the IMF and the World Bank. Chile, Argentina and Brazil did and today they have lifted their country into mid-level economies,” he said.
“Many African countries are still tied at the hip with the international monetary fund including your own Ghana. I can tell you that you will not get anyway as long as the IMF stands your way. I have always said that whenever the IMF and the world bank tell you that your economy is doing very well, you should be very worried,” he added.
Prof Lumumba wondered why Ghana that was blessed with a visionary leader in Dr Kwame Nkrumah in the construction of the Akosombo dam and other energy exploitations over half a century ago should be a pale shadow of itself in the provision of energy its people.
“Ghana, for which Kwame Nkrumah had great expectation generates not more than 3000 Megawatts for a slightly perhaps over 20 million people. Ghana which was the home of these ideas has invented and exported to Africa dumsor dumsor,” he said.
“Ghana is not alone in this regard, when one travels to Nigeria, the country with nearly 150 million inhabitants has the largest number of Ph. D. holders per capita in Africa yet you go to Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and the generators are alive,“ added.
Speaking on agriculture, he said, “Even your fish must come from far away China as if we were told that fish no longer love to live in the Volta river. Beyond the yam and beyond the plantain, we are importing everything. But yet African lands are incapable of feeding Africans. But our area of intervention in Agriculture we still our lands like they used to do in the days of Adam and Eve.”
“We do not manipulate our land, we still use the hoe and depend on rain-fed agriculture as if we have an unbreakable pact with God that it will always rain on time. But I remember that the divine instruction was very clear, ‘go ye and subdue the world’ why have we allowed the world to subdue us. If you can’t control your food, you are dead on arrival,” Prof. Lumumba said.
A special congregation was held in his honour and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Cape Coast.
The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial lecture saw Sir Sam Jonah, the Chancellor of UCC; the outgoing Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Dominic Dabire Kuupole; the Pro Vice Chancellor of UCC, Prof. George Oduro, Omanhene of Oguaa Traditional Area , Osabarima Kwesi Atta II as well as leaders of the various political parties in attendance.
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