WHAT IS THE SOLUTION TO AFRIKA'S CHALLENGES?
SPEECH BY EZE CHIMERE NWAUZO CHAIRMAN OF OAF @OAF FIRST PAN-AFRIKAN CONFERENCE 19 AUG 2018

Greetings to all Afrikans all over the world I am Eze Chimere Nwauzo Chairman of the One Afrika Family Organization welcoming you once again to our first Pan-Afrikan Conference.

Our Dream Is prosperity for every Afrikan, and our vision is to Lead Afrikans from last to first.
Once again thank you for honoring our invitation.

The first Pan-Afrikan Conference was organized In London in the year 1900 by Sylvester Williams and other black leaders.

Between 1900 and 1945, Afrikans met more than 5 times to discuss the conditions of blacks in the world,
 the role of Afrika in world history,
 Issue of Colonization of Afrika and to press for eventual independence of Afrikan states. 

Today, almost all Afrikan states have gotten their "independence", blacks now have more control over their affairs than before the first Pan-Afrikan Conference was held in 1900.

 All these successes prove the fact that unity is strength and that Kwame Nkrumah was right in saying "there is no force however formidable that a united people cannot overcome" and that ultimately, the Pan-Afrikan Conferences were really successful.

 For us the Afrikan Family today, we have looked around and seen that truly all is still not well with us:
That despite the independence our ancestors fought for have been gotten:

that we now have our own Presidents or prime ministers, Governors, lawyers, senators,
and we now seem to be in control of our economy, health, education etcetera yet we find out we are still at the bottom of the ladder just like yesterday:

We have abundant resources which we export as raw materials, import as finished products and still complain that millions of us are still unemployed and are in poverty just like it was, yesterday;

From time to time we go to the polls to vote, but the people who we elect now turn out to be our rulers rather than our leaders;

We have independent states of our own yet we still find that our  affairs, our lands, our resources, our beliefs, our ethnic cohesion are still under some form of indirect control;

We are independent yet we are not free
It has finally dawned on us that independence is not freedom
And that colonialism is not the last stage of imperialism.

Therefore we are now left with the bitter truth that the battle is not yet over.

Now what Afrikans  are asking are today are:
 where do we go from here?
How do we become entirely free?
How do we become entirely free from imperialism,
free from nepotism
Free from tribalism, corruption and dictatorship?

How do we lift the hundreds of millions of our people from poverty to prosperity?
How do we use our God-given resources to build a world we can be proud of?

How do we solve Afrika's problems?
What is the solution to the Afrikan Challenges?

In the Berlin Conference of 1884, the entire Afrika was shared like a piece of meat between Colonizers.

After the Conference was concluded  in 26 February 1885,
 We couldn't stop our people from being murdered in millions;
We could not stop our civilizations from being destroyed;
Our people were dispossessed, as our lands were taken from us   and our nations were being reduced to colonies one after the other right before our eyes.
We were divided into colonial states by the colonisers, to the colonisers and for the benefits of the colonisers
 And Afrika is still very much colonised up up till today.

In what ways today are we even better off than yesterday?
Look at how we are the poorest continent and people out of all people in the world:
more than 400million Afrikans are living in extreme poverty without access to food, water and shelter the basic necessities of life, how is that life?

Look at how Afrikan youths are trekking across the hot deserts, drowning in the deep blue sea, being enslaved in Libya just because they want to crossover from Afrika to Europe. WHY?

Why must we be fleeing from Afrika the cradle of civilizations?

Why can we build something greater than we had yesterday, why?
Why can't the resources in Afrika be used to develop or to redevelop Afrika? Why

Afrika's population has been increasing rapidly, growing from 221 million in 1950 to 1 billion in 2009.  The current population of Afrika about 1.29billion is about 16.64% of world population, yet the production in Afrika is only about 2.4% of world production.

 Nearly half of all children in inner Afrika are living in extreme poverty, how are we going to cope in the year 2050, 32 years from today, when 1.3 billion people are going to be added to the population of Afrika making our population to be about 2.2 billion people, how are we going to cope then if 47.5% Afrikans live in poverty today
?

Some believe that Afrika is cursed, that Afrika is doomed to eternal bondage, that there is no solution to Afrika's challenges and that the black is a curse.
Is Afrika cursed? If Afrika was cursed, then why is Afrika the cradle of all  civilizations in the world?

Why were Afrikans at the forefront of civilization for thousands of years as stated by all historic facts and evidences if Afrikans or blacks were cursed?

Afrikans as a fact have the greatest history and a great future, yes, today we are deep in challenges, but there is no challenge that cannot be overcome, there is no problem without the solution and we the One Afrika Family we do not only believe in Afrikan Progress, we know that we shall achieve the progress that we Afrikans dream of.

Now the question is what is the Afrikan Solution?
The belief that the key to Afrikan progress lies somewhere is right in our heart, but the question is "what is it?"

Is it in religion?
The most prosperous states have not always been the most religious states. Religion can only bring success in the light of truth and not in the abundance of zeal, what is the truth that religion has to tell us about Afrikan Progress?

Is the Afrikan solution more education?
We have education, yet instead of productivity, we have unemployment. Yes we need  proper education to point to us the way forward,
 to teach us something we obviously have ignored or have trifled or perhaps not yet fully applied to make us move forward.
What should education teach us to do first for the progress of Afrika?

Or Is the Afrikan solution independence?

Some of the founding fathers of Afrikan states taught that what they needed was Independence, 50years later, the only things we have are our own flags, UN representatives, Presidents and other things remain the same.

Is it more agriculture?
Over 55% of Afrikans are into Agriculture yet we have 430million people starving every day, while only less than 2% of America feed all the 326 million Americans and still have much to export.

Or freer elections?
How can we conduct free elections when we are not yet free?
What about our best leaders like Sankara and Gadafi who were cut short while in office?

None of these is the Afrikan solution, they can only point to the Afrikan solution.

 if we check Afrika after independence and America after Independence we will begin to understand why America became the top while Afrika remained below after independence.

After America won her independence in 1783, in 1787 they came together, all the thirteen former colonies that made up the American confederation and formed the United States of America.

Today, you cannot do anything serious in the world without America being the leader.
Today America has more influence than even Britain that colonised them.

Today, American Dollar is almost the world currency: we trade our oil, gold, BitCoin, cars etc in dollars, while no Afrikan Currency is being used in serious trade inside or outside Afrika.

The GDP of America is about $20 trillion, while the total GDP of all 55 Afrikan states is less than $3trillion.

But not only America had the same success story:

When four nations came together in 1922 and formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR those nations knew the power of unity in the face of a competitive world.

From a collection of poor states, they were able to rise to the second most powerful nation in the world, and the second largest economy in the world.

For we Afrikans, a people who have been enslaved, colonised and still under a threat of neocolonialism why should we need to be told that we need to unite to rebuild and reconstruct Afrika?

Can't we see that even the weak become strong when they are united?
And those who refuse to unite are ruled by those who are united.

 Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who was voted the greatest Afrikan for the last one thousand years  exclaimed

 "it is clear that we must find the Afrikan solution to the Afrikan challenges and that Afrikan solution is Afrikan Unity"

America had to unite,
The USSR had to unite
China had to unite
And the whole world had to follow their lead
The Divided will always follow the United

We are the poorest people in the world and we have our eyes on the top, why don't we unite and get there together?

Not only Dr Kwame Nkrumah agrees that the Afrikan Solution we have been waiting for is Afrikan Unity:

In the 5th panAfrikan conference held in 1945, All blacks from all over the world came to the conclusion "Afrika Unite"

 Marcus Garvey the renowned Leader of the UNIA also said
Afrika Unite

According to famous scholar of Afrikan history and languages Cheik Anta Diop
"Afrika unite"

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah wrote it as a book with the title
"Afrika must unite"

Former President Julius Mwalimu  Nyerere of Tanzania told us to
"work for unity with the full assurance that without unity there is no future of Afrika"

And Muma Gadafi put into action and showed in simple terms that Afrika can Unite,
Afrika must unite and
Afrika will be great again when Afrika Unites

And I Eze Chimere Nwauzo support the wisdom of our leaders by asserting
"Afrikan Unity is the Foundation of Afrikan progress and the first mission of any genuine Afrikan leader must be to Unify Afrika"

As it is written, and in the song of Bob Marley
 "Behold how good and how pleasant it will be to see the Unification of Afrika"

And the Afrikan Proverb says
"If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together"

Even Economics teaches us the principle of Division of labour: how we produce much more together and so little alone.

That which religion should teach us,
That which education should teach us,
That which history, independence, colonialism every factor around us: good and bad Should teach us is that we need to Unite to make progress, Afrikan Unity is Afrikan progress.
No Afrikan state can be free alone, all Afrikans must unite to be free together.

When slavery got to a peak in the Caribbean Islands in 1791, it was the unity of all blacks under the leadership of Touissant L'Ouverture that overthrew the forces of slavery and abolished slavery in Haiti.

When there was Jim Crow racism against blacks in America, it was the unity of  blacks under Martin Luther King and Malcolm X that brought the prejudice against blacks in America down to its knees, and it is also Afrikan unity that will lead Afrikan-Americans from last to first in Amerika.

When the world was wondering if Afrikans ever contributed anything to world development, it was Pan-Afrikanism that challenged that notion of black inferiority and proved to the world that not only did Afrika contribute to the civilization of the world, but that Afrika is the birthplace of humanity and civilization and that for thousands of years Afrikans were at the forefront of all world progress.

When Afrikans thought that being black was a curse, or a limitation or a disadvantage, it was Pan-Afrikanism that made us realize that blacks were in no way inferior to whites and that "the black skin is not a symbol of shame but a badge of national Honor"

When Nelson Rohlila Mandela challenged the evil of apartheid in South Afrika in the 1940s up to 1990s, it was the united efforts of Afrikans all over the world that destroyed apartheid and brought Mandela out of prison in 11 February 199o.

After the Colonial Conference of 1885 it was Afrikan Unity, it was the pan-Conferences first announced that it was time for the independence of Afrika.

When the colonisers wanted to colonize Afrika, they united at the Berlin Conference, if only Afrika was united and not Divided, Afrika have been safe and not enslaved

And If not for Afrikan unity, Afrikans would have still being under direct colonialism,

If not for Afrikan Unity there would never have been  independent today,

If not for Afrikan Unity,  the whole world would have still been thinking that Afrikans contributed nothing to civilization

If not for Afrikan Unity, being black would have still being a curse

But today, Afrikan Progress is not yet enough, because Afrikan Unity is not yet given enough opportunity to better the lot of Afrikans
Because if we knew the meaning and power of Afrikan Unity, we would say "let Afrika Unite tonite".

Afrikan Unity,, is Afrikan progress

Afrikan Unity is Afrikans coming together as a family to decide how Afrika should be, how Afrika should not be;

Afrikan Unity is Afrikans working Together toward Afrikan Progress.

Afrikan unity is the three dimensional force that liberates and prospers Afrikans anytime, any day and anywhere.

The three dimensions of Afrikan Unity are
The global unity of Afrikans
The continental unity of Afrika
The ethnic union of Afrika

The global unity of Afrikans is the foundational unity of Afrika,  the global coming together of 1.29 billion Afrikans at home, and hundreds of millions of people of Afrikan descent abroad as one big family under "One God, One Aim, One Destiny," as Marcus Garvey taught us in the days of the UNIA

The global unity of Afrikans began the push for Afrikan independence, and gave us the wisdom that after independence, let us not turn aside from that principle through which The Lord gave us independence.

To achieve Afrikan Freedom, we must Unify Afrika into one nation, one people, one Afrika for all Afrikans: the United States of Afrika that is it, that is Afrikan Freedom.

To have a govt that commands respect in the world
"Afrika must unite";

To go beyond independence to full freedom for all Afrikan people and states
"Afrika Unite"

To end ethnicism and xenophobia and make Afrikans see fellow Afrikans as brother and sisters rather than rivals and killers
"Afrika unite";

To allow the talents and skills we have in Afrikans to be a blessing to Afrikans
"Afrikans Unite";

To reclaim fully the history of Afrika, the great deeds of Afrikans which are not being taught in schools;

 As Patrice Lumumba of Congo once famously said

" The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history which will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations Afrika will write its own history and in both north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity"

To reclaim this great Afrikan history and secure today's prosperity
"Afrika Unite"

When Afrika Unites
We shall have peace and progress needed to rebuild Afrika because we shall join our hands, and minds and hearts to build the United States of Afrika.

We know on the way of Afrikan Unity lies some challenges as the adage says that nothing good comes easy.  But while we look at how big or how tall and large the mountains that stand on our way, let us remind ourselves

"That whatever stands on the way of Afrikan Unity, stands on the way of Afrikan progress. And the same we strive against the forces that stand on the way of our progress,  so.let us UNITE against the forces that stand against the Unification of Afrika.

We shall not let tribalism, or ethnicism be tall enough mountains  to stop  the United States of Afrika,
 we shall overcome them all when we sit down on the roundtable of brotherhood refusing to stand until the last ethnic problem is resolved and the united States of Afrika is united in heart and mind and the ethnic groups of Afrika shall see each other as one and fellow Afrikans

 and the United States of Afrika shall rise as a star admired from near and afar  with prosperity for every Afrikan.

Long live Afrikan Unity the Afrikan Solution
And long live the United States of Afrika
Unite Afrika Unite!!!