“Democratic negotiation for political mandate remains the most viable means of governance for humanity.”
A continental pro-democracy organization, Pan-African Radical Congress (PARC), organized a zoom conference, to deliberate on a way to break the yoke of re-colonization being cunningly introduced through military interventions on the continent asserting that, “Democratic negotiation for political mandate remains the most viable means of governance for humanity.”
The convention held between Saturday, 5th and Sunday, 6th August 2023 online themed,
“Africa, PRIME TO BREAK THE YOKE OF NEO-COLONIAL DESPOLIATION’’.
Below is the Communiqué issued at the end of Special Peer Review Session of Civil Society Organisation Conference held in Lagos on Saturday, 5th – Sunday, 6th August 2023.
PAINFUL OBSERVATIONS
The Pan-African Radical Congress held a ‘Special Peer Review’ in Lagos on Friday, 5th – Saturday, 6th August 2023 on challenges facing the African people. The conference was themed: ‘Breaking the Yoke of Re-colonisation.’ The Conference called on African leaders and Statesmen to brace up for the challenges of breaking the yoke of re-colonisation, instability, poverty, reverse developmental mentality of leadership in the continent. The session had in attendance, representatives of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from Kenya, South-Africa, Ghana, Libya, Uganda and Nigeria.
The Session, which conducted a holistic review of the situation on ground, noted the continent’s faltering strides at sustainable developmental policies, stable democratic polity, good governance, citizens’ social investments and inability to take highly needed technological and industrial leap.
The Conference was gravely disturbed with reports of volatile spate of insecurities and destabilization of African societies, the pitiable plights of the people, pointing out the dire imperatives to challenge subtle re-colonisation of the continent by foreign powers both State and non-State actors. The session noted that the exploits of African Women soccer teams in the on-going FIFA Women World Cup tournament indicates a clear signal that Africa is set to, and can play prime roles global affairs, if it only its political leaders can shatter and discard the manacles of Wily-Nilly, enslavement by the economically advanced and technologically industrialised world powers.
The congress lamented the shameful facts that Africa and its peoples are victims of ‘Double Pauperisation’ amid abundant natural and human resources.
The parley lamented that, African citizens are viciously exploited, oppressed and brutalised by their puppet ruling elites and at the same time, by the global powers from the West, East and United States of America, USA. Vast majority of , according to the conference are dangerously exist below the poverty datum line, subsisting on less than One Dollar [1$] per day!
The session noted that the global economic meltdown occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown had more devastating toils on the continent because of its endangered status as ‘Global Foot mat.’ Yet, all performance indicators showed that political leaders across the continent are not gearing up for the historical necessity for an Africa Rescue Mission! Rather, most climes are bogged down with proxy wars of attrition on behalf of rainbow colourations of imperial foreign powers.
This, the conference described as an unsavoury comment on nation recorded as the source of human civilisations and concluded that it is undisputed fact of history that the Pharaonic Egypt is not only a Black Civilisation, but equally the precursor of virtually all spheres of contemporary developments of mankind.
The Conference noted with trepidation that the African continent is seemingly on spiral slides to either full subjugation or extermination of its aborigines by other more advanced climes, suspecting it to be the first steps for the actualisation of this sublime agenda is the on-going re colonisation processes in the continent.
Deliberating on the Travail of a traduced continent, the conference went historical, revealing that; Africa, with over One and a half billion (1.5Billion) people has a land mass area of 11,724,000 Square miles with a breath-taking avalanche of natural resources, from friendly climatic conditions, Agriculturally-friendly vegetation, extremely blessed with plethora of aquatic and terrestrial species as well as infinite deposits of natural resources.
According to the CSOs, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria and Angola have Crude Oil deposits, Niger has Uranium, Botswana and Congo D.R. have Diamond while, Ghana and Mali have gold just to cite a few vintage examples of natural resources of African countries being plundered by foreign countries with stronger economic / military complex and their Trans – National Corporations.
With their superior technologically driven, industrial economy as well as monopoly of global Finance–Capital Institutions, foreign nations dictate extremely unfair, uneven market exchange rates to covet Africa’s natural resources. This scramble for the continent’s resources led to the colonisation of Africa in the 17th and 18th Century by European colonial powers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Belgium.
The Pan Africa Conference of Civil Society Organisations therefore canvassed for leaders and citizens of Africa to demand urgent review of the present international trade, market exchange mechanisms that is fraudulently skewed and treacherously designed to perpetually undervalue, short-changed the African countries in the payment for their natural resources.
Better put, a global exchange system that ensured that unfettered looting of African natural resources is a ‘pleasant cut-throat enterprise’ – only snag is that Africans were docilely bamboozled to put our necks on the line for our throats to be cut!
It was against this backdrop that the Conference decried pugnacious facts of Africa being consecutively brutally raped by various nations over historical ages and phases, noting with disgust the ugly manifestations of the scramble for African natural and human resources, spanning thousands of years.
Going down the memory line, the conference further regretted that the continent was first enslaved and exploited by Arab forces through the Trans-Saharan slave routes for Five Hundred years, later by European powers for another Five hundred years Trans–Atlantic slavery and colonisation. It thus forebodes a terrible omen that despite the establishment of global platforms like the United Nations (UN) to maintain global peace, cooperation and development, this gruesome, tragic traumatisation of Africa persists without restraints!
The continent, the CSOs lamented, that, to say the least “is really on death throes, bleeding to death by foreign vicious foreign subjugation and exploitation,” regretting that, “contemporary re colonisation of the continent is shaped in sobriquet, labyrinth processes of political and economic manoeuvrings of the governance and leadership in the continent.”
This, the CSOs agreed entails organised entrenchment of corruption, grafts, bribery and unfathomable debauchery of ruling elites; proliferation of arms and ammunitions transaction to State and Non–State actors; propping up of anti-people, puppet regimes – often times, despotic rulership; incitement of ethnic–nationalities’ cleavages; pretentious establishment of military bases, ostensibly for the façade of maintaining global peace but real mission to protect foreign interests while undermining sovereignty of African States and people.
“That the deceit also includes but not limited to provision of Greek Gifts of purported Developmental Grants, Humanitarian Aids and the snares of bonded, bogus loans,” the conference narrated warning that, “If we must redeem our collective humanity, we must come to unanimous consensus that all these constitute crimes against humanity and must be condemned in its entirety.
“So, we condemn this re-colonisation scramble tearing our Great Africa continent into shreds and call for immediate halt.”
Participants regretted and were heartbroken to observe how Africa is being bled to death by foreign forces scrambling for control of its enormous resources without a hoot of care for the survival of the continent and its people, lamenting that the traditional, erstwhile colonial European powers along with their new entrant partners like Japan, the Eastern powers as represented by the BRICS Bloc – Brazil, Russia, India, China and even South Africa are all jostling for spheres of control in the continent!
This, they say, is compounded by the emergence of intensively armed, ruthless, mercenary forces employed by Trans – National Corporations to protect their lecherous business exploitations. This scramble has provoked crisis, insecurities, terrorism, destabilisation of polities and mass pauperisation, sufferings, and hardships on African people.
These Foreign Forces of Scramblers are the unseen hands in many wars of attritions, open armed belligerencies, terrorism, and out military putsches take-over of democratic government citing a vintage example of this global power play is the situation of the recent coup de tat in Niger Republic.
According to the conference attendees, the Niger military coup is a major concern for democratic governance and rule of law, particularly coming on the heels of similar coups in Mali, Chad, and Guinea while Sudan is still battling internal, armed civil war, of course, stringed by foreign powers.
“There is a fever of clamour to engage in military options to return Niger Republic to constitutional and democratic governance. This has polarised global and foreign powers along the lines of those in support of the coup like France and those for return of democratic government led by the U.S.A, perhaps, we may also add ECOWAS under Nigeria steering. It may be apposite at this juncture, to recall the admonitions of Italian Prime Minister that military solutions to the military incursion of democratic space in Niger may become an ill wind that blows no one, no good. She also highlighted ebulliently the nature of French of assimilation of African countries into its neo colonial orbits at detriment of the States.
Despite all manoeuvres, the conference stood its ground that, they are not hoodwinked by its commitment to peoples’ mandate through democratic processes not to notice the apparent bastardisation of this system by African leaders.
“Many did not only emerge in powers through credible democratic processes, nor demonstrate eagerness for requisite electoral reforms, many on the other hand transformed into sit-tight, despotic rulers riding roughshod over their citizens. The greatest sin however is the inability of most so-called democratic leaders to deliver palpable gains of democracy to ameliorate the sordid conditions of squalor of their citizens.
“This is largely because the political and economic ruling class serve first the rapacious interests of their foreign powers’ patrons, and thereafter, like kleptomaniac who they are corner the little remaining resources, leaving nothing to address the needs and yearnings of the citizens.”
While identifying this situation as providing fertile grounds for undemocratic takeover governance, the Conference observed as the root cause of most armed conflicts and violent conflagrations in the continent, strongly believe that democratic negotiation of political mandate remains the most viable means of governance for humanity. It is the most correct means of meeting up with the social aspirations of the Africa continent and its hapless citizens.
At the end of the jaw-jaw, the Pan African Civil Society Organisations Conference therefore, resolved on the following Five Cardinal positions: –
i. Peoples’ Democracy, providing concrete, sustainable panacea to social needs and aspirations of citizens is the pathway to attain for the African continent to attain its full potentials, peace, prosperity and development.
ii. Dire Imperative for the rejigging of the powers, strategic objectives and mode of operations of global institutions like the United Nations, International Court of Justice, even the African Union to be able to take up cases of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ that has been committed African people over time and history yet subsisting unabated.
iii. Creation of New Social Economic Order that shall address unfair, uneven global market exchange mechanism to offer equitable compensation for African natural resources.
iv. Immediate halt to undemocratic, armed intervention in governance, commencing with restoration of the recent militarily ousted democratic government of Niger Republic.
v. If diplomatic entreaties fail, the military options should become last resort. The Conference therefore calls on African leaders and Institutions to mount pressure on the military junta to respect and restore Democratic Order. The cost of war and its social consequences would be too fatal for the continent to bear.
vi. Conference resolved to commence a Campaign for 100,000,000 ( Hundred Millions) Signatories on AFRICAN CITZENS’ PETITION AGAINST MILITARY COUPS TO BE SUBMITTED TO GLOBAL LEADERS, INSTITUTIONS LIKE THE U.N, A.U., ECOWAS and DIPLOMATIC COMMUNITIES.
Below are the signatories to the Communiqué:
Razaq Olokoba Chaiman, Pan-African Radical Congress, Omotaje Olawale-Saint, President, Work-Bond International Network (WIN), Gbenga SOLOKI President Centre Against Injustice and Domestic Violence (CAIDOV), Nelson Ekujumi, Executive Director, Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM) and Comrade Linus Okoroji.
Also participating were delegates from South Africa, Kenya, Libya, Uganda and Ghana.
