By Francis Sadhere
African envoys have challenged African leaders to find solutions to the mirage of problems bedeviling the continent.
These problems range from conflicts to abject poverty and underdevelopment, among others.
Zambian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Solomon Samuel Jere and his Ugandan counterpart, Acting High Commissioner, Nelson Ocheger, stated this, when a team from the Center for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ), a Non-Governmental Organization, visited them in Abuja to rub minds on the African Leadership and Security Summit scheduled for November 10, 2016 at the Shehu Ya’rdua Center, Abuja.
The envoys bemoaned that the continent has been inundated by conflicts for too long and agreed that Africa cannot continue to look to the west for solutions to her problems, urging the African leaders to formulate policies that would engender peace, security and sustainable development.
They advised African nations ravaged by conflicts to look inward and learn from other relatively peaceful countries in the continent and ensure end to such struggles as there would be no development without peace and security.
Specifically, Ambassador Jere, encouraged peaceful co-existence among the African states, as according to him, Zambia has since independence been initiating ‘’so many peace moves’’ in Africa and that the current government has taken ‘’the touch of peaceful coexistence’’ to the Zambian communities and other countries.
For his part, Ambassador Ocheger of Uganda, urged Africans people to be mindful of what is happening in their regions, maintaining that Africa must identify and proffer solutions to her problems.
He acknowledged that there were challenges in democratic rules in Africa as such Europe should not expect Africa to be like it overnight in democratic governance.
National Coordinator, CEPEJ, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, had told the envoys in a separate meeting about the aims of the summit, and underlined that there was no alternative to peace, stressing that ‘’without peace there is no development’’.
He commended Zambia for remaining peaceful several years after independence and Uganda for being able to work its way out of the protracted conflicts which had engulfed it.
