Abuja – The speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara, has lamented that poor leadership by African leaders have left the continent underdeveloped, saying reliance on aids from the western world have left Africans more impoverished than before.
The speaker who made this known when he received the ambassador of Sudan, Ibrahim Bush, said that unless African leaders begin to practice governance that really puts Africans first, the development the continent needs will continue to be regarded as a dark continent.
The speaker explained that “It is unacceptable that our continent is still being characterised as a dark continent.
I sincerely believe that for us to make progress, leadership in Africa must be really for the people, certainly.
If we do that, there is no limit to potentials of an African. Unfortunately, we have been locked in a situation whereby leadership and governance as it is practiced has only tied us to aids from the western world.
Instead of us looking inwards, we have always looked outwards to aids that come to Africa and most cases, these aids have some strings attached to them that tend to imprison and impoverish our people more than liberating them and putting them on the ladder of economic prosperity.
So that is one thing we have to ensure is done across Africa, to provide the kind of leadership that lifts our people out of poverty and places them on the pedestal of economic growth and prosperity and that is something we can do when we further our cooperation and deepen our relationship with countries that occupy leading positions in Africa.”
Calling for cooperation and deepened relationship among leading African countries, he said this is one of the ways through which the continent can achieve its goals of development, stating, ”there is so much more, going forward, that we can do to provide the leadership that Africa needs for its progress.”
The speaker went further to assure the ambassador that the House of Representatives will work on working on agreements and treaties between the two countries to the benefit of Nigerians.
“I am also aware of the diverse agreements that we have signed. From your own side of the divide, you have even gone further to establish a special implementation committee with regards to agreements signed with Nigeria.
Unfortunately, it has not been done here but we are doing everything possible with powers available to the parliament to ensure that we get it off the ground so that we can work hard towards implementing those agreements that we’ve signed in order to ensure thaat our people benefit from that agreement,” he stated.
Dogara added, “As the House of Representatives, of course, we are the representatives of the people as the name suggests. We ensure that in whatever we are discussing, the interest of the people supercedes even our own interests as parliamentarians.
