JK proposes steps to end Africa`s poverty

[Kichuguu]

President Jakaya Kikwete has cited unfriendly international environment for Africa as a key factor accelerating poverty in the continent and suggested seven steps to get the continent out of poverty.


Kikwete who was addressing participants to African Progress Conference in Madrid, Spain on Monday pointed out one of the factors as colonialism which he termed an unfriendly system which limited opportunities for Africa to conduct trade. Another was the lack of reliable markets for Africa to sell its products at fair prices.


“Other factors which were contributed by us included unproductive policies, lack of political harmony, fighting and overthrowing of governments “said President Kikwete. “We had no chance to think how we could fight poverty and develop our people because we concentrated on wars, and fighting for power,” President Kikwete added.
He however said that the African continent can get out of poverty by maintaining and protecting the successes which have been achieved, invest in human resource, improve education, provision of safe and clean water to the people and construct improved infrastructure including roads, electricity transmission lines and improve railways and ports.

President Kikwete said another area which could propel Africa forward if improved was agriculture. “70 percent of our people live in rural areas and their main activity is agriculture...This is the easiest area of getting these people out of poverty. Africa has only 10 percent of the world population but our continent has 30 percent of people living in extreme poverty globally,” Kikwete said.


He mentioned other areas which could advance the continent as industrial promoting, specifically in value addition through processing agricultural products. “We cannot continue to sell raw products to markets which are then processed into various products and sold to us at high prices,” he said. Another area was to increase capital inflows into Africa. Currently Africa gets only two percent of the world’s investment capital.


The Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodrigues Zapartero agreed with most of President Kikwete’s proposals, saying that Spain has decided to be part of and contribute to Africa’s development.


The one-day conference on the Progress of Africa held in Madrid on Monday was jointly organised by the Socialist and Workers Party of Spain (PSOE), African National Congress (ANC) and a non governmental institution Fundacion Idea of Spain.


Other African leaders who attended the conference were the Cape Verde, President Pedro Pires, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi; former President of Liberia Amos Sawyer, and the President of the ruling party in Ivory Coast Pascal Affi N’Guessan.

STEP 1:

an unfriendly system which limited opportunities for Africa to conduct trade. Another was the lack of reliable markets for Africa to sell its products at fair prices.

No! this is just another scapegoat used by African leaders for their failure to lead the continent. Since we believe in Market Economy, it is the market that decides what sells. USA consumers buy a lot of Chinese products because of the market forces, not because the US government encourages them to do so. China captured the US market and it has been accumulating massive wealthy because of that. Africa needs to develop products that can sell under market forces and stop crying foul.

Tanzania has a lot to sell but it virtually sells nothing: Tanzanite, Diamonds, and Gold sell very well in all of jewelry stores in US. Tanzania is the only world producer of Tanzanite, but if you go to any jewelry store, you will learn that Tanzanite is imported from South Africa! Tanzania is among the best 20 world gold producers, but what do we get out of those mines if not increased poverty because of the environmental degradation from these miners.

Why are other African countries like Botswana and South Africa doing well if the whole world really hates Africa that much?
STEP 2-5:

unproductive policies, lack of political harmony, fighting and overthrowing of governments “said President Kikwete. “We had no chance to think how we could fight poverty and develop our people because we concentrated on wars, and fighting for power,

There you go; and who is responsible if not African leaders, including Kikwete? Tanzania has had no war for more than 30 years now, and that war lasted for less that 6 months only. The Tanzanian government has never been overthrown since its existence.

Tanzania suffers from unproductive policies, lack of vision, and the struggle for power by our leaders, including Kikwete. He had to fight for power for 10 years, and now Lowasa is waging a continued fight for power which will total 20 years if he wins in 2015. People who dream of power only are never leaders, and will spend most of their time thinking of themselves instead of thinking of the people they lead.


STEP 6:

agriculture.

Now, what went wrong with our agricultural production?

The productive force immigrated to cities to be machingas, selling substandard Chinese products: Kikwete himself offered them with billions shillings to support their businesses. Those who remained in rural areas are living as if they were cavemen, with no hope for tomorrow.

Nyerere had planned to raise the standard of life in rural areas to the level found in cities so that the agricultural productive force will not be tempted to immigrate to cities. He never succeeded, but any other good leader of this age should have looked at why Nyerere did not succeed, and correct the plan. Unfortunately, starting with Ruksa, all leaders who followed have never had any interest in improving rural life; they only go there during the election season.

STEP 7:

industrial promoting,

We had our industrial base, and instead of finding ways to fix it, we decided to give it away. The problem here was caused by having leaders who never wanted to tackle tough problems, including Kikwete; they go for simple answers on all problems.

 

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tujiulize, hoja aliyoiwakilisha na mambo yake.... haya yote yeye ameyatekelezaje kwa vitendo???