Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Law School, Prof. P.L.O Lumumba, yesterday, in Lagos said that Africa was in a state of confusion, noting that until continent identifies its direction, the next 50 years would have been lost.
He also said the that tragedy of Africa was that the continent cared about things less important, while missing out on major things going on in the Western world. Lumumba, who was a guest speaker at the 16th edition of the NECCI PR roundtable, titled Unleash the Power of Public Relations, said Africa must ask itself a very critical question of where it wants to be in another 50years. He said: “It is unfortunate that today, I cannot come from Kenya to Nigeria without getting a Visa and a Yellow card. I felt how very difficult it is that after 50 years of independence for most African countries, movement from one African country to another remains an impediment and that is why we cannot realise our potentialities.
‘’When I arrived in Nigeria, I saw a wall clock which puts the timing of New York, Hong Kong on the wall and I ask myself, why don’t we have a clock that has the Nairobi time on this wall too. I told myself, there is a role the African Public Relations practitioners must play because we have refused to tell our own stories.
African population and GDP
“Today, the African population is about one billion people. Conservatively, the GDP of African continent is about $2.3 trillion and yet things are not moving in the right direction. Everybody knows the saying that we should go ye and subdue the earth but in Africa, we have been subdued by the earth itself.”
Even the resources we have are being enjoyed by the western world. This is very unfortunate. Even when I sat in this hall, when I look before me, there is a pen in front of me that is manufactured in China and I said to myself, why was this pen not manufactured in Nigeria because I know these country parades so many women and men of immense intelligence in different parts of the world and this made me realise that we must have this conversation and continue to have it in years to come.
“In the past, Africa was the centre of everything and we told our stories. But in this era of news gathering and dissemination, you will be told unless the news is packaged by CNN, BBC or Reuters, the news is not packaged at all.”
Corruption and Africa
Speaking on the effects of corruption on Africa at large, Lumumba said: “Corruption is endemic in Africa and Nigeria knows its problems with corruption, Senegal, Kenya and all these African countries have problems with corruption and we know the things corruption have brought on us. ‘’Nigeria today is an economic base of about $550 billion and the largest economy in Africa but Nigeria should be $3 trillion economy in Africa and Nigeria should be at the same level Brazil is currently but that is not happening because we have not done things the right way.
‘’We must begin to ask ourselves, what is it that we must do? We must do things that are sensitive to the realities of Africa because Africa remains one of the most unique continents of the world.”
He, however, said that for Africa to achieve its potentialities, Africans must believe in their own country and continent.
Creating a new Africa
He said: ‘’Moving forward, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. How can we do it? We need to create a new Africa with new men and women who can do things differently.” Earlier in her opening speech, the Convener of NECCI PR, Mrs. Nkechi Alli-Balogun, said Public Relations practitioners had a major role to play in eradicating corruption in Nigeria and Africa at large.
She said: “Public Relations has a role to play in fighting corruption and promoting awareness and attitudinal change.
‘’Corruption has eaten deep into the Nigeria society, such that anti-corruption fight alone cannot stop it. A change in attitude is essential. Public awareness programme with the help of civil societies will lead to this attitudinal change.”
Source: Vanguard Nigeria
