Onu challenges African leaders on development

Africa will realize its full potentials when leaders commit themselves to serving the interests of their nations and making their people the epicentres of development, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnnaya Onu, has said.

The minister spoke while delivering the fourth convocation lecture at the Nigerian Turkish Nile University in Abuja at the weekend with the theme: ‘The effect of the emergence of All Progressive Congress (APC) on the promotion of world peace’.

He lamented that while Africa is so rich that virtually all important minerals resources are found in commercial quantities on the continent, Africans are still so poor that many of them risk their lives and waive their human dignity as they desperately struggle to leave their homelands for foreign lands in search of better life.

The minister also noted that while people from other continents come to Africa in large numbers to take the continent’s resources and develop their various nations, Africans cannot use the same resources to develop their own countries for the prosperity of Africans.

He expressed discomfort on the tragedy that has befallen able bodied and promising young Africans who perish in the Mediterranean sea in the quest to seek better life in Europe.

According to the minister, the sea of Europe has been painted red by the blood of Africans who are escaping from the effects of poor leadership in their countries, to escape what is perceived as a hopeless life for rosy existence in European countries.

He however believes that all hope is not lost, taking a cue from the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari following the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and subsequent peaceful hand-over of power from a ruling party to an opposition party.