At a meeting held at Fourah Bay College by the African Rising Organisation for the West African Region, National Youth Commissioner Ngolo Katta, said that since its establishment in 2016, the African Rising had sought to get Africans across the continent and in the diaspora to decide on the Africa they want.
Giving a brief background to the formation of the movement, Ngolo Katta maintained that on 24th August 2016, some 272 representatives from African Civil Societies, Trade Unions, Parliamentarians, Media Organisations, Faith-Based Organisations, women groups, disabled and youths from across Africa and the diaspora, committed to build a pan African group to speak strongly about their fate.
During that engagement, they condemned the plunder of the continent’s natural & human resources, suppression of freedom of fundamental Human Rights, and commit to an African group that recognizes the rights of all Africans to decide their fate. The conference, he furthered, recognized that Africa is the richest continent in the world and the wealth of Africa belongs to its people, Africa has a reservoir of resources. They resolved to build a citizens movement that is accountable to its constituencies, to continue to fight for women’s rights, focus on rights of equality, fight against corruption and ensure good governance and justice is achieved.
Ngolo Katta maintained that African Rising is a movement that should be considered to determine what we want our Africa to be, stressing that Education must be paramount, where every young person must have education. This should be Africa’s agenda, as Mandela said that education can be used to change the world. He furthered that they are focusing the development of peace and unity as the target for Agenda 2063.
Hadiru Yakuba from Ghana, in his introductory statement, said that the meeting is to gather views and perspectives of Africans on what they want Africa to look like and what they want to see in Africa.
The meeting went into group discussions and presentations on the various views by the various representatives.