Let's Use Our Education To Develop The Continent- Okyenhene
The Okyenhene Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin yesterday said Africans would continue to wallow in poverty unless they used the knowledge acquired through science and technology to develop the continent.
He said, most of the developed nations did not reach the level they are today because of their natural resources, but rather development was attained through the use of the knowledge they acquired through education.
'Countries are not rich because of natural resources they have but rather how they are able to use acquired knowledge to change their natural resources to bring wealth,' he said.
The Okyenhene, who was speaking at the seventh Global Advocacy meeting of WaterAid, an NGO, said it was common knowledge that Africa was one of the richest continents in terms of natural resources, yet remained poor.
He therefore called on the leaders to help bring hope to the thousands of people who remained poor, by providing them with the basic necessities of life.
The Global Advocacy Meeting is an annual WaterAid forum where representatives of all the 17 WaterAid Country Programmes, WaterAid UK, Water Aid America and WaterAid Australia meet to take account of advocacy and policy work during the previous year and also strategise for the coming years.
The Okyenhene said it was unfortunate that 50 years of continuous education for Africans had till date not been able to bring about the desired impact for the people.
'Ghana and Sudan occupy the first two positions on the global guinea worm disease table. 'We have become rich in hunger, poverty, conflicts, diseases, corruption, anarchy and dictatorship,' he said, adding that the problems of Africa were compounded by the lack of safe drinking water.
'Only 28 per cent of rural dwellers in Ghana have access to good drinking water, while all the cocoa, yam, cassava, maize and rice come from the rural areas,' the Okyenhene said. He advocated that chiefs should educate their people on family planning, since with smaller population sizes Governments would be able to provide basic necessities such as potable water and sanitation facilities.
'We should teach our women how to control their fertility rates, so that they would be able to have smaller family sizes and stay healthy,' he said.
Ms Barbara Frost, Chief Executive Officer, WaterAid said it was WaterAid's desire to see more people with access to water and have good sanitation in the coming years. 'We can do this by inspiring people to appreciate sanitation issues and practice them,' she said.