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Freedom only meaningful with peace and development - KK

Freedom only meaningful with peace and development - KK
Written by Agness Changala, Mutale Kapekele and Maluba Jere
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 2:03:45 PM

DR Kenneth Kaunda has said freedom can only be meaningful under conditions of peace, economic and social development. And the dean of the diplomatic corps in Zambia Ambassador Khalifa Omar has said Africa's liberators did not just want independence from colonial masters but to unify the continent under one government.

Addressing members of the diplomatic corps on the eve of Africa Freedom Day at Nigeria house, Dr Kaunda said Africa was facing many daunting challenges.

"Africa has challenges of poverty and underdevelopment, which are giving rise to incidents of tension and instability in some of our countries," Dr Kaunda said. "We still have challenges of illiteracy and ignorance. Challenges of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS. Challenges of looking after millions of orphans as a result of the AIDS pandemic. Challenges of graft, corruption and exploitation of man by man. There is no doubt that these are daunting challenges which demand our collective efforts to overcome."

He said there was a great need to preserve the legacy of the founding fathers of the continent who believed in succeeding generations to build on their aspirations.

"They [founding fathers] led us to freedom in the most remarkable way in the belief that their succeeding generations will build on their foundation and aspirations to attain sustainable social and economic development," he said. "In their honour therefore, we have a duty and responsibility to rise above the many challenges we face in order to make our continent and its people prosperous. I would like to add that the founding leaders I am talking about were visionaries who conducted themselves with the highest degree of dignity, honour and humility...Their legacy is legendary and therefore worth preserving for posterity."

Dr Kaunda also said the success of the continent greatly depended on the promotion and support of the manufacturing industry.

"The key to our success will to a large extent, depend on the steps we take towards promoting and supporting the manufacturing industry," he said. "This sector will no doubt enable us create wealth and jobs for our people and ultimately to improve the levels of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our countries. We also have great potential in the tourism industry which has the capacity to create many jobs."

He said the continent's development agenda could only be achieved if infrastructure development was sped up.

Dr Kaunda called on governments to strengthen partnerships with the private sector to create "conducive conditions for the people's participation in the economies of their countries and enable our nations to register positive growth which is sustainable as well as regional integration which will lead us to prosperity."

He urged Africans to uphold principles of peace, harmony and development.

"The responsibility to develop our continent rests with us as a people," Dr Kaunda said. "I believe that the decisions we make today and not the chances we take, will guide our destiny."

Earlier, Ambassador Omar, who is also Libya's envoy to Zambia, called for strengthened cooperation between African countries as a step towards a union government.

"The freedom fighters never stopped at just getting independence for their respective countries but struggled to achieve the union and unifying the people of the African continent," Ambassador Omar said. "We need to enhance cooperation between our countries in all sectors for the sole purpose of development and prosperity. The African continent has proved to the whole world with its strong desire and determination that it can manage to realise the dream of her leaders by establishing the African Union, which is considered as the real beginning of the formation of the African Union government."

And Nigerian High Commissioner to Zambia Folake Marcus-Bello, who delivered a message from Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev, pledged continued support to the peace keeping missions on the content.

"As a permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, Russia will continue to support efforts to establish foundations of collective security in the region, including efforts to create its indigenous peacekeeping potential," pledged Medvedev. "In that connection, we significantly increased our assistance to African states in the area of training their national peacekeeping personnel."

Labels: AFRICA FREEDOM DAY, INDEPENDENCE, KENNETH KAUNDA

posted by MrK @ 1:06 PM