The Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Alban S. K. Bagbin has charged African countries to seriously focus on developing and appreciating an identity that is linked with its heritage.
According to him, the continent is losing out among the comity of nations mainly because it hasn’t been able to clearly define its priorities and pursue an agenda that is unique to its heritage.
The Speaker was addressing a delegation from the Pan African Writers Association led by its Secretary-General Dr. Wale Okediran who paid a courtesy call on him in Parliament.
The Pan African Writers called on the Speaker to make an intervention for action to be expedited on the relevant provisions of the Agreement between the Government of Ghana and the Pan African Writers Association.
The agreement which was signed in November 1992 stipulates among other things, the provision of some facilities which should enable PAWA to effectively perform her roles. However, no major move has been made in honouring the agreement on the part of the government.
The Speaker who assured the Association of Parliament’s support charged them to developed programmes tailored at re-orienting not only African youth but leaders as well on the need to place a premium on their cultural identity.
He said the foundation theme at the inaugural congress of the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) in 1989 which is “African Unity, A liberation of the mind” is still very relevant in today’s African as was before.
“The biggest challenge in Africa today is the mind, we must be able to liberate this mind by using instruments like PAWA which is made up of 52 associations encompassing the whole continent”, he adds.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the Association Dr. Wale Okeridan commended Ghana for hosting the secretariat of the Association since it was founded in 1989 and paid tribute to the memory of its founding Secretary-General late Prof. Atukwei Okai.