African Youth Command (AYC) last Friday congratulated the African Union (AU) on its 50th anniversary celebration.
AYC commended the role of the late founding fathers of the AU, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, first President of Ghana, Modibo Keita of Mali, Ben Bella of Algeria, among others, who lighted the flame of Pan Africanism.
A statement signed by Mr Joseph Hamilton, acting Secretary General and Mr Kweku Yakubu, Life Patron of AYC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the birth of the Organisation of African Unity, later known as the African Union, in 1963, saw the rapid transformation of the continent from its colonial status to independent sovereign nations.
It said the late Dr Nkrumah stood tall in the Pan African struggle as his dream of a free and united Africa, which is captured in his famous declaration that “The Independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent”.
The statement said “Today, AU has made tremendous progress. Political independence has been successfully attained. However, the daunting task of freeing our economics from the stranglehold of multi -national financial giants must be pursued.
“We must pursue to a logical conclusion the struggle to free the continent from neo-colonialism, which is the last stage of imperialism as expounded by Dr Kwame Nkrumah”.
It explained that, the AYC strongly called on African leaders to seriously pursue the establishment of the African High Command to solve the problems that threaten the security and territorial integrity of the continent.
“Our security has often been compromised with ex-colonial masters playing major roles in matters that affect the continent but sadly enough often take very controversial stands in these crises to the detriment of the feuding parties and countries involved,” the statement said.
It appealed to the current leadership and the Council of Elders of the AU to be bold, focused and unperturbed in their quest to bring to a logical conclusion, the ideals of the founding fathers of the continent.
The statement called on President John Dramani Mahama to take the leadership role in Africa as initiated by Dr Kwame Nkrumah to unite the continent.
Source: GNA
