US congressman nudges responsible African leadership
SAVANNAH, US, June 07, 2004 (PANA) — US congressman Donald Payne has called for a more responsible leadership in Africa to buttress efforts aimed at keeping the continent’s cause on the front burner of policy decision-making at national and global levels.
He said it was difficult to make a case for more support to Africa when governments of the continent were engaged in militarisation, human rights abuses and mismanagement of meagre national resources.
Democrat Payne, member of the House of Representatives International Relations Committee and its sub-committee on Africa, cited Ethiopia and Eritrea which spent a combined amount of $500 million on military hardware in 2003, only to appeal for food aid the following year.
Payne, former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, spoke at the weekend during a meeting with representatives of African non-governmental and civil society organizations in Washington, DC, when they called on him as part of a campaign to further enlighten US-based “constituency for Africa” on the plight of the continent.
The delegation is led by Barbara Kalima, director of AFRODAD, a pan-African network of debt monitoring groups in 11 countries, and Godfrey Kanyenze, director of IDREZ, a research institute of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Speaking in an interview with PANA on the outcome of their meetings with US officials and groups, the two advocates quoted Payne as saying that debt cancellation for Africa was “an imperative”.
They said Congressman Payne was also of the opinion that Africa’s debt was “unsustainable” and that it made “no sense” to continue to pursue the debt.
The two activists said Payne also stressed the need for more interactions between African-American legislators, through the Congressional Black Caucus, and African parliamentarians to build bonds of understanding and cooperation in helping to shape US policies towards Africa.
The African activists also met with staffers of the Congress Foreign Relations committees, the Institute for Policy Studies, 50 years is Enough, Africa Action, TransAfrica and an advisor to the John Kerry for President campaign team, among other groups. Kanyenze told PANA that the meetings exposed the fact that US- based institutions needed sufficient information on the problems and strides of Africa to reinforce their roles in helping to create shifts in US policies and actions to address the African problem.