African Universities have been tasked to take the lead in the rethinking of strategies that would facilitate accelerated development of the continent.
President Benjamin William Mkapa, former Tanzanian President, who made the call on Friday, stressed that economic growth would require much more than leadership at the national level.
He made the call when delivering the third and last lecture on the topic "Developing in Dignity: Self-Reliance and an Afro-Centric Strategy", to climax the eighth edition of the "Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lectures" on the theme
" Rethinking the political, social and economic paradigm of African Development".
President Mkapa noted that intellectual leaders on the continent had an obligation to explain issues and analyze factors that had led to the break-down of socio-economic development on the continent.
He pointed out that although democracy and good governance were international values, they were not cults that needed to be copied, and said there was the need for Africa to have "a home-grown new democracy", based on African characteristics.
President Mkapa cited the example of China, which had developed her own systems to facilitate socio-economic growth, and observed that unfortunately, the growing trend was that the western nations were pressurizing Africa to adopt their systems, and asked why their democratic structures should be considered superior to that of Africa.
President Mkapa said it was of utmost importance for Africans to take charge of their own destinies, stressing that development could not be achieved from outside but Africa needed to find resources from within, especially in the face of the current global financial crisis.
"We must take control of our national resources and selectively disengage ourselves from the present system of globalization which is just being used by the north to pry unto African markets."
He said it was therefore imperative to reverse the pull of these strings and develop strong regional markets before going on to negotiate on the international markets, and observed that trade treaties such as the Economic Partnership Agreements(EPAs), between the ACP and EU countries, were "taking Africans for a ride".
"The EPAs are aimed at fragmenting Africa and 'in fact regionalism in disguise'. Therefore Africa should demand fresh negotiations of the agreements from the EU," he added.
President Mkapa urged countries on the continent to join hands with other countries in the south with common goals, and deplored that while the West was trying to prevent Africa from aligning itself with countries like China, India and Brazil, it was doing business with them to the exclusion of Africa.
He stressed that Africa must not allow a re-engineering of the world behind its back, adding, "we should not allow them to ignore us" and said the western countries should strive from interfering in the affairs of the continent.
President Mkapa called on Africa to end the dependency on aid, pointing out that aid was not charity and said Africa's so-called development partners, were not "really partners", because their trade policies were anti-development.
He said the problem with aid was that it was highly inflated and that aid to the continent had been steadily declining, and expressed regret that many African leaders had a pragmatic attitude towards aid, and donors were therefore using the "aid carrots" to get Africa to agree to unfavourable conditions.
President Mkapa stressed the need to ensure peace and security as the basis for protection of human rights and said peace and security were the bedrocks for economic growth, as well as evolve strategies to combat climate change, since Africa was not being allowed to take the necessary adaptation measures.
He referred to the various structures within the African Union (AU) and NEPAD, and asked whether they were adequately empowered to perform, noting that the AU could not even agree on which two members should be made permanent members of the UN Security Council.
President Mkapa pointed out that only a pro-active AU could arrest the attention of the political powers, and wondered if Africans themselves were not responsible for the under development of the continent.
He called on the media and civil society in Africa to endeavour to develop an African agenda because Africa needed to guard against the constant propaganda being waged by the western media against developing countries like China.
Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Vice-Chancellor of UCC, echoed calls on the need for Africa to re-examine itself and to endeavour to develop on its own terms.