Today marks Africa Day – a day set aside by the African Union to commemorate the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and its successor, the African Union.
Africa Day also celebrates African Unity and what true African renaissance stands for.
The Planning Committee of the AU Arts Festival would like to salute all Africans and African Leaders on the occasion of AU Day. This year’s Africa Day is being celebrated under the theme: *”Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation”*.
As we celebrate African Unity today, we have to remember the sacrifices of our forebears and work together to find solutions to the myriad of problems confronting our continent. The vision of our forefathers was ensuring that the continent will grow to have one strong voice, politically, economically and socially but these have eluded us because of bad governance and corruption. As we are all aware, the bane of Africa’s development is corruption. As we commemorate the sacrifices of our forebears, let us be mindful of the threat of corruption to our development. We can only achieve economic freedom and improve the livelihood of our people if resources earmarked for projects are put to its use without any diversion.
We want to also commend bodies such as the ECOWAS, and the United Nations for the roles they have played in working to stall conflicts which have improved the stability rate in Africa. We say ayekoo!!.
We also want to remind us all the need to be united as one people. True African unity and sovereignty can only be gained through a united front where we allow economies of scale and free movement of people, goods and services to empower us economically and politically. These would help us to stand up to the dictates of the West and other economic powers that always wish to pursue their own interests in their interventions on the continent.
Beginning from this year, the AU Arts Foundation will use creative arts to empower our youth for accelerated development. We believe that arts and culture are appropriate mechanisms to integrate our youth in all facets of our national development.
Finally, we will like to invite all and sundry to the First AU Arts Festival which comes off from Friday June 1, to Sunday June 3, 2018 at the Golden Tulip Hotel under the theme, Leadership; Africa through arts, celebrating President John Agyekum Kufour, 2nd President of the 4th Republic. Organized by Malaika Media Network, OK Communications and the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation, the event would be used to raise funds in support of Kufour Center for Leadership and Governance.
