The Minister for Financial and Allied Institutions at the Presidency, Fiifi Kwetey, has implored African leaders to refrain from portraying themselves as stooges before foreign powers.
According to him, it is about time the culture of silence where leaders succumb to foreign forces that tend to steer the affairs of a nation is broken.
Speaking on ‘Alhaji Alhaji’ on Radio Gold on Saturday, Hon. Fiifi Kwetey expressed disgust at the tradition where the country shows its vulnerabilities to foreign nations.
To him, the nation has been under-utilizing its potentials, a reason why it usually seems to be calling for foreign assistance.
“You need their help; You need their help technologically. You need their help in terms of capacity; You need their help in terms of investment. You need their help in terms of trade; You need their help even in terms of the global, financial; all that and even the trade and so on…So, you talk and talk brave, but you need to get your act together. And that actually is the reason why Africa must stop the rhetoric.”
He, therefore, advised the nation to transform its course and explore its potentials in order to stop being over-dependent on foreigners.
The country, he said, should lead a crusade to stop foreign intrusion, “stop thinking that somehow somebody is going to bring the transformation or stop thinking that we can continue living irresponsibly at the personal level, at the individual level, at the community level, at the national level and [somehow] we will see transformation.”
“Africa must stop all this posturing and get to the business of transformation; the business of transforming our economy…” he stressed.
