Nkrumah & Rawlings, Ghana's most significant Presidents - Mazrui

Professor Ali Mazrui, the renowned historian and writer has described Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah and immediate past President, Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings as the most significant heads of state in the country's political history.

Professor Mazrui, Director of Global and Cultural Studies at the University of Binghamton, News York’s reason for this conclusion is that, "While Nkrumah projected himself as more of an African leader, Rawlings gained more popularity at home."

He was delivering the last in a series of the eighth Dubois-Padmore-Nkrumah memorial lectures on the theme, "Pan-Africanism in the era of globalisation" in his speech which is likely to generate some political debate in the country, Professor Mazrui said: "Nkrumah left Ghana poorer, less free and less of an open society than he met it, whilst Rawlings left a more open society and set the tone for effective democratic process in Ghana."

The memorial lectures are organised annually by the W.E. B. Dubois Centre in Ghana in honour of the three founding fathers of Pan-Africanism.

Kenyan born Prof. Mazrui said the power of global Africa need to be reactivated and effectively mobilized and refocused towards the development of continental Africa to ensure that Africa is not marginalised in this era of globalisation. "There is more Africa in the world than on the continent of Africa," he said. The wealth of African human resource living and working in the West need to be harnessed for the benefit of the continent, if it is to catch up with the rest of the world.

Prof. Mazrui said the role of Africa and her peoples in the emergence of globalisation manifest in history, religion, economy, technology and empire. He said though Africans continue to contribute significantly to the process of globalisation, the continent of Africa is maginalised when it comes to controlling the gains of the process. "The transfer of skill from Africa to the United States alone comes to four billion dollars a year, and at the moment, over one-third of Africa's human resource is supporting development process in Western countries."

Prof. Mazrui said more "push-out" factors exist in African countries whilst "pull-in" factors exist in the West for African experts to apply their skills effectively. He therefore, urged African leaders to create conducive conditions for skilled personnel to stay, work and develop the continent.

Prof. Mazrui said whilst Africans should harness their resources at home and in the Diaspora, the international community owe a duty to Africa to amend existing conditions and protocols of reparation for Africa's speedy development. "There is the need for strong African representations on world bodies such as the World Bank, IMF and the UN Security Council, which have direct control on the development of Africa," he said.

He said reparation to Africa must begin with increased power sharing not only in the international organisations, but also in countries that colonized Africa. "Africans in the Diaspora must, as a matter of necessity and fairness, be given the chance to rise to higher political positions in their respective countries," he said. "There must be equal power sharing among descendants of slaves and descendants of slave owners."