APS : Monday, 19 November 2018
ALGIERS- Africans must find solutions to their own problems, including immigration, by investing in the human factor and giving priority to partnership between governors and civil societies,
the honorary president of the International Association Sufi Alawiyya, Khaled Bentounes, said Monday in Algiers.
“Africans must find their own solutions for their own problems, by restoring self-confidence, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and by stopping begging help from others,” Bentounes said in an opening address at the second International Conference of African NGOs, members of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Noting that the solutions to the continent’s problems may be found “with the assistance of others,” the speaker said, advising Africans to “invest in the human factor,” mainly through education, and in socio-economic development, adding that the human factor alone can provide “dignity” to African people.
Bentounes, also the mentor of the Alawiyya brotherhood, stressed the importance of Africa’s human potential and huge material resources, describing the continent as a “labor pool.”
Africa, he deplored, is however “so rich and so poor,” as it has always been “exploited” and has been unable to find, by itself, solutions to its own problems.
Dubbing “bloodletting” the brain drain from African countries to the developed nations, where they work as high-level executives, Bentounes regretted that Africa has failed to “keep its children,” and called for “domestic solutions” to prevent other brain drains from the continent.
