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PRESIDENT Sata says Africa has been made into a guinea pig in the last 50 years by developed nations that pretend to help transform the continent.
“In the last 50 years Africa has been made a guinea pig, we have all the resources, people come and take all our resources and we are having a conference here to try and help Africa,” he said.
Mr Sata, however, said Africa cannot be helped by anybody else but itself.
“…we have heard all sorts of stories, for example I am speaking from experience, I am former Minister of Local Government, former Minister of Health, and former Minister of Labour and therefore I understand what we are talking about Africa,” he said.
Mr Sata said this here at the just ended Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) thematic session under the theme “Towards the post-2015 Development Agenda”, in Yokohama, Japan yesterday.
He said he understood when leaders discussed infant and maternal mortality in Africa.
“All these are all our personal problems as Africa. And it is not the conference that will help us,” he said.
Mr Sata said so far the government is grateful to the World Bank as it has acknowledged the effort Zambia is making towards economic growth.
“What we are trying to do now, we have already got four universities, and it is our aim to have 10 universities. Each province must have a university in Zambia.
“Because without education everything we are talking about becomes useless. We have more technical colleges [but] we do not need to mention them here,” he said.
Mr Sata said while Africa knows its problems, developed countries have used it as a guinea pig for taking raw materials to enrich themselves.
“We know the problems in Africa and the reason is the so-called developed countries that have used Africa as a guinea pig for taking our raw materials for developing themselves.
“And they just come and pick all our raw materials because in Africa we still have plenty of raw materials but the so-called developed countries come to Africa under the guise of development but they are coming to steal our raw materials,” he said.
“So it is nice to listen to what people are saying about developing Africa, but being an African, born and bred in Africa, I understand our problems. And I sympathise with people who pretend that we can’t develop ourselves,” he said.
The TICAD conference has attracted 39 African leaders and 51 delegates.
Among the African presidents attending the conference include South African President Jacob Zuma, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, Ethiopian Prime Minister and African Union chairperson Hailemarian Desalegn, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and Botswana President Ian Khama.
Other presidents were Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, Lesotho President Tom Thabane, and Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, among other leaders.
TICAD, which is a high-level conference to which all African leaders in principle are invited to discuss how to promote African development, takes place every after five years.
A special feature of the forum this year is that it opened its doors widely to parties other than the Japanese and African governme
