Economy: Africa Must Begin to Look Inward, Says Edoigiawerie

A leading start-up business lawyer, Mr Omoruyi Edoigiawerie, has harped on the need for African nations to look inward in their quest for development.

Edoigiawerie, who is the Founder of the law firm, Edoigiawerie, and Company LP, made the call while speaking at the 32nd session of the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent which held from the 1st to the 5th of May in Geneva, Switzerland.

He said, “Africa and the African continent which predominantly houses the black race must begin to look inward. We must begin to look inward and ensure that our dreams and the empowerment of the black race are bespoke and internally done.

“Empowerment must come from within, if our bargaining power is to be better and if we are to converse with the outside world from a place of equality.”

According to the start-up and business law space, Africa has been at the lower rear of the receiving hand and has continued to receive from a beggarly status, and this has led to the issues that the continent currently faces fuelling racial discrimination.

“Africa has what it takes to grow, build and re-create itself in a way that it can now begin to converse with the outside world from a place of equality and a place of superiority in terms of what we know and what we create, Edoigiawerie said in his speech.

He also pointed out that stakeholders must continue to speak to the issues and push not just private sector practitioners who are building businesses and entrepreneurs who are promoting entrepreneurial and start-up growth in the African continent but also the leadership of the African continent to begin to create measures that provide economic empowerment for the people they rule and govern.

He also criticised the imbalance in the issuance of visas to people of black extraction, he stated that the imbalance and disproportionate nature of issued visas to people of the black race especially for those from the African continent, he pointed out that this is a classic indication that Africa is not seen as not equal.

Also speaking at the joint technical session on Education and Enterprise: Black Agency and Achievements, Edoigiawerie reiterated that reparative justice goes beyond compensation for Africa.

He said it also to ensure that systems and structures are put in place to help the black continent develop meaningfully and have access to the right tools they need to be able to compete globally with the rest of the world, adding that most importantly we begin to develop our continent by ourselves and stop relying on the outside world.

According to Edoigiawerie, migration is one of the biggest issues and the biggest direct cause of racism and marginalisation of the black race and the reason it continues to fester.

“That many blacks are leaving Africa to go to the developed world because, in their search for greener pastures, Africa is not able to give them hope of a sustainable future, and no matter how much we talk about the black marginalisation, if we do not begin to look inward if we do not hold leadership in the individual African countries accountable for the development, mechanism, and procedures they put in place, we are going to continue to have a situation where people will leave the continent and seek greener pastures outside,” he added.

Edoigiawerie urged the working group to ensure that it adopts conclusions and recommendations from the session into its report to the 54th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in September.

In his words, “We must now look and push for measures where the African economies are equipped to produce what is enough to enable entrepreneurial growth, to enable economic advancement from within and reduce the dependence on empowerment from the western world from a beggarly approach.”