Africa should not allow distractions

Editor, RE: “Rediscovering Africa’s treasures” (The New Times, December 24).

Monday, December 28, 2015

Editor,

RE: "Rediscovering Africa’s treasures” (The New Times, December 24).

The writer raised a very important issue and it’s indeed so obvious that the country concentrates on exploiting those treasures instead of spending our precious time on blame games.

This is the reason why I’m in total agreement with the writer because these are avenues where our young graduates whose knowledge can be directed towards taking care of our treasures, rather than spending time blaming the West.

Let’s face the bitter truth; by blaming the West for interfering in our internal affairs we forget that we live in a global village, where almost anything out there affects Rwanda, entire region and the international community.

The immediate example I can give is that of failed states being the source of multiple fugitives for other countries to cater for, or, worse still, phenomena like terrorism. We have seen this recently in Syria and closer to home, Burundi seems to be one perfect such example.

Bearing in mind that host countries for refugees are most susceptible to all sorts of accusations, including, yes, talk of breached refugee protection protocols and human rights.

Henry Settimba