He noted that the biggest challenge of Africa is the absence of men and women with vision. In this exclusive interview with africanews.com, he added that African unity cannot come from the top.

What was the Pan African Forum for Peace and Development all about?

Kwemain: The Pan African Forum for Peace and Development was christened PAXAFRICANA. This is a foundation chaired by Edem Kodjo, former OAU Secretary and former Togolese Prime Minister. The main objective of PAXAFRICANA is to work towards peace and development in Africa, through networking with former African Presidents, for Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and former leaders of international institutions to achieve an African renaissance. The theme of the international symposium, which held in Lome, Togo from May 17 – 19 was: Integration as a means towards African renaissance. Three former head of states; Olusegun Obasanjo, from Nigeria, Jerry Rawlings from Ghana and Thabo Mbeki from South Africa and one sitting President, Faure Nyasingbe from Togo were amongst some of the finest minds from and out of the African continent that took part in the symposium. These people came from the background of science and technology, research, human sciences, leadership, international diplomacy and business moguls, to rethink African renaissance fifty years after independence. Participants searched their minds on how to achieve the much needed African renaissance.

Is peace and development the preoccupying issues in Africa today, after fifty years of independence?

Kwemain: If there is a part of the world with a big challenge in terms of peace, I am sorry, it is Africa. We are the number one in terms of conflicts across the world, including internal and external conflicts. In the case of development, we are very rich in terms of resources, but in terms of development, Africa is tailing the world.

What did the forum suggest as a solution to the many problems plaguing the African continent?

Kwemain: We came to the conclusion that, the fifty three African countries can only attain the development we see in other parts of the world if we are united as one people. The solution is to be united as a people. We are still going back to the vision of Nkwame Nkrumah, which he propounded in the 1960s. We must be united. And it must come from the grassroots.

Today, we see an African leader who has been promoting African unity, financing the AU, yet the world is persecuting him and the rest of Africa is not taking a stance on the issue. Where is the unity then?

Kwemain: I totally agree with you. You can now see that Africa as a continent is not united. We have to go back and do our homework. The dream of African renaissance must come with a vision. One of the biggest challenges in the African continent is the absence of vision. Most of the time we do not have a vision for what we want to do. Even the Bible says men without vision shall perish. We do not understand that there are many things that we can start, without necessarily looking forward to see the end or enjoy them. We don’t have great men and men of vision. I belief in the African renaissance but I might not see it. It took many years for the European Union to come to fruition. It started with about five countries. One of the biggest errors that the AU did is that it is an association of head of states. They could have started from a modest two, three, four or five. I have a problem with the fact that all the African countries started as a member of OAU and now AU. It should come from the will of the leaders, who want to be united and subsequently come together. It cannot be automatically fifty three African countries. It is not possible. The EU started progressively, moving from one stage to the other.

Even with some of the finest minds that we have today in Africa, should we still go back to the grassroots to start all over?

Kwemain: We have to start all over. The foundation was wrong. We started building a house with a wrong foundation. That is why we are bound to collapse.

How does Africa catch-up today with the fast-paced world and make her own voice heard in the very competitive global scene?

Kwemain: The changes we are observing today in Africa, the activities of the young people, people not happy with the leadership is an opportunity for the renaissance to gain grounds. We have to use the social media. The boundaries created by the colonialists and maintained by our leaders, will collapse if there is pressure from the population. Before the Tunisian incident, I visited that country twice as the 2010 JCI World President and in 2009, I was there for the JCI World Congress. If I was told that two months after that system will collapse, I will not belief. But from my discussions with Tunisians, I gathered that they were not happy with the quality of their leadership. Where is that system today? My dream and hope is that the unity we are looking for should come from the grassroots. Look at what happened in Ivory Coast. I have been discussing with young people and the debate is not only at the top level, it is at the grassroots. Everybody has his or her opinion.

These opinions are not those of the leaders. Therefore, something is happening. I am hopeful. With the social media, new technology, things are moving very fast. So, my belief is that if there is no unity, we cannot go anywhere. We should begin spreading the news using our websites, facebooks, twitters and more. One of the presentations focused on the place of Africa two thousand years ago, before the coming of Jesus Christ. Mathematics, Chemistry, most of the sciences were done in Africa. In Egypt, we had black Pharaohs, Jesus Christ went to Egypt, Moses was in Egypt. Africa has been a great continent, a thousand years back. It is very important for us to know that part of the African history. We should start by knowing our history. How many young people know the history of Cameroon? We do not know the people that fought for our independence and when we do not know, we feel that we do not have a history, which is not true. Africa has had great men and women in the history of humanity. It is unfortunate, what we see today. From our primary schools, we must begin celebrating our heroes. We have allowed the western world to write the African history books and from their own perspectives.

I do not want to lay blames on the western world. We should stop blaming and complaining. If we were united, who will come to kill Gaddafi? And nobody stands up for him. That is what happens to a house that is divided. We have to get back to the drawing board and it might be a project of a hundred years. Look at the history of the USA, China. It must take some time. African unity cannot come from the top. They have failed us. It can only come from the base. Unity from the grassroots will be stronger than unity from fifty three African leaders. That was one of the resolutions from the symposium.

After all the fine talk from Lome, Togo, will the resolutions not end in the drawers as the cases have been?

Kwemain: Everybody was committed. When you look at the calibre of the participants, I am not sure they came to waste their time in Lomé. Most of them are at the end of their lives, with people above seventy. Edem Kodjo is 74 today. At this age if you are not truthful to yourself, when will you be? There was also a blend of the new and old generation at the symposium, with upcoming people like Alain Foka, Cameroonian and journalist at RFI, Claude Grunitsky, co-founder of TRACE TV, he is less than forty and a Togolese, the son of Marcus Garvey named Julius Garvey was there and many other fine minds from Africa, who are less than fifty were there. They want to push forward the agenda of African renaissance. So, people left Lomé with the following pertinent issues in mind; our governments should be supported in the quest towards African renaissance, making sure that there should be no visas for Africans travelling within Africa.

There should be integration and free movement of people. Why should a Cameroonian take a visa to Gabon, South Africa? This is a political decision. When people move around the continent, we will see the positive economic and business impact. We see the examples of indigenous African businesses that are doing great across the continent; ECOBANK, after 20 years of operations is in 30 African countries, run by a Togolese and a Nigerian. There is MTN. These are African companies, owned by Africans. These are examples that give hope and we can come together as businessmen and women. If we are not united, Africa will disappear, that is not our dream.