By Aminu Adamu
Reforming Africa through Inspirations and Seminars for Empowered Development Initiatives, RAISED Initiatives, on Friday held its first national executive meeting to launch its initiatives in Nigeria.
The group which instituted its National Executive Council, NEC, the highest decision making body in the country earlier in December 2019 with its State Ambassadors is set to kick start its programmes in Nigeria.
In its schema, RAISED Initiatives is positioned towards empowering African youths by advancing SDG 4; ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning materials for all; and SDG 6, ensuring an available and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all and UNAI 02; Capacity Building for youths in Nigeria and Africa at large.
The President of Raised Initiatives Nigeria, James Uke in his opening address, while welcoming its members said the event is a culmination of an enormous collective effort which began in 2014, when the founding fathers of the organization decided to create a path and setup up a platform where young Africans can become agents of change for our great Continent.
While describing the theme of the event as “unleashing the road map and charge for African Liberation”, underscored the importance of the fight fought by African great men to liberate Africa from the bondage of the colonial lords.
“These should not just put our minds on how we want Africa to be, but it should take our minds back to when our great grandparents fought to free our various countries from the bondage of our colonial masters. They didn’t just get what they wanted at the word go, as we all know, many died, some got arrested, others went missing, but the fate they kept got them the result and that is what we are enjoying today. That fight was theirs. And I believe they had one goal, and that was our children shall not fight this fight again.”
He however stressed that it is time to continue on the struggle to completely liberate Africa from any form of setbacks and modern form of slavery by empowering the young African youths to fight the war with intellect.
“We are all seated here today, with a great burden in our heart, and that is to see the African continent become liberated and free from all the chains that hold her back from progressing. The fate we have is what has gathered us here today. But we understand that this fight is not that of guns, nuclear weapons, supersonic missiles, and the likes. Cause this will be a loss to our motherland. But this is going to be a fight that will want us to use our brain more than we have ever done. This is a fight that before we can succeed we need to educate the youths of Africa, we need to let them know what we have discovered.
Adding that “despite the killings, the death of great men like Odinga and others, we still got our independence. But the white men have not given up, they still control our economy, they make decisions for our puppet politicians, they organize civil wars in Africa, they test their virus in Africa and many others. But the beauty of this is that the white man couldn’t do this everywhere, some places like Ethiopia and Zimbabwe resisted them. With the popular saying which goes Rome wasn’t built in a day and Rome didn’t fall in a day, I will like to assure us that that we might not get this today, but one day Africa shall be completely liberated.”
RAISED Initiatives is an acronym for Reforming Africa through Inspirations and Seminars for Empowered Development Initiatives. An organization which believes that Africa can best be shaped by Africans themselves.
