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A civil society organisation with interest in African development, Mission Africa Organisation, in collaboration with the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship, has organised a prayer session for Africa on Africa Day.
The 17th annual prayer session, which also saw the participation of some churches and ecumenical bodies, also marked the 57th anniversary of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity and 18 years of of the inception of the African Union.

Although the Mission Africa National Prayer conference has been held in Parliament often, this year’s was broadcast online from the organisation’s auditorium on the Spintex Road due to restrictions on social gathering.

Some members of the Ghana Pentecostal Council, the Christian Council of Ghana and the Charismatic Christian Council, along with some members of the diplomatic corps, also took part in the prayer session, said to be in furtherance of the African agenda of progress, development through increased education on the continent, and the harnessing of the continent’s resources for the common good of its people.

Selected students from senior high and tertiary institutions also joined in the prayer session, which had the Ghana Police Band in attendance and televised by the Ghana Television (GTV) as part of its AU Day programmes.
 
Focus

The Founder of Mission Africa, Dr Kodjoe Sumney, told selected media houses that this year’s prayer focused on the Africa Union's Agenda 2063, COVID-19, peaceful elections, Africa 's educational system, the youth and graduates unemployment and the diaspora, and christened “Agenda 2063: Africa We Need”.

“The agenda 2063 must be translated into various local languages from the bottom up for them to understand the direction of the union to enable all stakeholders to get behind the union,” Dr Sumney stated.

He added that all faith-based organisations must also teach the vision and pray for its success.

Democracy, education

On democracy, the Mission Africa founder said, “it is about time African leaders coined a democratic system to inculcate our African culture and ethics into our democratic governance. We must take the best from the West, the East, the Far East and Asia,” stating his preference for “using some Chinese governance system to create our Africa democracy. That is what l call, the Africa we need.”

On education, Dr Sumney said Africa could learn from the Chinese educational system which focused on vocational school training, having about 46 per cent secondary and 40 per cent vocational.

“Currently, China has 11,700 vocational institutions, with 26.9 million students, equivalent to the entire population of Ghana, and 9.3 million fresh enrolment each year with $13 billion annual budget support,” he said.

It was imperative to note that the Chinese youth and graduates gained employment within six months after completing school, Dr Sumney stated.

He expressed regret that African countries did not invest heavily in skills and vocations saying that accounted for the poor turnover of youth and graduate unemployment.

Suggestion

Dr Sumney called on each African country to have an agenda to train one million highly skilled graduates every year for their industries.

Other speakers

A board member of African Centre of Ukraine, Dr S L Kitcher, urged African youth to be focused on brightening the corner where they found themselves, and not to think that going to seek greener pastures overseas was the best way.