The Governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade, has warned the international community to stop exploiting Africa which he described as the richest continent on earth, according to PUNCH.
He gave the warning while flagging off the 2019 Carnival Calabar Saturday in which four competing bands and non competing bands took part.
He said, “Let me use the opportunity to speak to the international community that Africa is indeed the richest continent on planet earth. Its exploitation must come to an end. We must all unite because the introduction of visas and restriction of movement of human beings was not anticipated in the Bible. It was not provided in the Quran. It was not provided in any religion.
“The time has come when we must break all the barriers and allow people to relate as human beings. Why would you have so much to yourself and your neighbour is dying in poverty?”
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The governor added, “I want to tell the whole world and as I speak, I speak with a lot of melancholy, agony, pain, and frustration because when God created mankind, He created us for bliss. He created us in his own image. He created man for the beauty of the world. He gave His only son to die for us. But in the course of man’s habitation on earth, man has deviated completely. Man has gradually become animalistic and animals have become more human.
“Man has degenerated so much that they have held stronger to the Bible and have held stronger to the Quran. They have held stronger to religion, and forgetting that the greatest religion on earth is humanity. Whether you are black or white, tall or short, fat or slim, whatever strain, whatever colour, humanity does not know the difference, humanity breaks the barrier. Whether you are rich or you are poor, whether you are from America or Obudu, wherever you came from, the equilibrating factor is humanity.
“The greatest religion we all know is humanity. Once you appreciate humanity, the love for a fellow human being, the willingness to allow your shoulder for your weaker brother to lean on, for your weaker sister to lean on. Man must change the way we live. If a human being can slit a human being’s throat, if you can kill somebody just to take his property, if it is an accident, you run to an accident scene just to steal out of the person who had an accident, you are already an animal.
“The level of crime and criminality, the level of savagery, the abuse of humanity has gone extreme. It is time to ask ourselves, how did we get here? Even with all of that physical materialism that you seek, they will go with you nowhere. Once you are dead, they are gone.”
Yetunde Adegoke
