Africa has enough resources to be self-sufficient, says Uwechue PRESIDENTIAL envoy on Conflict Resolution in Africa, Ambassador Raph Uwechue, has said that the continent bears enough resources to be self-sufficient. African countries, however, may be unable to find lasting solutions to their problems as long as they are not united, he said in Abuja. Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), he said that African countries created weak by the colonial powers are unable to harness their potentials because they are not united. Recalling the popular saying, "unity is strength," Uwechue said Africa's so called poverty had nothing to do with its potentials. "Africa has more than enough to be self-sufficient as a group but we need to co-operate better in harnessing those resources," he said. Uwechue said that ECOWAS and the African Union were established to harness the continent's potentials, and that the only way to achieve the objective was by working harder and being more focussed. He said the absence of focus was a reflection of a weak economy, which itself was a reflection of "our disunity." "We are not pushing together; so ultimately the answer is for African countries to co-operate much more effectively to harness its resources," Uwechue stressed. Answering a question, Uwechue said that borrowing money was not the best way to solve Africa's problems. "The answer is in redirecting our attention towards working together and exploiting our resources jointly in order to produce better results from the efforts we have invested," he said. Uwechue pointed out the "he who goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing," adding that "for every mouth God had provided a pair of hands to feed it". "What we need now is to engage those hands to feed those mouths by encouraging our people to work harder, but work harder jointly," he said. "Unity is strength should be our watch word right now in Africa." On the situation in Cote d'Ivoire, he noted that there was hope of achieving lasting peace there going by the current disposition of the military in that country. Uwechue, who is also ECOWAS chairman, President John Kufuor of Ghana's Special Envoy to Cote d'Ivoire, said that the military were ahead of the politicians in terms of moving the peace process forward, by declaring publicly, that they were no longer interested in fighting. Uwechue also said that the ceasefire signed by the government and the rebel groups in 2002 and 2003 was holding. "In spite of the current situation in the country, hostilities are not likely to break out in Cote d'Ivoire because the soldiers themselves, who control the guns have made it clear that they are tired of fighting," he said. Uwechue said efforts were now being made to persuade the politicians to fall in line and to postpone whatever disagreement they might have until after peace was secured. Elections are due to the held in the country next year. On March 1, the Security Council passed a resolution authorising the United Nations to take over the peacekeeping operations in the country with an initial force of 6,240 men. Uwechue said the arrival of the force would lift the financial burden on ECOWAS for maintaining 1,500 troops. He said the ECOWAS leadership had done well by maintaining the troops, noting that it had encouraged the UN to say that "there was enough peace to keep." He added: "We have to give credit to the effort of ECOWAS leadership in at least ensuring that politically, an agreement was reached and maintained".