My dear Africans, this is the best time for us to look from within to overcome our difficulties for once with solidarity. Yes, we can!.

As stated by Ghana's first President, Osaagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, "we [Africa] must unite now or perish.

"We must recognize that our economic independence resides in our African union and requires the same concentration upon the political achievement," he said.

Throughout the struggle for our political sovereignty from colonial powers, unity has been our strongest weapon.

Various Liberation fighters sought, preached and employed the power of unity to attain political freedom for Africa as a whole.

While political freedom and the right to self-determination has been achieved, Africa still faces a host of challenges which require coordinated efforts, and sustainable approaches.

The predominant challenges facing Africa include poverty, absence of economic freedom, lack of quality education, civil wars, hunger and the most threatening of all, as it stands now, fighting off the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an April 10 interview with CNN, American philanthropist Melinda Gates expressed her belief that the corona virus pandemic would have the worst impact in the developing world.

She further stated that she foresaw bodies lying around in the street of African countries.

Clearly, despite the massive crisis the west is experiencing, some western leaders continue to insist that Africa would collectively and inevitably experience apocalypse as a result of the virus outbreak.

Gates is not the only one who predicted doom in Africa. A report released by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in April stated: "Anywhere between 300,000 and 3.3 million Africans could lose their lives as a direct result of Covid-19."

These projections valuates the fact that the west has no belief in us. They have no belief in our systems, they have no belief perhaps in our capabilities.

Frankly, we have only but ourselves to blame for such projections. We have been victims of our own failures post-independence.

However, all hope is not lost yet.

President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame also once said "Africa's story has been written by others; we need to own our problems and solutions and write our story."

It is time we stop looking to the west for solutions to problems we can solve ourselves. Africa has everything in this world to succeed on her own.

Indeed, in these times of Covid-19 where the world predicted doom for Africa, African states have managed to contain this crisis remarkably.

We can finally eradicate this pandemic for good and ensure that the projections of the west remain blatant if we employ the strategy of togetherness that our founding fathers used to free us from colonial rule.

I call on sons and daughters of Africa to come together to fight off Corona virus. Yes!, I believe that, Africa can do it with 'solidarité'. Africa is born in me.

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The writer is an educationist and president for Educate Africa Institute (EAI).