Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, immediate-past President of the ECOWAS Commission says the sub-region would not meet the Millennium Development Goals by the 2015 deadline. He said despite progress in some areas, poverty levels were still unacceptably high in the region, posing a threat to the stability of nations. "The continent has been experiencing a steady growth rate of between four per cent and five per cent, falling short of the target of between eight per cent and nine per cent expected to reduce extreme hunger by 2015", he said. He, therefore, called on African students to demand of their leaders, radical changes in their approach to doing things and true transformation of society to ensure that all enjoyed better lifestyle. Dr Chambas, who earlier this year was elected Secretary General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group, said this when he took his turn to address the 19th Alumni Celebrity Platform organized by the Alumni Association of the Mensah Sarbah Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon, on Saturday. The Alumni Celebrity Platform is an interactive platform that the Mensah Sarbah Hall, also known as Vikings, has instituted to enable a former student of the hall to interact with the current students and share his or her experiences with them. Dr Chambas was a member of the Mensah Sarbah Hall during his days as a student at the University of Ghana from 1970 to 1973, and graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He said some countries which had little or no natural endowments had been able to reduce poverty, but Africa, with all its natural minerals resource, is yet to make an impact in that area. He added that this should interest African students to research and offer constructive ideas and seek better management of resources for the good of the continent. The MDGs is a set of eight goals, including eradication of extreme hunger, empowering women, provision of health and education facilities, reducing maternal mortality and ensuring education for all children, which is to be achieved by 2015. They were adopted at the United Nations Summit in the year 2000, dubbed the Millennium Summit by governments of the world to implement policies towards achieving them. He told the students that "it does not matter which discipline you study but what you can do to better and contribute towards transforming society", and urged them to remain focused to achieve their aspirations, assuring that "it can be done". He said "it is not the amount of a country's resources that will make her develop but the knowledge and innovativeness of her people". He, therefore, called on students to acquire new skills to become knowledge-based and o catch up with the rest of the world. Source: GNA