It is always heart bleeding to hear of the land you love, the land you belong, the land of your grandfather and the land where your generations begin and end, being mentioned everywhere not for anything positive but conflicts, war, poverty, epidemics, famine and many more. I wonder why a land with abundant resources still remains a breeding ground for such cankers. Is Africa under a curse?
I absolutely disagree that we leave under any curse. No, not even the curse of the white man who was forced out of our land and resources they came to plunder. If there is any curse, it is probably the curse from our own attitude. We are simply the engineers of our woes. Today I write in tears to admonish all African leaders to think beyond political power, fame and wealth. The insatiable quest for power and fame are only vanity that shall end in the grave one day.
There is no gainsaying that the attitude of African leaders is a mockery to us elsewhere in the world yet they parade themselves around as good leaders and branding all sorts of accolades for themselves. Pardon me if am too harsh with my piece but let the truth be told that the difference between some Africans and some animals are quite insignificant. To be greedy, power conscious and power drunk should not take away your natural conscience unless we have substandard intelligence as a people.
The hypocrisy is conspicuous in our claims that we largely believe in democracy. The wisdom of the continent in copying democracy from the “West” was to ensure fairness, equity, justice and respect for fundamental human rights through constitutional law. No individual, irrespective of their status, origin, religion and sex is above the law. Nobody forced democracy on us. We saw sense in it and learnt it and if it does not meet our aspirations, we make amendments but not to establish to ourselves what I call “conditional laws”. This means we consider it law only when it is in our favor or when we can manipulate it to suit our whims and caprices. Can this be constitutionalism?
Let’s reflect our post-colonial history as a continent. After we have fought and defeated the white man’s rule. Indeed, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of blessed memory and his colleagues told the word that the black man is capable of managing his own affairs. We have recorded almost uncountable number of military takeovers and political instabilities in this continent where innocent souls were loss. Isn’t this enough a lesson? We keep on pointing fingers at the “WEST” as the cause of our political instabilities and conflicts but I vehemently disagree. It is our own hypocrisy, insatiable quest for power and fame. Don’t blame anybody.
A careful look at the events that are causing atrocities and agonies to our people, one should reflect on the western democratic principles and whether they fit well into our cultures. I am saying this because many countries in Africa have experienced constitutional upheaval being precipitated by political instability. Look at what happened in Libya, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Sudan and many others in recent times. Look growing rate of military insurgency yet we fertilize the grounds for such to be repeated? The case of Gambia is just an example. I can’t fathom why only one individual who have ruled his country for about twenty one years and still cannot forfeit his unrepentant quest for power and fame.
The elections were conducted by an electoral mandated body and declared you opponent the president elect. If you have any issues, why don’t you first handover power and pursue your case to a logical conclusion? I thought Yahya Jemmeh was in power for the welfare of the people so why can’t he consider the welfare of his people and Africa now? I will blame Yahya Jemmeh should there be any war in Gambia.
Unfortunately ECOWAS and AU in my view are very poor in conflict resolutions because in my view, they lack the courage and the will to intervene when coercion is required. When UN come in too, we then sit aloof and blame the “WEST” for their influence in our continental affairs. That is extreme absurdity. My elementary history informs me that civilization started in Africa but I don’t feel proud saying it.
It does appear that we enjoy when we see people being killed, punished and brutalized just for some few to enjoy political power. The greedy power seekers, who do not respect the sovereign will of the people, indirectly eat our flesh and drink our blood. Let me tell them if they don’t know. I call that political cannibalism.
According to Fischer (1954) as cited in the book titled the power of nonviolent resistance by Michael J Nojeim “he who is ever brooding over results often loses nerve in performance of duty. He becomes impatient and then gives vent to doing unworthy things: he jumps from action to action, never remaining faithful to any. He who broods over results is like a man given to the objects of senses: he is ever distracted, he says goodbye to all scruples…” A word to the wise, they say is enough. African leaders must solve this situation for once. The mere rhetoric is not enough a lasting remedy. Tell the world that you are not toothless dogs my dear ECOWAS and AU.
There is a common saying that “when persuasion fails, force must apply”.