AFRICA SERIES IS THERE REALLY A SILVER LINING AHEAD OF US?

Growing up as a young boy in Lagos Nigeria, I often read in a book most educated Nigerians read too, ‘Mastering English’, published probably by Macmillan. In the book there was a comprehension passage that headlined “Africa the Dark Continent”, whenever I read the passage I was very angry and always questioned the decision to label Africa the dark continent, although I never asked anyone, but growing up, interacting with the outside world and fortunately leaving the country for greener pasture, I’ve seen the reason(s) why Africa was, is and still would be called, The Dark Continent. You can hate or love me for my conclusion but I’ll give you facts as a scientist to toe on my line of thinking. Other continents have their own problems but I really don’t care because Home is the Best, why care for others when clearly your home isn’t safe, it all amounts to hypocrisy or total contempt.

  Africa a land so blessed by God, but appears cursed and destined for failure by the actions of its inhabitants especially its leaders past and present, it’s often said Greed, Corruption and Bad Governance are the ills that has plagued African Leadership I duly agree to that fact. The earlier we realize that the head means a lot the better, one can be paralyzed but with a proper functioning brain or head can still make it in this life, but an insane person cannot simply because his/her brain is almost useless, same applies to leadership not only in Africa but elsewhere applicable in the world.

 The problem with leadership in Africa, is that the leaders fail to realize that Governance is the interactions between the public and private aimed at solving societal problems and creating societal opportunities. Once this realization sets in the things would be better. Politics in Africa is seen as a dirty, deadly and disastrous game which ought not to be, History, past and present occurrences attest to that known fact. To admit that we both love the way Africa does things would be a huge lie and the greatest form of foolishness (deceiving oneself).

  In my beloved Africa, election season= Blood shedding season, hardly would an election take place in Africa with no fewer that 50 people dying of election related violence. Why? In fact that is the main purpose of this write-up. Countries like Yours truly Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Somali, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and most recently the trios of Egypt, Ivory Coast and Libya, have all pushed us to the brink, and as humans we cannot telepath so we have to fight back which is what my Middle-Eastern counterparts are presently doing. Although I personally don’t approve of protester using heavy weaponry to fight the government, it’s pure stupidity, the President is the Grand Commander of the Armed Forces and has pool of resources both men and machines to call upon to rid rebels off the streets, as is seen in the case with Libya and Ivory coast.

   The failure of leadership in Africa cannot be over-emphasized , the roads, economy, education, mental state, health status and general well being of its people is a just recompense of the leadership, however must people continue to suffer for a sin they knew nothing about? Kenneth Minogue, said Politics is the activity which the framework of human life is sustained though it is not life itself. This in its entirety cannot be denied, the drawbacks of the continents can be placed squarely on bad-leadership but also bad-followership is also a concern, Africans are too scared to speak out, the West are hell bent on co-operating with these bad leader provided they play ball.

 With current event unfolding in the region, there seems to be no –way out, the reason why I asked if realistically there is a silver lining beyond the cloud of distress and despondency? Let posterity judge me and my words, I’ve always been a pessimist ( seeing is believing) in many issues about Africa and in this case I still am, however in another part of my mind I exhibit optimism that things would get better in no time, but for now I’m adopting an approach described by a great Statesman Late Chief Bola Ige as the “siddon dey look approach”. However if change is to occur it must begin with you and I. below are some reason why I asked that question, is there really a silver lining ahead of African? I use current events in various African countries as a tool of measurement, an index to what becomes of our future; it’s often said look at the past you can almost tell the future.

NIGERIA: The most populous black nation on planet earth, with an estimated population of over 150 million people, with elections being around the corner, pardon me this piece was originally written last year on the 14 December 2011, so I’m adding some latest development to it. The election(parliamentary) was originally scheduled to take place last week but circumstances within our control disallowed that, watching the event on Cable Network News (CNN) last week, CNN’s Anchor Jonathan Mann was stupefied and kept asking why INEC made such a big mistake blaming it on the relief efforts to Japan, what correlation exist between both events? The previous election was tainted with electoral malpractice, disenfranchisement through coercion and threat of violent activities or death, stolen mandates, some of which were returned to the rightful owner after months, years in and out of Courts, people like Dr Rauf Aregbesola of AC, Olesugen Mimiko of LP, Rotimi Chibuke Amaechi of PDP, Peter Obi of APGA and others whom I can’t recall. Already PDP has already positioned its rigging machinery in place, first it distracted the populace with ZONING, something not seen or found in the 1999 Amended Constitution of The Federal Republic of Nigeria, it’s a PDP thing but the polity was filled with it, the idea of zoning by the PDP is sheer stupidity and immaturity it mean no one is read to serve why argue that this ethnic group has ruled for too long and need to give way for another governance is a mission not a vocation, yes the South of Nigeria has been marginalized especially the South Easterners but is that a criteria for the job? No I don’t think so, the South Easterners are the architect of their own downfall. As United States Greatest president puts it Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people, anything over or below this isn’t democracy. Translating people should be able to chose their leader irrespective of ethnic affiliations, attachments or geo-political locations whatsoever. However it must be noted that pre-election violence appears to be at its low presently how post-election remains so.

KENYA: the pre and post electoral violence in that country was one like never before but Zimbabwe and now ivory coast both dwarfed it. It rocked the entire continent and East Africa as a whole, clashes between supportersof incumbent president Mwai Kibaki and incumbent Prime Minister Raila Odinga . the situation was so tense that Kenyans had to seek succor in neighboring African countries, all because two out of all the men in the country wanted to rule the country, I must stress a known fact “if a man wants to really serve his country violence shouldn’t be seen as the last means, he is obliged to seek election and taken any grievances he has against the result to an Election Tribunal Court.

 Good news seems to be oozing out of that region, recently 6- top rated men in Kenya were made to stand trial before an the ICC in the Hague Netherlands, at least monkey don go market no return, other Africans causing havoc watch out.

ZIMBABWE: almost same situation with Kenya only that it took its own to the next level by heavily clamping down on the political gladiator and his troops, Opposition leader and current Prime Minister Mr. Morgan Tsvangari was dealt with, in so much that he had to be hospitalized, was it President Robert Mugabe that sent his attackers, it remains to be seen, one day monkey go go market e no go come back. Inflation rate in the country is at a record high, only the extremely rich can afford a loaf of bread, poverty engulfs the whole nation, what baffles me is how Mugabe reduced himself to this state. He came in as a Hero, a Moses to lead his people to the Promised Land in the year I was born and since then has done little to redeem that image, and right now he’s equal to Zero, maybe he wants to die in office like my late President. African leaders simply don’t know when to vacate office and leave power to other people, power corrupts, however absolute power corrupts absolutely.

COTE ‘D’ VOIRE:  The latest country to join this African Jurassic Political Fight Club (AJPFC), in fact its case is one of utter confusion, everyday I hear on CNN and BBC, that Mr. Allasana Quattra is the internationally recognized winner of the election but what they fail to tell me and you is who’s the locally recognized winner of the election, was Mr. Laurent Gbagbo actually sworn in by the Chief Judge of the State, did the electoral commission actually said he won the election in the first instance and later declared his opposite the Rightful winner. A country where the citizens don’t even know the winner of a presidential election, why didn’t the electoral commission count the election as a flawed process?

 Several lives have been lost and are still been lost because 2 men out of the millions want power what nonsense. Mr Gbagbo has been in power for over a decade now and still clings on to it as if his life depends on it, what amazes me is that he was a Former Professor of History, does education really make an impact in lives of Africans, he’s a good subject of research, history should have told him that people who toe this path he’s towing no never got anywhere. He’s been so disrespectful to ECOWAS leaders and went as far as calling the bluffs of ECOWAS Chairman, President Goodluck Jonathan, who at that time was heavily involved with his party zoning palaver.

 Presently Abidjan is a no go area for non-armed personnel, it’s in total lockdown, Last week Allasana’s forces were said to be holding down Mr. Gbagbo in his quarters, news filtering in now is that Gbagbo’s forces have launched a major offensive. I pose a question to Gbagbo what do you want to do in office that is so special it couldn’t be completed in 10yrs, move away from here. If Mr. Gbagbo ever gives in to pressure, he should be asked why he made so many people homeless, fatherless, motherless, widows, widower, orphans, physically, materially, emotionally and mentally unstable and others out rightly dead. Probably his answer would be I thought it was business as usual, but I was wrong the people were fed up.

He was sitting on a ticking time bomb now the bomb has exploded, he has only one choice leave office and hand yourself over to the judiciary for prosecution for crimes against humanity, also I strongly suggest that Mr. Quattra does the same, because both of them contributed in making “Ivory Coast Hell on Earth”, although the ICC has already sent Gbagbo a letter stating that he would face the court for crimes against humanity.

LIBYA:  while reading my daily newspaper online, I read in a column of the SUN NEWSPAPER, Lindsay Barret’s “From the other side”. He was focusing on the Libyan issue, I recall where in describing Libya leader Muammar Ghaddafi, he gave his off as being mentally unstable or disturbed. Really? I can’t tell but he’s actions has done nothing to prove otherwise.

 Muammar Gaddhafi has been in power for over 4 decades, 42 yrs to be precise after seizing power via a military coup, he practices strict dictatorial rules. Funny now how everyone in the Middle-East is chasing the ever Elusive Democracy, they fail to realize a hard truth, Islamic States cannot separate politics from Religion, I know someone there would say what of Turkey, yes it worked in Turkey but it still dictates most part of their lives. Islam as a religion require absolute trust and loyalty to people in power irrespective of what and how they perform their duties, same also goes for Christianity, only that it tolerates disloyalty and allows for freedom of expression.

 Libyans are tired o being ruled by the same person for 42 yrs and still counting, and making the matter worse he runs the government with a political cabal comprising of most of his son and very close friends, which gives a sour taste to most people. When the rebellion or uprising started Colonel Ghaddafi sent his troops to take care of those people which he claimed have been drugged by American, later accusing Al-Qaeda of making use of opportunity to attack Libyans. The United Nations Security Council  issued a No-Fly Zone resolution because Libya force were using the air to wreck havoc, the resolution was carried out by France, Britain and later the United States of America, although by all accounts they were doing the right thing but something was Cynical here, all three countries had grievances against the Libyan government of Ghaddafi.

  France as should be known had a number of problem with Ghaddafi one of which was In July 2007, French president Nicolas Sarkozy visited Libya and signed a number of bilateral and multilateral (European Union) agreements with Gaddafi. On

4 March 2008 Gaddafi announced his intention to dissolve the country's existing administrative structure and disburse oil revenue directly to the people. The plan included abolishing all ministries, except those of defence, internal security, and foreign affairs, and departments implementing strategic projects, which of course didn’t go down well with the French government so the opportunity to attack him back was a clean clear one.

  Britain and the UK in general, they probably had the best reasons to bomb Libya and Ghaddafi, remember the bombing of  Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie Scotland on Wednesday 21 December 1988, it was alleged that Muammar Ghaddafi had ordered the bombing, the alleged bomber was detained and recently release on the 20 august 2009 on medical reasons, also in 1976 after a series of terror attacks by the Provisional IRA, Gaddafi announced that "the bombs which are convulsing Britain and breaking its spirit are the bombs of Libyan people. We have sent them to the Irish revolutionaries so that the British will pay the price for their past deedsIn April 1984, Libyan refugees in London protested the execution of two dissidents. Libyan diplomats shot at 11 people and killed a British policewoman. The incident led to the cessation of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Libya for over a decade. An alleged plot by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service to assassinate Gaddafi, when rebels attacked Gaddafi's motorcade near the city of Sirte in February 1996, was denied by former foreign secretary Robin Cook, although the FCO later stated: "We have never denied that we knew of plots against Gaddafi."

 Many of which I bet didn’t go down too well with many people in the British army, so an opportunity to pay back wasn’t going to be missed.

USA: also having a claim on why they should attack Libya right from time, he’s been a pain in the ass for the White House and had always been vocal, In 1981 Gaddafi talked about assassinating new American president Ronald Reagan., then in 1986 Libyan state television announced that Libya was training suicide squads to attack American and European interests.  On 14 April 1986, the United States carried out Operation El Dorado Canyon against Gaddafi, bombing air defenses, three army bases, and two airfields in Tripoli and Benghazi. The "surgical strikes" failed to kill Gaddafi but he lost a few dozen military officers. That was counted as a failure so from then onwards any legal/justifiable means to attack him wouldn’t be frowned upon and so this one was right, although President Obama hesitated it was only a ploy to catch Ghaddafi unawares.

 However he’s game is running close to the finish line, he’s already done the right thing by sending President Obama a SOS message to stop the attacks, rumor already has it that he’s accepted a cease fire agreement but if history is to be reckoned with one thing the world has got to realize is that Colonel Ghaddfi is a Psycho and a green snake under a green grass.

EGYPT: I already did an article on its former president; however uprising appears to have engulfed Islamic states, the protest now is that the military hands should fire and level cases against members of the old regime who remained in positions of influence after the revolution and also bring Mubarak to face charges with his cohorts.

In conclusion, what I need to understand is why we have so many wolves in sheep clothing leaders in Africa, first they come good after one term in power the other side surfaces, GOD SAVE US (THE POPULACE) ALL.

 For Africa to see the light and change its name from  Dark to Bright Continent, the entire electoral process has to be overhauled, peoples vote should always count and lets know the form of government we are practicing, it should be absolutely democratic or absolutely autocratic, let there be a visible difference. The electoral body has to stand its ground and never back down from intimidation and last but not the least opposition candidates should accept defeat where necessary and never seek redress outside a court by means of violence or unnecessary heating of an already hot polity and continent. The Holy Bible says Happy and Blessed are ye if you observe and DO them..

This text was originally written on the 14^th December 2010, but wasn’t published, so I had to make changes to it, to meet current events.

  AHAIWE. I. JOSHUA

11^th April 2011