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The dawn of the new century has brought about an increased realization on the part of our African leaders for the need for some sort of economic and social rejuvenation, and this has been initiated by the new initiatives in the continent such as the African Union and NEPAD (New Economic Partnership for African Development). I do not mean to sound pessimistic, but looking at the record of past African initiatives, what have they achieved? You might say that was a long time ago, but let us take a look at recent events, for us Africans. Remember the airline Air Afrique? The airline established by the governments of Uganda, Senegal and Nigeria et al in an attempt to bring a sort of low cost airline to their fellow countrymen? Barely three years after its inception, where is it now? Also, returning to the subject of the African Union, why did the name have to be changed from the Organization of African Unity to its present name? This was done to give the so-called leaders an opportunity to display the usual pomp and pageantry associated with Africans (I mean, look at Gaddafi, he brought around a dozen bulletproof limousines to the ceremony!). It seems we are not deceiving anyone but ourselves, what shall we tell posterity? That after forty years we have not been able to achieve anything!
Additionally, looking at the way African countries are run, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that we are blatantly deceiving ourselves. Take Nigeria as an example, it is still a shame to see that in this second phase of democratic dispensation, the biggest share of the national budget goes to defense (with education far behind), that is, when the budget gets passed sometime in the middle of the year. Every nation knows that a good quality education is the catalyst for economic and technological development, but still in Africa, we have nations that do not have enough universities to cater for half their student population and have to matriculate twice in every three years to give their students a chance of admission. Then our leaders come and blame the West for the current brain drain disturbing our continent. I think it is time for a serious rethinking of our economic and social policies, if at all we ever want to reach the Promised Land.
A common feature of the democratic dispensations in Africa is their inherent attraction for white elephant projects. The Nigerian government recently launched its first satellite into space from Russia, I must admit that this is a sort of welcome development and it is also cool for Africa to have some sort kind of artistic artifact outside the earth. But seriously, of what use is this project to a country where more than half of its citizens live below the poverty line? What use is a satellite to a country still owing foreign debts to the tune of $30 billion? The Nigerian government claims to be trying its best at attracting foreign direct investment, with our blessed president spending more time in foreign locations than his homeland. But how does a country with no basic infrastructure attract foreign investment? I mean this is just a gross example of not attacking problems from their grassroots, the recent results listed by an NGO (“Transparency International”) placed Nigeria as the second most corrupt country in the world for the second year running. The government says it is taking a tough stance on corruption, but how many bigwigs has it managed to capture since the inception of its campaign five years ago?
At this stage, I would like to pose this question to all Africans; what are we heading towards? The United Nations Development Program has listed Africa as the only continent to have increasing rates of poverty in the 21st century; surely this is not a good omen for our beloved continent. What foundations and examples are we lying down for our future generations? A Yoruba proverb says: Bi ile ngbe osika ti iku npa oloto, bo pe titi ore a maa su ni se (Translation: If the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, one feels reluctant to do good). With this, I would like to remind you that this article does not express my view on this issue, but is simply a collection of some of my thoughts on my beloved homeland.
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Bamidele05
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