Africans or the West: Who is Underdeveloping Africa Now?

First published in May 2011

Image credit: Pixabay

I was at the 48th Africa Day 2011 celebration organised by the Africa Asia Scholars Global Network (AASGON) at the University of Medway, Kent on Thursday 26 May 2011.

AASGON is a social and economic empowerment organisation whose aim is to work to strengthen economic, educational, social and cultural ties that exist between the peoples of Africa and Asia leveraging the vision of the 1955 Bandung Spirit Network of countries of Africa and Asia as a model.

Talks centred mainly around under development and poverty in Asia and Africa and how much the West had contributed to the under development of these regions of the world. In settings such as this it was not surprising that European trade in African slaves, colonialism, imperialism, trade imbalance, racism, will take centre stage as familiar topics for discussion. Unarguably, the continents of Africa and Asia had suffered greatly from the actions of the West which has contributed, and continue to do so immensely to the predicaments of Africa and much of Asia today.

Vultures From Within

Image credit: Pixabay

No one leads,

No structure or strategy,

Voices from all around,

Reasonable voices can't be heard or sort,

No one listening,

All are talking and loudly; 

No one believes no one,

Everyone is a fighter or a leader or a spokesperson;

Everyone strive to shout louder than everyone,

The loudest get the jeep, the house and the bloody money;

The violent get their belly filled,

The gentle go hungry or forced to join the violent;

The fight is mostly from within,

Instigated by the controller from without,

Fighting for the $billions in the bush,

Wasting the $millions in hand;

Voices of Hopelessness

                                                        Image: Courtesy pexels.com

For the average youth and the silent majority of older Nigerians who dream of a future for Nigeria which will work for all Nigerians their voices got willingly muffled. They were silenced by the few who knew no civilised way to win in what was supposed to be a democratic electoral process. For them the future is uncertain. Their already inhuman existence is made worse by feelings of hopelessness and despair caused by the BIVAStarized open rigging of the just concluded 2023 general election.

The government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are not pretending not to be part of the show of shame. It appears that Prof. Mahmood Yakubu sold millions of Nigerians into slavery for thirty pieces of silver. This man is not a Nigerian in essence.  At this stage of Nigeria's bumpy journey to a democratic system guided by respect for the rule of law and established elections administration process, it is right to expect the INEC chairman to be seen to have overseen a process which can be adjudged to be fair, credible and free. He failed woefully.

Behind the Cloak of Chieftancy

Founding members of the Abonnema Council of Chiefs

Note: This article was first published on 28/08/2011

Chieftaincy institutions will continue to evolve. More so in some communities in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria where the prerequisites for an individual's elevation to that erstwhile revered position has changed quite significantly recently. Recent key changes we are experiencing are not the type that strengthens a community because they occur in violation of the constitution of these communities with respect to the way individuals are accepted as members of the council of chiefs.

The chieftaincy institution is the most important one in the social and political life of these communities and its strength or weakness, therefore, reflects the fitness of the community. A community's fitness is its ability to create and manage positive change and/or its ability to withstand and manage changes that are not favourable to its long term survival.

The Time is Now to Change Africa

Image credit: Pixabay

Africans need to renew their minds in order to create much-needed change. Every African or anyone one connected to Africa and its people all around the world have the vision of an Africa which is free from poverty, diseases, ignorance, political oppression, economic inertia and the ills of imperialism.

Post-colonial Africa has existed for well over half a century but hasn't flourished in the modern era. Slavery, colonialism, wars, dictatorships and political violence, corruption, and economic mismanagement, have all played their roles in creating debilitating environments in which poverty, crime, and disease thrive. Religious mercenary and intolerance continue to play active roles in keeping Africa from real development. Tribal bigotry is a problem which needs to be tackled and the solution lies entirely on the ability of Africans to begin to foster different views of who they are and how they relate.

As the AIDS and HIV era fades into near oblivion Ebola surfaced and took West Africa hostage recently.