Ghana Minister of Sanitation Turned Her Home Into a Bank

The news agency Reuters reported a story about corruption in Africa involving a Ghanaian politician and the headline goes: Ghana sanitation minister resigns over alleged stashed cash. Headlines reporting corruption in Africa are not new and anyone who claim to be shocked hearing news of corruption perpetrated by African politicians is either a non-African who don't care about Africa or Africans who are agents and collaborators of these criminals who steal from their commonwealth. African politicians do not steal from their people because they are really in need, it is because they have some undiagnosed afflictions. Some illness I believe is of spiritual nature; perhaps mental derangement. Any average reasonable human being may tend to have some limit.

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.

Ibiso: The Light Just Went Out

 

Late Mrs Ibiso Igonibi Jamabo-Jack

Ibiso was everything to me. She was not only my younger sister, I saw and felt my mother in Ibiso. Far away she communicated with me at the same levels as my mother did. We made jokes, we laughed and hoped for the future together. We had shared concerns, fears, hopes and goals and in our chats she demonstrated the level of wisdom I never had when I was her age, perhaps even now. I am naive with little understanding of the prevailing thought pattern but in Ibiso I had an extremely insightful and logical ally who possess great vision of comfort and prosperity for the family. I abhor sluggishness but Ibiso is different; she is calmer than I am even though it is noticeable that she has a no-nonsense approach to her ways which comes out whenever it is necessary and required. 

God Is Broke: Money, Nigerians And God

Image credit: Pixabay

For the Nigerian, there is God o, they would wail when things go wrong. Yes, but it's usually money first, themselves and then God. When a Nigerian arrives, meaning when they stumble upon money regardless of whether it's legit or illegit, they beat their chest and boast about how smart and/or hardworking they have been. It's their power, hard work or cunning skills. More often than not they take the credit and God comes last as they gloat. 

But then they are put to the test, like health challenges, career challenges, loss of business or jobs, financial misfortune, death of loved ones etc., God immediately come to mind and the first mention of God goes like this: God, why me, why now and what did I do to deserve this? There is God O becomes God, if you exist, God, where are you at this time of need?  What they know not how to do is self-examination, soul-searching sort of.