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.

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.

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.