by Harmony Levin
“Africa is beyond bemoaning the past for its problems.The task of undoing the past is on the shoulders of African leaders themselves with the support of those willing to join in a continental renewal”
The above opening quote by Africa’s legendary Nelson Mandela remains one of my favourite quotes of all time, not that I get to tweet or put it up on Facebook or LIS every morning; it only gives me the goosebumps I need to remember that Africa still got a long drive ahead in terms of leadership. And no, this isn’t one of those articles that put Africa or its leaders to scorn in order to proffer solutions-. I do not even consider myself such a perfectionist to proffer solutions to a continent with over 50 independent nations and about 1 billion people.
Africa has got nothing basically wrong with it- enviable land mass, beautiful climate(even though the heat is out of this world) and a chain of rivers and deltas that aid sustainable living.
There’s just a horrible giant that exists in every African society- more horrible is that this giant has different forms: terrorism, corruption, poverty(African societal logs not limited to these trio). This giant makes no good use in the futherance of positivity in our little African corners.
In writing of Africa, I mean Africa- from Cairo to Cape Town. While insecurity and terrorism bundles the upper half, corruption and poverty seems to have common room in the continent.
After watching one of those random documentaries NTA airs in their spare time, documentaries that paint Africa like a far flung chaos zone bereft of anything good, I was gingered to ask Uncle Google about Africa’s Developmental Problems. Amongst the results, this Ethopian Herald quote popped up: “Africa is emerging from the abyss of development and showing growth and many are opening their eyes to usher in market industry, tourism, education, as well as agriculture”; I may not quite agree, but in futherance to that I’d add that a key challenge in most African countries is how to build reputable governments and create an enabling capitalist driven economy to fight the afore mentioned giant. The sad reality from the above conceptions is that the continent is ready for development, but can development reign where poverty thrives?
Another reality is that Africa lacks patriotic patronage as evident in deplorable leadership shown by leaders fully geared to run down national economies on the basis of personal interests.
Sorry for digressing. Starting off I didn’t want to seem like a saint that delivers judgement as is always the case with the self gloating writers of African developmental defeciency. But what do I know? I am not even an authority in this field, what can a brother do other than profer solutions from my small little head.
I believe if for the least of will, we Africans can embrace good governance, we’d be able to build independent governments, or accurately independent governments that will be able to survive for its own. Then can we consider adopting our own indigenous style of governance? Yes, then I think Africa will be a jolly good place to live in. Cheers!
Harmony Levin(20) is a writer, speaker and social commentator. An undergraduate student of the University of Uyo, studying History and International studies, a feature writer and editor of Diplomatic Access. A creative director and idea innovator, with high stakes in literature, lifestyle and religion. He is on Twitter as @mactorrr
Leave a reply