Date Published: 05/26/09
Baltimore, May 25, 2009
Celebrating Africa Day with Africans in Bondage
by Oludare Ogunlana
“We, the Heads of African States and Governments assembled in the City of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, convinced that it is the inalienable right of all people to control their own destiny, conscious of the fact that freedom, equality, justice and dignity are essential objectives for the achievement of the legitimate aspirations of the African peoples…”
Today is the Africa Day; Seventeen African leaders from independent countries were part of this historic declaration in May 25, 1963. Of course, Africa is still not free today, Nigeria is in bondage, repression in Zimbabwe, war in Sudan, conflict in Somali, and corruption has become a cancer killing us, Poverty, HIV, Malaria and other manmade disasters.
Nigeria, today still remains a country of pain, a sleeping giant and weak pillar of which the rest of African can stand on.
I invite all Africa youth to take a mental trip across the Africa continent. From the North to the South, from the East to West, the common stories are those of armed conflicts, armed robbery, hunger or outright starvation, poverty, disease, totalitarian governance, extra-judicial killings, corruption, appropriation of public office to self-centered interests, insensitivity to the needs of the governed, electoral fraud to gain power, injustice, abuse of power and arrogant flamboyance. Remember the stories of Liberia Sierra Leone, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco and the Polisario, Zimbabwe, Angola the two Congos, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and Nigeria. If the story is not one of religious conflict, it must be ethnic dispute or power struggle all of which have taken the lives of millions of youths. The most well managed economies on the continent are at best worse than the poorly managed economies of Europe with the debts so compounding that they will take determined youths of the next four generations to settle.
Just four decades ago, Nigerian homes did not need the types of security barricades and burglary proof structures, which have become part of our private and public lives today.
Only some forty years ago, it was normal for farmers in my country to display yam tubers, plantain bunches, fruits and vegetables at road junctions and places price tags by leaving coins in front of each item. Buyers simply needed to select what they wanted and leave exactly the coins for the purchase. You may try that trade system today and find out what has happened to Africa.
There are many Africa leaders who have been Presidents of their nations for more than three decades with no signs of the willingness to relinquish power. Thus, while it may be true that elections are held to elect these political leaders, what the people have is not true democracy because democracy is not about elections into leadership position. What democracy is about is the conduct of public office holders. Only governance, which serves the very best interests of the society can be truly democratic when there is suspicion that the best interest are not being served by those in power, gaps begin to develop between the hopes of the governed and the whims of the rulers.
The greater the insensitivity to the feelings of the people, the wider the gaps. When corruption increases, disrespect for leader increases, resulting in disaffection and anger. The corrupt leader is the one who sows the seeds of corruption, the dispersal for which promoted by deprivation, hunger and poverty in society. A man who is continuously hungry is likely to accept bribe. A woman who is abandoned to perpetual want may go into prostitution. As a direct consequence of the obvious contradiction between the expectations of the citizenry and the political horizons of some leaders. African societies are unable to respond to the under-girding principles of sustainable development. Relentless instability is the fruit of hopeless greed and corruption, the disturbing consequences of which the African Youth must recognize.
I can say, with a deep sense of responsibility that nothing misdirects the youth more powerfully than the pervasive influence of bad leaders at home, at school, in the place of worship, at work and in society at large. Since youths constitute the largest fraction of our society, it is reasonable to suggest that their collective ability to transfer good or evil is potent. See the spread of foreign cultures and the spread of disaffection in families.
The relevance of the Africa youth to this circumstance is that we lives in a hard “PRESENT” and faces a very doubtful “FUTURE” with regard to our personal access to peace, fundamental rights, freedom from poverty, happiness, good education and gainful employment. Why is the Africa horizon so clouded with doubt and development stagnation? Why are Africa Youths under the bondage of misdirected national goals?
As we celebrate Africa Day on May 25, 2009, the answer are the Mohandras Ghandi’s thought for mankind concerning men and women who seek wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality and politics without principles.
In my opinion, I think that the challenges of the Africa include:
(a) The defeat of the culture of seeking wealth without working for it.
(b) The employment of good conscience in the pursuit of pleasure.
(c) The eradication of the spirit of searching for knowledge without character.
(d) The recognition and placement of morality as the trademark for the pursuit of commerce.
(e) Acceptance of sacrifice as the basis of sound religious faith, and
(f) The total rejection of politics without principle.
The greatest challenge of our generation therefore, is the need for youths who will refuse to be bought or sold, youths who, in their innermost beings, are true and honest. African youths must, even at great peril, be prepared to call sin by its right name all the time. The conscience of the African Youth should be as true to duty as the moon to the Creator. We must develop the moral courage to stand for the right even if something will be lost. Nothing less challenging than this is worth building because I believe, earnestly, that success is the ability to face a problem bigger than you and fight till you win by any Godly means.
Let every progressive say; YES, WE CAN!
Oludare Ogunlana
Special Ambassador & Secretary General, AASU
