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Africans are busy fighting one another because no one is really concerned about Africa’s best interests; certainly not the mean-spirited leaders who have no national consciousness, have no intention of doing justice and are convinced that their role is to take advantage of their own people. In country after country a chronology of selfishness has left a legacy of bitterness and now brother is up in arms against brother in South Sudan, Darfur, Congo; or under the banner of Boko Haram, Al shabab, Isis in the Maghreb or whatever else they want to call it.
Instead of using money and violence to dominate, exploit and marginalize the beautiful people of Africa, it would be more reasonable, I think, for politicians and leaders to take concrete steps to liberate, empower and improve the people’s lives. Practical solutions are needed as a matter of urgency because the much talked about economic developments in Africa continue to elude the vast majority – who live in the rural areas or in the slums around cities.
Many basic problems could be easily solved, but they go on multiplying because they are supported by vested interests which, though short sighted or perhaps even blind, are quite powerful and remarkably adept at resisting change. Moreover, many of the marginalized people tend – in the words of John Kenneth Galbraith – to accommodate themselves to their miserable conditions and thus become equally conservative.
Let those who are capable start by taming corrupt administrators; then move to increasing poor people’s access to healthcare, clean water, decent housing, education and freedom of expression. Africa can then take its first tentative steps away for the externally imposed and myopic culture of dependency, to one which is more developmental and long-term in outlook. This is a simple way to make the different segments of the population less restive and less liable to join fanatical or incendiary groups.
By Nicholas Okumu
