Friday, May 9, 2008

African Leaders

Picture from: members.telering.at/art4u/congo

I watched the last King of Scotland to the end, for the first time 2 days ago and I cried at the end.
I cried not because of what happened in the film but because of what is presently going in Africa,
you would think after the likes of Mobutu seseko and
Idi amin, there would be no more but there is Mugabe now and Africa is silent.
What can we do? What should we do?

I really don't like the finger pointing about how the western countries support dictatorial regimes in Africa, but I am wondering as African why we allow it? Why we sit in silence after all the war, hardship, poverty, hunger, diseases and disasters we have gone and we are still going through.

I believe strongly that our leaders are reflection of who we are,yes we can shake our heads vigorously and say am not like that but I'll say wait till you are given a little power.
I worry about my continent and mostly about my country,Nigeria.

Yes, we are amazing people with great gifts, and I dare say we are the most creative Africans in the world, but look at us. In a few years down the line, what will we become?
I'll know some might say, try not to focus on our leaders(though I confess it is hard not to.) but what the people are doing, but if we don't have the right people making right choices for us, all our efforts may just not be worth it after a while.
Even with the simplest of things, corruption has eaten deep, parents look for ways to write common entrance exams for their primary school children/wards, the man driving against a one way traffic, to the state governor who had embezzled his state's funds and was allowed to travel out of the country during his trial.(Ok, I promise not to focus on the leaders) or the pastor who smiles sheepishly at the entrance of a politician into church.
Three of the most influential and important people,(Sunny Okosun,Yinka Craig and Gani Fawehimi) in Nigeria have cancer and we cannot boast of one hospital that can fully diagnose and treat them properly. They have to raise monies and fly abroad for treatment.

Do our leaders not see what we see? Do they not feel what we feel?
Why loot and build another man country and not put anything valuable in your home country?
Are they leaders or rulers?

I'll keep at my little quota and hope that one day, my little quota will connect with good little quotas across the nation and cause a ripple effect in Nigeria and hopefully Africa.
But right now all I can ask is which way Nigeria?

p.s. I am sorry if the piece seems disjointed, my emotions got in the way of writing.

4 comments:

LG said...

thanks, u ve said it all
*sighs* which way Nigeria

Bubblegum Thug said...

i am so loving ur thought process.
We need more thinkers, not followers, and the glorification of wealth needs to stop. It is the same pple that steal from Nigerians, that Nigerians turn around and worship.

In my head and around me said...

Do our leaders not see what we see? Do they not feel what we feel?

The answer is an emphatic NO. If they did, then the country/continent would be a whole lot different.

Nice post

shhhh said...

if you read my blog you would see i try to steer away from politics because its such a touchy issue especially in nigeria.our country is in a perpetual catch 22 and we all seem to be going in circles[even us here in diaspora as we still have family in nigeria so it affects us]. a wise man once said its not hitler that should take all the blame for his evil acts BUT THE PEOPLE WHO ALLOWED HIM TO. im inclined to agree. we have allowed our leaders to rape,loot, steal, devile,mislead,mistreat,wreck,and disgrace us from decade to decade. all we do now is compare despot to despot and say things like,[at least OBJ was better than abacha]. the point is both administrations were bad. the reason why wealth is glorified is simple, POVERTY. we cannot ignore the leaders because their actions is what counts. i live in scotland and i know for a fact that the average scot is as intelligent as the average nigeria, maybe even less but not more. where the main difference screams is leadership. their leaders are better[maybe its an unfair comparison but a true one] my point is that even if 90% of the population is average as long as the leaders show vision, merit, focus, clear goals, implementation, lessons learnt and williness to listen to the populace from time to time....that country will be fine.