AFRICAN POLITICS IN THE MENOPAUSE STAGE

BY: OKPARA KEN 

During the scramble and partitioning for Africa at the end of the nineteenth century, which resulted to Berlin conference of 1884, brought about colonialism in Africa. The advent of White man (Obroni) into African soil brought both the good and the bad. They brought Christianity to us and took away our conscience, no wonder Walter said that their coming brought under development in Africa (How Europe under develop Africa). Great men like Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and the likes fought for independence of African states from the hands of the Europeans that has come to exploit Africa.

The questions now are; Are the present leaders in Africa leading according to the dreams of our past heroes? What is the fate of African politics in the next ten years? All these are questions that need an urgent answer in the continent where the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer every blessed day. According to World Bank report Africa is the only continent where majority live below a dollar every day.

It is only in African that a leader prefers dying in office than relinquishing power to upcoming politician with youthful blood. By so doing, it contradicts the popular saying that the youth are the future leaders of tomorrow. Sometimes i do ask myself, what kind of calendar are we making use of in Africa that deprive the tomorrow from coming? Looking at the situation in Zimbabwe where Robert Morgabe who is the president of Zimbabwe since independence has vowed not to step down for another person, one can conclude by saying that Africa lack visionary leaders. Even in Nigeria, the formal president Olusegun Obasanjo wanted the house to enact a law that will elongate his stay in office. Lessons from the life of Nelson Mandela!

It is only in African political terrain that we see messiahs coming up during campaigns and rallies. During that period, they promise heaven and earth, some even go a long way making promise to build bridges even where there is no river. Immediately they are selected, oh sorry I mean ‘elected’ into office they start to embezzle money from the county’s treasury there by subjecting the masses to untold hardship. Ghana is not left out of this scenario. According to Kwesi Pratt, Ghana Is the only country that imports the ordinary even toothpick. The current depreciation of cedis is as a result of selfish politicians who believe in grapping much they can when they can. Some citizens said that they prefer good governance than self-centered democracy in Ghana.

The kidnaping of school children by Boko Haram in Nigeria is a clear testimony that African leaders lack vision and also incapable of handling their security challenges without foreign aid. If not the effort of US government it might be impossible to arrest four members of Boko Haram. Africa in this current situation need leader that think of next generation instead of next election.

In all these Africa remains the best continent on the surface of this earth. No wonder many European nations fought each other in their bid to colonies Africa states because Africa is blessed with many natural endowments. African continent can move to greater height when our leaders start solving African problem with African solution. It is only when we start to cultivate what we eat and eat what we cultivate without foreign importation that we can lift up the poverty rate in this part of world. It is a gradual process and we must reach that zenith point after all when Europe and America were fifty something years, they have not develop as we have. Long live Africa!