I read an article from
the Washington Post today, on the economic collapse of Angola (http://wapo.st/2baJTyl). It led me to a twitter rant session (@OliSankara) about
African development, Africa's leadership challenges, and the irony of the lives
of most African leaders. Since 140 characters are not enough to fully share my
reflections, here is my personal flow of thoughts after reading this Washington
Post article:
Just to make it crystal clear, I’m not an afropessimist – on the contrary, many
have tagged me as an afro-optimist because of all the leaps of faith I have
made to invest myself in my country, and for all the initiatives I do and
promote in order to add my pebble to that change we dream of, and to help
improve the lives of young Cameroonians. So yes, after this post I will keep
living and preaching Ghandi’s “we are the
change that we want to see,” Napoleon Hill’s “do
small things in a great way,” Barack
Obama’s “change will not come if we wait
for some other person and some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting
for,” and of course, JFK’s “do not
ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country;” Trust
me, I have memorized and interiorized all those empowering quotes. But now,
right now, I just want to look coldly at reality. As I often remind people, and as I've blogged before ( http://bit.ly/1RWHj9Q) , the
first step in problem-solving process is (1) Accepting the problem. So while we
hope for a better future, and we work at our individual levels to solve
community, social and economic problems, there are days like today, when we (I)
need to reject some of these things that our (my) body can’t digest, in order
to continue functioning in this environment. If not, as a friend told me once:
“You
might live your life crossing a huge pile of trash in front of your house, smelling its
stench every day you cross it. You may choose to remove it or ignore it. But the
day you would stop smelling the stench from that trash, that’s when it will get
dangerous.” We might cope with our tough realities, and live comfortable in our own circles, but we should never get
numb to injustice, abuse, and wrong things that happen in our communities and to other people.
There are so many levels of WRONG with what is going on in Angola right now..(and
to think that's the fate of many other African countries, makes the situation
even more pathetic) In addition to the oil
crash (due to the lack of diversification of the economy) : Nepotism &
Greed are the usual suspects. The President of Angola has done 37 years in
power, his daughter and son own different government institutions, while millions of people are
living in dearth poverty.
I'm coming to realize
that no matter what's done in African countries, no matter if Tech hubs are
growing left and right, no matter the narrative of “Africa Rising,” without
good #governance, #accountability, servant leadership, and a culture of #results,
Sub Saharan African countries will still be creeping behind the rest of the
world. As Ory Okolloh ones said, in a quote I have shared multiple times
before, “You can’t entrepreneur around bad leadership, we can’t entrepreneur
around bad policy… I’m concerned about what I see is the fetishization around
entrepreneurship in Africa. It’s almost like it’s the next new liberal thing.
Like, don’t worry that there’s no power because hey, you’re going to do solar
and innovate around that. Your schools suck, but hey there’s this new model of
schooling. Your roads are terrible, but hey, Uber works in Nairobi and that’s
innovation. We can’t entrepreneur our way around bad leadership. We can’t
entrepreneur our way around bad policies. Those of us who have managed to
entrepreneur ourselves out of it are living in a very false security in Africa.
There is growth in Africa, but Africans are not growing. And we have to
questions why is there this big push for us to innovate ourselves around
problems that our leaders, our taxes, our policymakers, ourselves, to be quite
frankly, should be grappling with.” We can have businesses growing all around, but that only enriches a pocket of people. Poor governance + personification of Government power are what keep Africa at the bottom of the pyramid.
We are living in the
21st century with leaders who act as if they were in the 17th Century, Louis
XIV style "L'État, c'est moi." You can't be the State - the State is
not you. You might think it's you for 30/40/50 years, but that's simply an illusion!
It's so toxic to live in an #Africa with dozenS of leaders who can't see beyond
themselves: “Legacy, what?” “ #Legacy, who?” “ #History, huh?” **As they
scratch their heads** #CluelessToTheHandsOfTime
The deficit of African state leaders is pitiful: They waste time, resources, and lives. Countries are so under-capitalized, and development is stifled.
The deficit of African state leaders is pitiful: They waste time, resources, and lives. Countries are so under-capitalized, and development is stifled.
That's why I hate
politics. Instead of leaders putting their all to provide results and improve
justice, meritocracy, and economic increase for the everyday people, they put
their all to have and to maintain power. The real motives of most politicians
in Africa are usually: power, titles, and greed. Not the improvement of
people's lives. “Serving whooo? Public ser—whaaat?” They would say…“that was not
part of our plan. Our plan is for the people we rule to serve us fully,
blindly, without a question, loyally, stupidly, for the rest of their lives…
till death does us and power apart.” That's why I hate #politics! It's so overrated, with underwhelming results.
Louis Pasteur, Mark Zuckerberg, Alexander Graham Bell, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee,
Larry Page, Thomas Edison, through their inventions provided more development,
advancement, and impactful change to the world than most politicians and Presidents
ever did. That’s not to say that Presidents are useless, but that power at all
cost, without backing it up with results that sustainably improve the lives of
the ‘bottom billion’ in your constituency/nation, is useless. At the same time,
a President who is committed to pulling his country up, to improve the lives of
the most disadvantaged, and determined to establish solid institutions that
would provide equal opportunity to anyone of their citizens who deserve (through
merit) to obtain those opportunities, would truly change the course of their
nation, and the lives of millions of people.
If people governed in
#Truth, with #Love, #Justice, and #Selflessness, this world would be so much
more livable. More just and equal. More advanced. But #greed, human greed!
Tchaii...a President would be ok seeing 100,000+ people die, as long as they
have & stay in #power. What kind of heart is that? - #AfricanLeadersWould cruise around in their Maybachs, on pothole roads, next to shanties, street children, and not look twice at that misery.
- #AfricanLeadersWould fly out to the West to cure a migraine, instead of building world-class hospitals in their own countries.
#AfricanLeadersWould
place their child as governor of the central bank, their wife as Minister of
Economy, even when millions of people don't earn $2/day
- #AfricanLeadersWould send their children to study in France, the UK, or U.S; and leave the local universities to crumble (physically and morally).
- #AfricanLeadersWould repaint their roads when Western Presidents visit their countries, but would let the roads deteriorate the week after.
- #AfricanLeadersWould prefer dying in power, & leave their children w the onus of facing the communities the leaders used& abused. #HowSelfish
#AfricanLeadersWould
go to the rural areas only around election time, after that, they would never
step their foot on mud or dust, anywhere.- #AfricanLeadersWould See their country race to the bottom of countries to do #business with, & still blame the West for that ranking. Smh!
- #AfricanLeadersWould visit developed cities of the world, enjoy 5-star-hotels; then will return to live, unbothered in potoh-potoh chaotic cities
- #AfricanLeadersWould make the fanciest of promises.A year later...nothing done.10 years later : No evolution.20 years later: Nothing!
- #AfricanLeadersWould sacrifice their family in order to stay in power...For what? I don't know.Would they die with that power? Only they know.
- #AfricanLeadersWould use $100,000 for a 1-week trip, but will ignore thousands of students who can't afford $100 to go to university for a year
- #AfricanLeadersWould have their children spend $50,000/month, whereas less than 1km from the "Palace", People live on $50/month. #ShamefulGreed
I’m so tired of the overly greedy #AfricanLeaders sinking our nations to the bottom
of chaos and unspeakable precarity.
To end on a positive note, what are our options moving forward: Scrutinize our public-SERVANTS; Challenge our leaders to provide better results; and exercise our civic right to VOTE. We must question the people campaigning on what their projects are and what they have done in the past; and in this light, evaluate their credibility via their track record of improving people's lives and communities. We need to vote for such leaders. We deserve leaders who are fully committed to socio-economic justice, to establishing strong institutions (beyond their individual selves) , and to improving the standard of living of the everyday person. And even when we think elections are corrupt, unfair, and unprofessional; Let us not waste our right to effect change through the polls. We might be surprised how together, our voices, our collective votes can change things! #OliSankara #MashAllah #CITBOJ #Rom831 #Psalm35 #InvisibleInTheEyesOfTheEnemy
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