So Africa Union, AU is celebrating
its Jubilee year and 50 years since its inception in 1963, formerly as the
Organization of African union (OAU). But
do we really have all the reasons to celebrate as a continent as though we do
not have our home-made African troubles? There are many reasons to jubilate,
just as the Coca Cola soft drink advertisement says that we have a billion
reasons to believe in Africa’. But let us not be so ignorant of the continent’s
dark and evils that have been a cause for tears.
African heads of states
converged in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa in late May, for the week-long
African Union summit that marked the golden jubilee of the body born out of the
efforts and aspirations of our founding fathers. The brain child of the
Selassie’s, Kenyatta’s, Nkrumah’s and Nyerere’s who led the continent in her
fight against the colonialists has turned 50 years old, but really is all
smiles about our Africa? Film festivals, musical extravaganza, sports,
symposiums, seminars, exhibitions and helicopter flight arts were on offer as
Africa Union marked her 50th birthday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
But chief among the
summit’s resolutions is the threat of a massive pull-out from the Hague-based
International Criminal Court, ICC, by all African states. This is a threat that
Botswana distanced herself from. Botswana has refused to be part of the
blatantly oppressive yet pretentious leadership that AU had endorsed in its
threat of mass pull-out from the ICC. We must laud our brothers and sisters
from Botswana and their president, Lieutenant General Sereste Khama Ian Khama.
Kudos Lt Khama for refusing to use this cheap blackmail by AU to cover up the
suffering and crimes against humanity that most Africans have been forced to
accept as a norm!
I am proud to be an
African, both by blood and by soil, but am not proud of our leadership norms
and most of the individual heads of states. One may castigate me for
unpatriotism to my continent, but I got reasons for my apparently unpatriotic
stand!
Coup d’états and armed
bloody take-over’s of power are an accepted norm of ascending to the presidency
in several African states. Abuses of state power, massive plundering of state
resources, suppression and consistent intimidation of political opponents, love
for war and cultures of impunity are what best define most presidencies across
the continent, with the exception of a few states. Let us too not forget the
‘presidents for life’ ideology that is rife in African. To many countries, presidency
in Africa is nobility that has ironically been the African curse. It has been a
cause of deaths, destruction, bloodbath, anguish, agony and all words that
describe human suffering. This is the far cry from the source and beacon of
hope, inspiration, peace and development that presidencies should be.
The threat of a massive
pull-out by African countries from the ICC best describes the insensitivity
that most of our presidents across the continent have towards the very people
whom they are supposed to be sensitive and equally responsive to. It is an open
secret that most of these presidencies are a source of agony, the means of
ascending to power have been bloody and democracy is a word that best works on
paper. Those who democratically think of challenging the status quo in some of
these African countries are met with unmatched force and brutality by the
security forces. Our brother in Uganda, Dr. Kizza Besigye is a perfect case in
point.
Television images of how the
security forces met his peaceful walk-to-work campaigns with cruelty were nasty,
mind-boggling and at best despeakable. One really wonders how Besigye’s
walk-to-work demonstrations were supposed to poison and threaten Museveni’s
presidency. This was back in 2012, the year when the Maghreb revolution rocked
the status quo in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. This wind of change was slowly
blowing to neighboring Uganda as Besigye took the courageous step of rocking
Museveni’s leadership. But sadly, the revolution did not last the rough ride
and died out, with Besigye badly maimed and critically injured. He had to be
flown to Nairobi for specialized treatment. You can rightfully say that Kampala
is living the Kenyan dark days of the Moi regime when those who dared challenge
Moi’s presidency were labeled dissidents and traitors and had to endure
torturous detention inside the now infamous Nyayo House torture chambers. But
this is what really happens when some of these presidents for life- minded
leaders smell revolutions in the air. One must be forgiven for thinking that
these presidents do not think of life outside the trappings of power.
In Zimbabwe, Robert
Mugabe is apparently the only man fit enough to lead the country, in Equitorial
Guinea, Theodoro Nguema Obiang and his son are leading the country and
plundering it in equal measure. Just as in other African countries, the people
of Equatorial Guinea are some of the poorest and life is a daily struggle
despite the vast deposits of oil and other minerals. Equatorial forests are
rapidly disappearing and in their places are multimillion palaces! Talk of
misplaced priorities. Somebody once said that Africa is rich in resources but
poor because it is poor in mind!
Most of the African
leaderships do not offer us means and ways of improving lives across the
continent, as a result of these minerals. Instead it is the complete opposite.
Bloody conflicts and wars reign supreme as a result of these rich minerals.
Niger Delta has never known peace due to the oil deposits, Democratic Republic
of Congo is so accustomed to rebels and crimes against humanity are a norm due
to the fight for gold and other minerals in the vast and naturally endowed
country. Sierra Leone has never recovered from the bloody conflict occasioned by
the infamous blood diamonds, our neighbors in South and Northern Sudan are
still uneasy over the oil-rich Heglig region and Omar-el-Bahir is a wanted man
by The Hague-based ICC. Former Liberan strongman Charles Taylor and Omar Bongo
of Ivory Coast are awaiting to know their fate inside the court-rooms of the
ICC. They are just some of the many African suspects at The Hague or wanted to
answer charges of crimes against humanity. But we too have suspects from other continents;
most notable is that former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic died
Some of our African
leaders might strongly protest and argue that the ICC unfairly targets African,
but this is not necessarily the truth. They do so just to protect their friends
in power who are wanted men by Fatou Bensouda and her legal team. We too must
question some outrageous statements, especially when former prosecutor Luis
Moreno Ocampo infamously said that he was to use the Kenyan case as a perfect
lesson to indeed prove that the Hague-based court had teeth and could bite in
equal measure. Questionable and outrageous statement indeed! This is story for
another day. But let us not forget that most African countries have never known
peace, primarily due to poor and incompetent leaders and an apparently
unquenchable thirst for power.
Civil wars and strives,
coup d’états and militant groups have all greatly occasioned unprecedented
human suffering. From child soldiers during the Sierra Leone civil war to the
Dadaab Refugee Camp in North Eastern Kenya, Africans have indeed lived through
hell. And to compound an already dire situation, except after the infamous
Rwandan genocide of 1994, there has been no proven political goodwill to help
address these problems. That is the point where the ICC must come in and see to
the bitter end that justice indeed prevails. With regard to most of these wars
and conflicts, most African leaderships have shown that they cannot provide the
required political goodwill to address the teething issues that have been the
bane of human suffering across the continent. This unquenchable thirst and
hunger for power by all means possible and the bloody fights over the natural
resources in most African countries is one area where successive presidencies
in Africa have dismally failed in.
The African leadership is mainly divided into a
minority of leaders who are champions of democracy and the rule of law and a
majority to whom democracy and the rule of law best exists on paper. Our
beloved Kenya, Ghana, Botswana and South Africa represent the few countries who
are champions of democracy. However, others like neighboring Somalia,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe and many others form the African
side where democracy best works on paper. Worse still, DRC and Somalia and others,
perennially in civil wars and strives are not the best of news.
As a continent, we must be truthful and in as much
as we celebrate the beauty and success of our beloved continent, take a moment
away from the eerie and realize that we have teething challenges and problems
that most of our leaderships have proven to be incapable of solving and worse
still, just blatantly refuse to solve.
Let us learn to see an half- full glass as a
positive instead of lamenting and cursing why it is not full. Likewise, we must
learn to appreciate the efforts of the international community and the many
ways in which it chips in to help us. The ICC represents the only pragmatic way
of holding to account the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war, rape,
murder, forcible circumcision and displacement of innocent civilians. These
innocent victims, women and children, who mostly bear the full brunt of civil
wars and strives are destined to live with permanent scars and trauma of what
they are forced to live through. Others
across the continent are forced to live in uneasy calm and peace under constant
mass violations of their human rights and leaderships are forced down their
throats.
Most Africans have suffered; physically and
psychologically maimed, shed tears, lost lives and their loved ones due to the
rich and vast natural resources on the African land. Sycophancy and cynicism
best describes the mediocrity of most African leaderships and this has sadly
made Africa to play the catch up role globally, despite the fact that we are
the most endowed continent in natural resources!
Africa is not the sad story in the world’s history.
We have numerous positives that we draw pride in. Unfortunately, due to
leadership problems, we have been forced to play second fiddle to the rest of
the world. We must wake up and correct the leadership before it is too late!
