The idea of Pan-Africanism could have been a fear factor in African continent, sadly it was destroyed by disunity, short-lived and disappeared. This is anchored and structured in developing Africa, politically and economically, the pioneers who championed this course are predetermined in decolonization of Africa, and implanting that spirit of brotherhood in going forward. It spreads across both for Africa living in diaspora, this is characterized in making Africa great and pushing for suitable condition. It is that spirit of oneness under the creed of one people, one goal and one nation will sharpen the new and rejuvenated idea of Pan-Africanism.
Power dehumanized and monsterized African leaders
At the early years when African leaders began to have a taste of what power is like, with the emergence of independence of Ghana in March 1957, the then first President and Prime Minister, Kwame Nkrumah prioritized the unity of Independent Africa, a Pan-Africanist and political activist, he championed the quest for regional integration of the whole of the African continent, this was the revolution against The Western powers, to completely kept them at arm’s length with the daily economic and political activities in Africa which gained momentum and solidarity with Pan-African movement in advocating the ideas of visionary Africa.
This is the organization of regional unity in search of development in all sectors, today Pan-Africanism is talking about economic emancipation. In acknowledging the independent state of Ghana, Nkrumah said until the whole Africa is free that’s is the true nature of decolonization not just in Ghana. Two years later, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure of Guinea and President William Tubman of Liberia met in Sanniquellie and signed the Sanniquellie Declaration, the effect of the meeting is to outline the core values to achievement of the unity of Independent Africa States. Series of conference have been held in promulgating and enforcing the principles into effect.
The ideas of Nkrumah were very progressive and selfless in reaching the desired goals. The All-African Peoples’ Conference which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, created divergent views within the movement, and the spirit of oneness began to crumble which gave rise to two rival factions within the Pan-African movement the Casablanca Bloc and the Brazzaville Bloc. It is clearly seen that a house divided against itself can never stand, it was the major event that put Pan-African movement in shaky pillars.
After the demise of Nkrumah, it puts a stain on the struggle but just like Kwame Nkrumah, Muammar Gaddafi assumed the mantle of leadership and became more radical with the ideas of “United States of Africa” than his predecessor. Prior to this, Organization of African Unity [OAU] to put in all the necessary conditions in improving the standard of living in Africa.
It is about how this struggle was able to shape the idea of modern African society, Africa is in captivity, they can’t express themselves freely or independently without reliance. African Union [AU] is totally weak and ineffective, if you take a look at its counterpart like European Union [EU] you will see that they are not in the same league, it is really affecting the lives of millions of people. African leaders have been so dehumanized and monsterized in exercise of power, they want to stay there, no selfless services for course to establish African countries, European countries see Africa as one nation irrespective of which country you are coming from, this should be a huge factor in building formidable Africa, and only unity can bring leaders together to fix Africa.
Every African country you enter there is always unrest and crisis there, most of the time nothing seems to be working, the system grows into stagnancy every single day. The leaders see it as power grab, and once they get there, they don’t care about the standard of living in the countryside, power has taken their reasoning and replaced with brutality. They travel to other countries and see the standard of living yet they refused to implement those standards at home. What is really dehumanized about power in Africa, is that the president and the elected officials will seek for medical attention in foreign hospitals while the one they left at home countries bird and chicks could barely survive there for 24hrs.
It is always going to be there until something is done to uproot that awful standard of living in Africa. The continent cannot boost of serious economic policy amongst the countries in the continent, there is no inter-trade no one is prioritizing or patronizing each other resources, it is exporting and importing all the resources in foreign countries, they will use it to make and manufacture the necessaries that complement life and sold it back in Africa with high price and inferior quality. It is a wakeup call, Africa needs to do better and unity will play a major role in unlocking the potentials, if not African leaders will be willing to submit to Europeans for recolonization once they are getting the shares of the power and comfort.
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“The trouble with Africa”- Chinua Achebe
The father of modern African literature, Chinua Achebe. His book “the trouble with Nigeria” could have been better said “the trouble with Africa” it points that the major problem hindering growth in Africa, and the problem is simply leadership. He talked about inability of leaders to rise to the responsibility to challenge of personal example which are the hallmark of true leadership. Personal integrity is highly functional for good leadership, power attracts evil, in Africa once you’re appointed into a prominent position, you will be surrounded with security and cars, and that breeds gluttony for power, such person could literally do anything to retain the position in the detriment of the masses, and it becomes a huge challenge for leadership.
Corruption, disorder, insensitive and inefficient are the order of the day and it fast integrating into the norm in the society, when something out of long usage finds its way into what the society has come to identify with and nothing is done to eliminate these plagues. When people who are supposed to shield the nation become vulnerable then everything is bound to collapse and there will be no law which will enforce obedience and direct actions.
Leaders are role models; young people tend to imitate them and copy their behaviour and mannerism. Such standard of leadership is totally absent in Africa, contemporary leaders have done nothing worth emulating, they keep creating problems and drowning the nation into it, while escaping in the expense of the populace, when the leaders have nothing to offer it becomes woeful the whole system will definitely collapse and nothing can stand again.
The outcry is very loud tribal, nepotism and favouritism politics have killed the structure in Africa, this is something Africa need to outgrow and move out from it quickly, but the structure is still there where tribal affiliation is replaced with credibility and qualities. And this found its base on disunity, why can you talk about unity while the internal division has created more disunity enough to spark crisis. It is about where Africa is heading, it is total upheaval to achieve the aims of the Pan-Africanists.
The leaders have completely betrayed the followers, the nation’s resources are shared by the elites while the poor masses keep feeding from frying pan to fire. The high hope for Africa under the watch of Africa Union [AU] has completely rock bottom, this is something that will continue to haunt them as they have starkly destroyed destiny of a great nation. The resources in Africa are enough to push the continent to developed standard, if it is properly harnessed and managed very well, but African leaders prefer to sell it and in return buy in high rate, this leadership is found on stealing and squandering nation’s resources.
It is an organized accomplice to destroy Africa, there is no real intent to make it great. Squandered in uncontrolled importation of all kinds of useless consumer products from every corner of the globe. Embezzlement through ghost and inflated contracts to increase the fraudulent act of their loyalists who are incompetence to execute any contracts, the public service is nothing to write home about.
Indiscipline negatives the good leadership of what modern African society is craving for, in today’s setting one may be justified in calling it the condition par excellence of contemporary African leaders, and such status shows nothing to write home about, other than deepening the wounds that are already cut wide open, and the followers are kept away from what is happening in the system, they became so naïve to believe everything in hook, line and sink without asking question while the system is in bad condition, the problem of followers has become so chronic now, people form political thugs to eliminate anybody who goes contrary to views of their candidate, and it goes to the extent of showing how rotten the system has grown into.
New Pan-Africanism needs economic and political agenda
This is what defined the movement there is no hidden agenda, it is a way forward of liberating Africa economically and politically, and it starts from good leadership and promoting growth in all sector in helping to diversify development. It is insane to talk about how foreign currency is used to determine the standard of market in Africa, which fluctuate value of African currency and make it untradable in international market. Africa needs to compete, the resources is there, but the leaders are not focus in putting it into work to achieve huge outcome, more interested in the sharing formula amongst the elite.
Pan-Africanism in modern African society is more likely to live to the true meaning of its creeds, if the leaders are going to cross their t’s and dot their i’s which will allow economic influx into the system and create enabling environment for labour. The standard of education is at the lowest level, in such educational setting it is very hard for anybody to assimilate anything, there is no improve standard of learning, and there is no room for working and studying scheme in the government to help young undergraduates to cope with the financial demands in the tertiary institution. It is unbecoming and completely appalling to mention that university staff in Nigeria still embark on strike, while presidential nomination form is pegged at millions of naira, but has refused to get the future generation back to school, what then becomes of the future.
You see the extent power can drive a leader in Africa, South Africa having gone through hell in the days of apartheid under white supremacist, which is havoc of a dreadful time. Inspired by Nelson Mandela to cut off inhuman government, the greatest mind ever graced leadership in African modern society, in emancipation of South Africa, from Thabo Mbeki to Jacob Zuma. Jacob Zuma has betrayed the trust of South Africans after massive looting and prioritizing his inner circle than the people, now facing imprisonment sentence for the corruption haboured during his time in office, forced to leave office which brought in Cyril Ramaphosa, who was a young politician during the time of Nelson Mandela in Robin Island. It is going to be one goal and one vision to promulgate the concepts and ideas of Pan-Africanism in this crisis infested time in Africa, from Burkina Faso to Mali, from Somali to Nigeria and across the nook and cranny of Africa, nowhere is safe economically and politically.
Reliance on covid-19 vaccine from China and United States
It is another modern colonization in Africa, waiting on China or United States approval on covid-19 vaccine shows no efforts Africa are making to get ahead of the time, there are always waiting on validation to make a move, and it is killing the system, the health care sector can be improved and embark on research to proffer solution facing the mankind biologically. It takes one move to fix the continent, and it can be coming together and unity to enforce the philosophy of Pan-Africanism.
