At the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary General said Africa had a right to be angry. Angry because 
Africa was not responsible for the financial crisis but will suffer greatly because of it.
Call me naive but I really agree with what people have been saying for a long time. Africa needs trade and not aid. When the protectionism, selfish and sick trade embargos Europe and other continents have in place is taken off and African countries can trade on the world stage the same way their Western counterparts do, then I think we can begin to hope that we are on the right path to rebuilding the richest continent in the world.
While I agree with Annan's comments to a certain degree, I also differ with him, for the simple reason that for so long Africa has become a little child always waiting on mum to come home and make dinner. We are dependant on aid despite being a great continent with rich natural resources and a whole ton of them are yet to be discovered. Yet, Africa is inhabited by some of the poorest people in the world. We have intelligent people and people who are not lazy; they are willing to work to earn their living. Africans didn't always see the need for corruption or becoming fraudulent in order to get ahead. No, we are raised to work the land in order to eat. I say that boldly because that's how I was raised. Yes, this girl knows how to work on the farm, plant yam, cassava and other crops and oh hell yes, I know how to harvest them too.
However, we have a system that has raised leaders with the mindset of me, myself and I. They care about themselves more than they do the people they are leading. Our politics have become ethnicised and religionised (don't search for the meaning, flow with me) that we kill people who speak a different language and believe in a different god to us though they are our neighbours, shame on us.
Our dependence on aid has played a great role in keeping us perpetually poor. Now before you get your gun out and aim at me with the intention of taking me out for life. Just hear me out. I agree that humanitarian aid should continue. I agree that people have benefited from charitable aid. I don't dispute that. They have helped a lot of people more than some governments have. The aid that must stop is the one which goes directly to the governments. I don't care the clause with which they are handed over, it never seems to work. Necessity is the mother of all inventions and while that is a great cliché, man will always find his way around a challenge. It takes pen and paper to make it happen.
'Systemic Aid' needs to stop and while it will be hard, there is a big chance it might also work. When you have nothing to depend on like many families in Africa have nothing to depend on, they become inventors and find a way to survive. Humanitarian aid should continue but governments must clean their act and learn to make it happen for their people. They must negotiate betters deals and stop settling for less. They think of the now but not the future of the unborn children the nation is yet to deliver. They also need to speak up and the world must listen. It is a low down dirty shame that South Africa is the only African nation at the forth coming G20.
Years of bad governance and of course continuous interference by those little boys in uniform who think a gun empowers them to lead a nation. I mean the military jokers who have taken nations to the drycleaners and cleaned them out financially. Nigeria being the best example I can give. And before you say she is so rude. I was born and raised in Nigeria, lived under military rule for the 16 years I was there. So, I know what I am talking about. Copy!
So, where were we? Yes, aid and not trade...the passage to trade freely must be opened up to African nations. The West needs to realise that buying the goods they feel benefit them is not enough. Let Africa trade with you in all areas, the same way you send your goods to Africa with little or no restrictions from African governments.
And this takes me back to the comment of Mr Annan. I agree that Africa has a right to be angry because it is not responsible for the financial crisis but is beginning to suffer for it. However, I also disagree with him for the simple fact that African nations have had their chance to build some of the world's richest economies and they have never risen to the occasion. Rather, they have squandered the wealth of future generations on projects that don't exist. We have borrowed the future of our children over and over and paying back debts that will take generations to clear up. We don't know what it means to save for the rainy day anymore despite the fact that we have one of the most well established traditional means of saving. I am sure you remember your grandmother's clay pot where she keeps her money. But fast forward with me to the 21st century, we have not maximised our opportunities to build our economies and the markets we created.
It would be so easy to argue that the West most likely likes Africa the way it is. Helps to keep it as the Dark Continent but how long are we going to use that argument to make us feel better about our situation?
My anger level is beginning to rise, an indication I need to wrap this up. We cannot afford to get angry. We need to get active and even better take pro-active steps in this economic crisis and search deep to rebuild.
No doubt a lot of healing is needed but we need to get past the blame game and start thinking...and the world should be BUILING, BUILDING and BUILDING. Building Africa and building our economy.
Our governments need to wake up and rise to the August occasion of serving the people. Democracy is after all, government of the people, by the people and for the people.
We need good leaders at the top, we need smart and savvy economists who know their game and can play well. We need people who care about the people.
The AU needs to wake up and stop electing comedians (no names please!) as their leaders...makes all of them look like a bunch of jokers. SADC needs to keep doing what its doing and even better. ECOWAS, sometimes I wonder if it still exists needs to be active again. We all need to pull ourselves by our bootstrap and stop playing the blame game and wishful thinking won’t cut it.
There is always something to be gained in a bad situation, they key is to look for it and I an bold enough to say, if Africa will look deep, there is a big chance, this current economic crisis is what it might just need to get its bounce back. So, let’s not get angry. Let’s get working and let the world see that we are capable of building our continent. I double dare you Africa.
Africa was not responsible for the financial crisis but will suffer greatly because of it.Call me naive but I really agree with what people have been saying for a long time. Africa needs trade and not aid. When the protectionism, selfish and sick trade embargos Europe and other continents have in place is taken off and African countries can trade on the world stage the same way their Western counterparts do, then I think we can begin to hope that we are on the right path to rebuilding the richest continent in the world.
While I agree with Annan's comments to a certain degree, I also differ with him, for the simple reason that for so long Africa has become a little child always waiting on mum to come home and make dinner. We are dependant on aid despite being a great continent with rich natural resources and a whole ton of them are yet to be discovered. Yet, Africa is inhabited by some of the poorest people in the world. We have intelligent people and people who are not lazy; they are willing to work to earn their living. Africans didn't always see the need for corruption or becoming fraudulent in order to get ahead. No, we are raised to work the land in order to eat. I say that boldly because that's how I was raised. Yes, this girl knows how to work on the farm, plant yam, cassava and other crops and oh hell yes, I know how to harvest them too.
However, we have a system that has raised leaders with the mindset of me, myself and I. They care about themselves more than they do the people they are leading. Our politics have become ethnicised and religionised (don't search for the meaning, flow with me) that we kill people who speak a different language and believe in a different god to us though they are our neighbours, shame on us.
Our dependence on aid has played a great role in keeping us perpetually poor. Now before you get your gun out and aim at me with the intention of taking me out for life. Just hear me out. I agree that humanitarian aid should continue. I agree that people have benefited from charitable aid. I don't dispute that. They have helped a lot of people more than some governments have. The aid that must stop is the one which goes directly to the governments. I don't care the clause with which they are handed over, it never seems to work. Necessity is the mother of all inventions and while that is a great cliché, man will always find his way around a challenge. It takes pen and paper to make it happen.
'Systemic Aid' needs to stop and while it will be hard, there is a big chance it might also work. When you have nothing to depend on like many families in Africa have nothing to depend on, they become inventors and find a way to survive. Humanitarian aid should continue but governments must clean their act and learn to make it happen for their people. They must negotiate betters deals and stop settling for less. They think of the now but not the future of the unborn children the nation is yet to deliver. They also need to speak up and the world must listen. It is a low down dirty shame that South Africa is the only African nation at the forth coming G20.
Years of bad governance and of course continuous interference by those little boys in uniform who think a gun empowers them to lead a nation. I mean the military jokers who have taken nations to the drycleaners and cleaned them out financially. Nigeria being the best example I can give. And before you say she is so rude. I was born and raised in Nigeria, lived under military rule for the 16 years I was there. So, I know what I am talking about. Copy!
So, where were we? Yes, aid and not trade...the passage to trade freely must be opened up to African nations. The West needs to realise that buying the goods they feel benefit them is not enough. Let Africa trade with you in all areas, the same way you send your goods to Africa with little or no restrictions from African governments.
And this takes me back to the comment of Mr Annan. I agree that Africa has a right to be angry because it is not responsible for the financial crisis but is beginning to suffer for it. However, I also disagree with him for the simple fact that African nations have had their chance to build some of the world's richest economies and they have never risen to the occasion. Rather, they have squandered the wealth of future generations on projects that don't exist. We have borrowed the future of our children over and over and paying back debts that will take generations to clear up. We don't know what it means to save for the rainy day anymore despite the fact that we have one of the most well established traditional means of saving. I am sure you remember your grandmother's clay pot where she keeps her money. But fast forward with me to the 21st century, we have not maximised our opportunities to build our economies and the markets we created.
It would be so easy to argue that the West most likely likes Africa the way it is. Helps to keep it as the Dark Continent but how long are we going to use that argument to make us feel better about our situation?
My anger level is beginning to rise, an indication I need to wrap this up. We cannot afford to get angry. We need to get active and even better take pro-active steps in this economic crisis and search deep to rebuild.
No doubt a lot of healing is needed but we need to get past the blame game and start thinking...and the world should be BUILING, BUILDING and BUILDING. Building Africa and building our economy.
Our governments need to wake up and rise to the August occasion of serving the people. Democracy is after all, government of the people, by the people and for the people.
We need good leaders at the top, we need smart and savvy economists who know their game and can play well. We need people who care about the people.
The AU needs to wake up and stop electing comedians (no names please!) as their leaders...makes all of them look like a bunch of jokers. SADC needs to keep doing what its doing and even better. ECOWAS, sometimes I wonder if it still exists needs to be active again. We all need to pull ourselves by our bootstrap and stop playing the blame game and wishful thinking won’t cut it.
There is always something to be gained in a bad situation, they key is to look for it and I an bold enough to say, if Africa will look deep, there is a big chance, this current economic crisis is what it might just need to get its bounce back. So, let’s not get angry. Let’s get working and let the world see that we are capable of building our continent. I double dare you Africa.
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