Obama’s win should cause Africa to stop and ponder

Right here in Africa we have our own Obamas, men and women who if you hear or read their thoughts you feel inspired to change all the wrongs in your nation. Such men and women if given the chance to realize their vision of Africa could change Africa to be a nation to reckon with. All that Africa needs to do is discover such charismatic leaders and groom them to takeover leadership democratically at a later stage. But then Africa, being Africa instead of supporting such people so that they can bloom to their full potential feel threatened by them and so frustrate them or spread lies that undermine them. Usually the end result is such men of potential deciding to immigrate to other countries were their intelligence can be appreciated. This explains the brain-drain Africa experiences, year after year.

One such inspirational and charismatic leader whom we can compare to Obama is Jeremiah Kure; he is a professional working in the corporate governance arena, based in Johannesburg. He is the founder of the Heights We Must Climb movement and a firm believer in a progressive Africa; an Africa not tied to her stereotyped past but one that is steadily reclaiming her dignity and potential in the global space. He is 33 years old. It is mainly Jeremiah Kure’s thoughts and those of a few other African thought leaders that are written below. I just thought I should share them with you readers who read my blog and show you that yes we have our own Obamas in Africa.

a) As we celebrate Obama’s win let us Africans mourn our struggling democracies and our numerous flawed elections as well as the floundering attempts to overcome the tradition of mediocrity, self-loathing and lack of leadership on the African continent. Africa should cut ties with its bond to apathy and mediocrity. We should shake free the hangover of inferiority. All over Africa the promise of change is often preached but has never been fully consummated the way it has been in this year’s US election, in Africa the promise of change is really and truly under threat up to the present moment. The irony of it is that those who threaten the promise of change in Africa are the very ones who fought for liberation. It is a sad pattern and one not worth repeating. We have seen it all time and again, in Zimbabwe, Kenya, DRC, Eritrea, Angola, Gabon and many other African nations, where the elixir of democracy remains elusive and where both its quest and suppression have caused untold suffering, claiming hundreds of lives every day.

b) Far too many Africans see Obama as the savior of Africa. This in my opinion might not happen because to turn the American economy around is going to take an enormous effort and if I read the signs on the various stock markets correctly investors are nervous because beside saying, ‘Yes we can’, Obama’s economic policies have not been spelled out as yet. Africans should remember that Obama is American, whatever his roots. He believes in accountability of leadership, hard work, fighting corruption, responsibility, democracy not communism or one-party states. If there is any African country out there that lives up to these beliefs to the letter then I am sure Obama will give that African country the support it needs, maybe not financially but in kind. If you saw the Kenyan High Commissioner to the UK, interviewed on BBC News; when asked what Kenya, in its rather special relationship with President-elect Obama might now expect, he said that he hoped there would be more aid to Kenya and that the US could persuade more donors to help Kenya. Now there’s a real example of how Africans instead of believing that, yes they can rely on themselves economically, they only think of relying on aid. Irrespective of what the Kenyan High Commissioner said, what Kenya will get - is one hell of a boost to their tourism industry, which is better than aid. You want to bet how many Americans will want to see Kenya? Instead of banking on Obama it is time for the African continent to pull itself up from the quagmire it finds itself in, instead of relying on assistance from developed nations. It is time to look to the power of our resources – both human and natural; to be drawn to our thinkers – black and white African; to be attracted to the best among us who can lead us honorably to our proverbial place in the sun.
c) If Africa can produce such great offspring as Obama I agonise as to why Africa continues to wallow in its sorry state. The reason is because the mandarins of Africa’s ruling elites and political opposition, with very few exceptions, do not love and believe in Africa. They believe in their own shrewdness to gain power for its own sake; amassing influence so that they can enrich themselves and subjugate the very people they should be serving. They believe in the supposed prowess of their tribes over others. They stake their fortunes in liberation credentials, which have poisoned them with a misplaced sense of entitlement to rule “until kingdom come.” This is precisely the reason why conflict rages on in the DRC, Darfur and many other spots too depressing to detail. It is part of the reason why the continent is still ravaged by disease and poverty. It is also explains why we continue to mortgage our resources in oil and minerals to foreign corporations. In short, it is the reason for the many things we still do not get right. If we loved ourselves enough, we would not be building personality cults. If we loved our people enough and placed the prosperity of future generations above ours. Indeed, if we held true to our self respecting values and realised the greatness accorded to us by those that fought so gallantly for our freedoms, we wouldn’t continue squandering every opportunity to reform and do better.

d) Africa should realize that their economies can not function on infrastructure built in the 1960s. Shacks still abound in Alexandra within spitting distance of Africa’s premiere economic hub in Johannesburg. The pungent smell of poor sanitation still fills the air of downtown Accra, in a country which was the first to gain independence. In Abidjan we drove through streets lined with rotting garbage on our way to a pristine beach. Our leaders’ investments in grandiose palaces and Swiss bank accounts say a lot about how little they love their own backyard. It is self hate when we don’t invest in infrastructure which can improve quality of life and eliminate our shocking infancy mortality rate. It can only be self loathing which endears our politicians and civil servants to the easy pickings of corruption and such other underhand deals whilst the majority of the people struggle to survive on less than one USD a day. It cannot be love for one’s country, when we seek to profit from the misery of others; when in the name of entrepreneurship we remain adamant to make dollars off the broken backs of Ethiopians, Zimbabweans, Congolese and others less fortunate than ourselves, without giving them a decent due for their contribution to our comfort. Indeed, it will be a sad indictment on all of us should there be an unprecedented surge in the number of Africans immigrating to Obama’s America. Those who cling on to power and arrogate themselves the right to rule with impunity have already devastated the hopes, dreams and lives of an entire nation in Zimbabwe. Those who seek self enrichment at the expense of their people have caused untold strife in lands where oil and diamonds abound, in Nigeria, Liberia, DRC, Sudan and Angola.

It is about time Africa stops and ponders about its self destructive attitude, it is time its leaders emulate the son of their soil Obama who has won the hearts & minds of many with his demeanour.