INEVITABLE CHANGE
One of the problems
of Africa is its leaders overstaying in power. The major problem of Africa is
its people who tolerate leaders who vegetate in power. They permit these
leaders to amass unbridled power, thereby creating predatory political monsters.
Evidences are
abounding that no leader, however armed, can stop a people's resolve for
change. Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, CAR, Burkina Faso, and others have exemplified a
people’s irredeemable resolve for change. These Nations have illustrated that
the solution to some of Africa's chronic problems lie with its' critical
masses.
Africans should
embrace change in governance as an inevitable part of progressive
socio-political experience. The fear for change incapacitates our
conceptualization of peaceful transition to a just society. Zambia, Kenya,
Tanzania and Namibia have all shown us that peaceful transition in Africa is a promising
possibility.
Certainly, the Big Man Syndrome is a thing haunting us.
But it is a thing of the past. The new elite generation of Africans appear
liberal in mindset and yet timid to confront the big men. The increasingly
youthful populace are removed from the pursuit of common interests. Most are
self absorbed, selfish, unconscionable, ideologically shallow and petty in
their dispensations.
In Uganda, nearly 78%
of its population is youthful, under the age of 30. Incidentally, the current
regime will make 30 years in power by 2016. This makes the imagination of
peaceful change of leadership a remote enterprise to this generation. And yet,
the stasis, in which only one man dominates the power, is subtly despised. Evidently,
the NRMO youth leader, Mr. Dennis Namara, recently scolded their Party historicals for their persistent clamor
to power on their bush-war legacies.
Commentators are
wondering why the many unemployed youths possess low motivation to spearhead
change demands. Underneath this lacklustre attitude towards change, is a desire
to experience the change, but not the process of it. Being moderate means
exercising more liberty, a fundamental right which draconian laws such as
Public Order Management Act have appropriated. But you got to understand the
orientation of our young people. Their schooling system de-valorizes critical
thinking, hard-work, independence, persistence and innovation.
The bulk of our
educated young people are disempowered and uncritical by design. They find no
passion in being critical. They are overwhelmed with fear for status quo. Many would
rather seek than create; receive than give, consume than produce, praise than
criticize. When you are accustomed to the recipient tradition, challenging the Provider
becomes subversion. Through an elaborate bribery system, the regime then
suppresses critics by simple rewards. Petty jobs and political appointments
then becomes bait for political expediency.
Every young citizen
is self conflicted with false hope/ fear. They endure the fear of unemployment
and its humiliation. They invest with hope in a false system with no guarantees
for dividends. To be hopeful means demonstrating loyalty through faith depuration
that sustains the tyranny.
In other words, the main
problem of Africa is not its leaders who vegetate in power, rather, its vast
unresponsive, uncritical masses. The leaders exploit the circumstance of
indolence to stay in power. In fact African leaders are some of the weakest
leaders in the world because once disposed, they quickly decompose into
oblivion. While in power, they accumulate material loot well knowing that a
miserable end awaits them. The culture of patronage and the recipient tradition
makes African people culpable to exploitation.
Africans must face
the fact that they concede too much and way too easily, what truly belongs to
them. The entire world has exploited the African people and the continent. Other
races have continued to diversely advance in organizing their societies meticulously
through technology, industry, value adding... They have taken full charge of
their resources.
African people are still
shop for foreign investors. Embracing regime change will allow us to
occasionally evaluate our true strength as a Nation and to allow us take
control of our resources to progress our society.
END
No comments:
Post a Comment