Africa And the Realities of Undemocratic Governance
The Perspective (Smyrna, Georgia)
OPINION
June 28, 2001
Posted to the web June 28, 2001
Edward D. Kollie, Jr
As the rest of the world races to achieve progress in economic and social
development through advancement in education, science, technology and
medicine, Africa is not only lagging behind, it is shamefully and seriously
digressing. And at the rate it is doing so, the continent may soon race
backwards beyond the starting line.
At one time in Africa's history, the evil vestiges of colonialism and
foreign domination seriously paralyzed it. Today, Africa is rapidly dying
socially, economically, politically and financially thanks to a sinister
confluence of political incompetence and personal corruption in the form of
indescribable illegal wealth grabbing by dishonest and demonic individuals
masquerading as leaders.
Africa is dying? Yes indeed! At a time when the rest of the world is
continuously ushering in new and more advanced technological and scientific
means to combat disease, hunger and poverty and improve and sustain economic
progress, the continent of Africa (especially Africa south of the Sahara) is
caught in a terrible state of endless civil and regional wars, ethnic strife
and economic stagnation.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the struggle was against colonialism and foreign
domination. Then during the later part of the 1970s and first half of the
1980s, some parts of Africa (Liberia, for example) struggled against
dictatorial and corrupt African rulers. We had hoped that a new day was on
the horizon when our continent, under the leadership of its own sons and
daughters, would embark on the road to establishing firm and viable
economies that would help provide for its peoples adequate and better jobs,
schools, health care delivery systems, roadways and seaways and other needed
infrastructure.
With Africans in charge of their own destiny, we believed the necessary
democratic institutions would be put in place to ensure that the continent's
resources were used to improve and advance the condition of the masses of
our people. We had dreamed of a democratic Africa united to free South
Africa from the evil vices of Apartheid and to save the starving children of
drought stricken Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. Africa did fight fervently and
in the end helped free its children from the evil scourge of Apartheid. On
February 2, 1990, the morally blind white South African racists finally saw
the light and took the first step to rid the country of Apartheid. It was on
that day the racist F. W. de Klerk government announced the lifting of the
ban on the African National Congress and other political organizations. Nine
days later (on February 11, 1990), Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
For much of Africa today, however, the story is one of missed opportunities
accompanied by terrible human tragedies and severe political, economic and
social crises.
Decades after the struggle against colonial rule and foreign domination,
Africa is still embroiled in several never-ending regional and national
conflicts. There is abject poverty, hunger and widespread illiteracy on the
continent. Africa's children are dying of HIV/AIDS (and even some
preventable diseases) in numbers that should seriously alarm any human being
with half a brain. There is so much political, economic and social turmoil
on the continent that some days it seems like the gods have cast a horrible
evil spell on Africa. As of the end of 2000, more than 36.1 million people
in the world were living with HIV/AIDS, according to the Joint UN Programme
on HIV/AIDS. Current data shows that more than 70 percent of those infected
with this deadly disease live in sub-Saharan Africa. The UN Programme data
also shows that as of December 31, 2001 about 21.8 million people had died
of the disease. About 17 million Africans are among those who have lost
their lives to HIV/AIDS since the outbreak of the pandemic in the 1970s.
While the continent is experiencing the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection,
African rulers are bent on perpetuating themselves in power. In most African
countries where this human tragedy is wreaking havoc, those with the
political wherewithal to make a difference have seen no reason to design and
implement even some very basic measures, like effective public awareness
programs to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS. Public health initiatives to
educate the populace about this human horror and to provide comfort and care
for those who have fallen victim to the disease are almost absent in
countries like Liberia where Charles Taylor, members of his immediate
family, his political cronies and foreign collaborators continue to amass
innumerable wealth through thieft and loot. There are countless other greedy
and mindless individuals like Taylor, who see nothing even morally wrong
with what they are doing. They routinely appropriate the resources of the
continent for their own selfish purposes. These sons and daughters of
Africa, very often in collaboration with foreign elements, steal their
countries' wealth and transfer it into foreign bank accounts while their
people continue to languish in poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and
disease. A Nigerian industrialist, Prince Olu Ologbese, recently put it very
poignantly when he said "A situation where African leaders or rulers seize
every opportunity they have in government to enrich themselves and their
immediate families has consistently impoverished us." (See the article
"Poverty in Africa Blamed on Leaders' Greed", The Guardian (Lagos), by
Francis Obinor, allAfrica.com, June 20, 2001.)
In one African country after another, there are endless maneuvers by
political rulers to perpetuate themselves in power. To ensure the
achievement of their selfish and insatiable appetite for power, some of
these rulers resort to various means, including even those that are not in
the 'book'. They change their countries' constitutions to remove legal
limits placed on the number of years or terms "elected" officials are
allowed to serve.
For example: President Daniel Arap Moi is still trying to change the Kenyan
constitution so that he can run again for the presidency even though he has
been there (without any significant positive result for Kenya) since 1978.
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has unleashed his so-called "War Veterans" and
other evil forces to intimidate and/or eliminate his political opponents in
what increasingly appears to be a vain attempt to hold on to power. It does
not matter that his country continues to experience serious economic,
political and social problems.
President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia was recently forced to abandon his
quest to change his country's constitution so he could run for re-election
again despite the fact that he has held that position since 1991. Some
African rulers either kill their political opponents and anyone who dares to
challenge their political gangsterism, force them into exile or silence them
through fear and intimidation. In most African countries there is almost no
freedom of assembly and speech and the press usually faces such severe and
numerous restrictions that it is nearly impossible for it to report
accurately and adequately.
The moral, political, social and economic decay that prevails in Liberia and
its attendant evil consequences on the entire West African sub-region, for
example, is part of what besets much of Africa today. Some of its rulers are
nothing more than a bunch of modern day barbarians and pirates bent on
enriching themselves at any cost.
And so it came as no surprise, for instance, that we saw a band of West
African rulers running around like blind mice in a futile attempt to save
one of their own, Charles Taylor of Liberia, from threatened (and
subsequently imposed) UN sanctions. They are all one and the same and
anything that threatens one of them politically is seen as a sign of danger
by all of them. Their skins have been thinned so badly by their evil
misdeeds that it does not take much to scare them. You see there is no human
being as free as one with a clear conscience.
Charles Taylor, Blaise Campaore, Muammar al-Qaddafi, Jonas Malheiro Savimbi,
Foday Sankoh and the rest of the gang have consciences that are heavily
laden with the blood and suffering of innocent African men, women and
children who have become (and continue to be) victims of their despotism,
greed and barbarism. These dishonorable men have brought so much shame to
the continent of Africa that Africans living in the diaspora constantly find
themselves being asked such questions as: What is going on in Africa? How
can the people continue to live in such misery and their leaders do not seem
to care? When are things going to change for the better?
Like Idi Amin of Uganda and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic
Republic of the Congo), the issue for the corrupt African rulers is one of
personal political aggrandizement and financial greed over the national
good.
The modern day African despots are more interested in filling their pockets
and foreign bank accounts than doing anything meaningful to improve the lot
of their compatriots. So they routinely engage in broad day light robbery of
their nations' meager resources by creating conditions favorable to their
evil designs. A case in point is the recent passage into law by the
rubber-stamp Liberian Legislature of a law that gave sole and total power
and control of Liberia's natural and other resources to Charles Taylor.
According to the "Strategic Commodities Act", Taylor has the sole and
exclusive authority to make all decisions regarding "All mineral resources
particularly, GOLD, DIAMOND, HYDROCARBON and any other finite Natural
Resources Deposits such as, Natural Gas, precious minerals; metals and
stones, now discovered or to be discovered in the future, which have
economic and commercial value; and may be marketable domestically and
internationally." Even a blind person can see that this is another
affirmation of the fact that Liberia is indeed Charles Taylor, Inc.
The images from Liberia and other parts of Africa of starving, diseased and
malnourished children, burnt-out villages, run-down and rusted cities and
human parts hanging around the necks of child soldiers tell a gruesome story
of the carnage and untold suffering that are being brought on the people of
the continent. They also tell the story of a continent whose people and
their future are held hostage by a herd of ruthless dictators who will stop
at nothing to ensure that they remain in power for as long as they breathe.
Additionally, the images reveal the general attitude of the rest of the
world which, until recently, basically stood by and watched as Africa's sons
and daughters were butchered and its resources pillaged by mad men hell-bent
on arrogating all political and economic power to themselves and their
domestic and foreign cronies. To ensure that the voices of reason and
dissent are not heard, African tyrants enact laws that stifle almost all
fundamental human rights and freedom.
Any violation of those cockamamie and self-serving laws provides cover for
those African rulers to imprison, intimidate and/or even eliminate (by
murder) those they consider to be threats to their totalitarian rule. This
is the story of much of modern day Africa. It is a very sad story and it is
part of the realities of the undemocratic and authoritarian rule in most
parts of the continent.
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