NEWS African Leaders Under Fire Again! By Alhagie Mbye
London, England
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January 5, 2005
African leaders are under fire again this time round not from donor agencies or human right bodies and organisations, but from fellow Africans who feel the time is now up for a true leadership, realistic and operable development in the continent. Following the establishment of vital projects by the government of Ghana mainly to assist Ghanaian living abroad in order to convince them to return home and help in nation building and further develop the West African country, Africans in the United Kingdom Thursday morning strongly challenged their respective governments to copy the John Kufuor's administration style and establish similar projects useful for its citizens and to enable them have the confidence to bring both their knowledge and skills back home. In a Ben Television programme hosted by F. Akimtemi and Prince Bola, Africans across Britain especially those from West Africa stormed the Channels telephone lines calling on their various governments to do something viable and
sustainable for its people and stop the ''corruption and pillaging of national resources for selfish interest''.
The TV programme which started by highlighting the effects of racism and the inability of certain highly qualified Africans to gain high position jobs especially in the finance, administration, media and political sector concluded by receiving phone calls and emails from West Africans demanding their respective governments to respect the rule of law, democracy and good governance if they truly want to move forward. Even though the presenters of the programme tried to bring back callers to the topic in question, one caller who said he waited for long time to get through, advised the panel to ''stop the mourning and wailing about racism and support and embrace each other by trying to move forward and involve in the owning of banks and television stations in Britain''. His assertions prompted another lady with a different view calling and suggesting that the previous caller was ''not aware of the reality'' and started questioning whether he was ''from the ice''. The interesting debate
if you like was centred around many aspects including problems affecting Africa and Africans.
The continent as whole has a lot of potential for tourism, it is fascinating place full of friendly people with amazing things to see as a results widely represented during travel shows in London therefore African leaders spearheading democracy and national reconciliation are always seen as patriotic. Over 500,000 West Africans are refugees fleeing despotic regimes, warlords and poverty resulting to the departing of tens of thousands of skill workers. Now Africans trust that something can be done to remedy the situation but to start with, African governments must be accountable. For instance, Senegal is seen as a vision for Africa when the country impressed the whole world by organising an exemplary democratic transition and building on that success it now attracted foreign investors, consolidate its democratic gains and promoting African unity. I personally covered Presidential election that brought Wade to power and without a shadow of a doubt all observer across the world hailed
it as free, fair and transparent. When African leaders met more than four years ago in the Libyan City of Sirte at an extraordinary summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) the leaders in fact have more in their plates than originally expected and even with the project of the Libyan leader Mummar Gaddafi forming the African Union (AU), Africa is still experiencing dictatorship with impunity and it is evidence in most African countries that one must have to be a part of the evil dictatorship or else there will be no food on the table. A true citizen may even end up dying in extreme poverty for refusing to swallow his or her pride hence legalising corruption and abuse of office. However during the programme, most of the West Africans acknowledged the problems they come across in Britain but at the same time confessed that Britain is a free society and there are firm laws in place protecting the interest of everyone regardless of the colour of their skin and further accepted
that the democracy they are enjoying here is lacking back home. Others fear that civil liberties are eroding in Africa rapidly and the participation in democratic process prohibited. The ruthlessness of most of our leaders who suppose to defend the masses and protect constitution highlighted.
Shortly after the programme this correspondent spoke to two West Africans for their reaction on the issue, Stella, a Ghanaian who flee from her country during the tenure of former President Jerry Rawlings and now working in the United Kingdom as a Marketing Officer confirmed to me that the current ''Ghana administration is doing very well in trying to help its citizen back home and those abroad to invest, and am very proud to be associated with my present government; while a well known Gambian businessman who preferred to remain anonymous maintained that he was prepared to reallocate his business to The Gambia ''but on condition that there is a transparent bidding and equal opportunity for every businessman regardless of their political loyalty. It is ridiculous to be victimise just because one disagree with someone's else policies and if this is the case then how you expect us to develop'' he asked?.
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