In Africa, we have a culture of not saying the truth about the dead especially if they are not complimentary remarks. Among the religious, it is worse. Worshippers are constantly reminded of what happened to Aaron and Miriam who criticized Moses. Some quote scriptures that enjoins us to pray for our leaders and obey constituted authorities regardless of their performance. Consequently, whenever an African leader dies, encomium is poured on the person without an objective analysis of their legacy. Africa is what it is today not because of colonialism but because of the quality of indigenous leadership. I used the word indigenous because it is quite easy to initiate the blame game when things are going the wrong way in a community, state, nation, or continent as it is with Africa. There are notable books on how Europe underdeveloped Africa, but they are no book on how state governors, local government chairmen, royal fathers, and family heads underdeveloped their constituencies. So, as Kenneth Kaunda passes on, the encomiums have started rolling in from home and abroad.

Nobody is truthfully talking about the outcomes of the decades of his leadership. Nobody is taking into consideration that he was in office between 24 October 1964 to 2 November 1991, until international pressure and an election forced him out. Nobody is talking about the undemocratic structures he left behind. Yes! This is Africa where it is very convenient for us to blame foreign influences for the outcomes of our lives. Yes, there are international conspiracies to keep Africa as a consumer continent. Yes, Africa’s natural resources are needed by developed nations to keep their economies and technologies running. But we are often willing accomplices to these global agendas. What we must all realize is that leaders of foreign nations have a primary objective and responsibility to their citizens and race. And by default, they would do all to give their people economic advantages that improve and sustains their socio-cultural well-being. This is where leaders like Kenneth Kaunda, Olusegun Obasanjo, and you continue to fail. We do not think communally in the short and long term. We are often not our brother’s or sisters’ keepers. We often only think of ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. This is perhaps the real reason for our underdevelopment.

China is today in competition with the United States and Europe to colonized planet Mars, but we are yet to colonize extreme poverty. South Korea, one of the best countries in the world learned from Japan and has today mastered all that needs to be mastered. Today, from automobiles, home appliances, and heavy industries like shipbuilding South Koreans are so innovative, Europe and America are green with envy. How did this happen? They had leaders who dreamed, planned, and executed their plans with untold personal sacrifices. Unlike African leaders like Kenneth Kaunda, Olusegun Obasanjo, Robert Mugabe, and you. Yes, you! You are the president of your life, how has your life benefited Africa? A young man called Mark Zuckerberg recently banned the most powerful man in the world from posting his ill-conceived post on his founded platform – Facebook. And helped in booting him out of office. A young South African-born man called Elon Musk is helping the United States to regain its position in space exploration by a company he founded – SpaceX. Yet, you find a forty-something years old man who is the president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) pocketing federal government bride to truncate a protest that could boot out Buhari. If you think Europe or the United States or China engineered this and other things that we could have used to fix our economy and other aspects of our lives, then you are not thinking.

Ata Ukuta, Editor  – www.towncryyers.com