An appeal to all African Leaders

I have come to realization that Africa is really suffering from regional instability, armed conflict, ethnic/tribal/religious clashes, indebtedness, hunger, poverty, diseases, environmental degradation, and underdevelopment. These are just a few references produced to comprehend the current state of affairs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa today is still as much in problems as it were more than decades ago as our beloved continent continuously suffers and recovers from disasters. Natural as well as man made disasters have lampooned the continent in pretty much the same way with the droughts and famine such as endured for years in Ethiopia then Sub-Saharan Africa, and now Niger where millions are at risk of annihilation. We have witnessed civil wars and related conflicts that have culminated in genocides in Rwanda, Somalia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, some parts of the DR Congo, and lately Sudan’s Darfour region.

It is acceptable for one to say that Africa is like a demonstration continent that is constructed and then demolished, and constructed again, only to be demolished once again. It literally goes on and on in Africa because real countries have gone leaving only the names. There seems to be no permanent or consistent pattern of development and advancement on the continent that is one of the richest in resources yet has the poorest and most miserable people in the world.

As an African born and bred through the thicket of misery that is life on the continent, I have seen and suffered it all. But as a responsible and proactive African, I always feel that we all have a part to play in trying to emancipate our continent from the perennial curse of poverty, disease and squalor that characterized our lives through abused of governments/head of states/prime ministers etc.

Indeed, life in Africa might be viewed as a loosely mixed bag because there are some well to do African families that are living quite comfortably although these are surrounded by the sad realities of deprivation that hound the generality of the African populace. And this is one of the pointers that all is not well on the continent because while there are those filthy rich Africans who are the so-called ‘well to do’ ones, there is this specter of the equally filthy but poor majority visibly growing in number way more than the rich. The gap between these two contradicting classes of Africans is simply widening daily at an alarming rate.

I will therefore attribute these problems listed above to our system of governance. Our leaders that we struggle to elect them to the highest office of the state appears holy on their way to office but turns to be vampires after entering office or assume the duty as President/head of state/prime minister etc.Why must we suffer at the expense of our own effort to choose a leader? Are we wrong in going through voting process only to be used as slave on our own land? What is the meaning of democracy to an African? Should the meaning be re-defined to us again?

I am writing on behalf of my brothers, sister, aunts, cousins, uncles, fathers, mothers and all love ones who are going through difficulties in their homes in Africa to tell the leaders who govern us that we are very very tired of their governance and need a change from our present situation if they really love us and see us same God created beings on earth. They should remember that God created us all in His own image and whatever pain they made us to go through affect God’s mission on earth weather Christian, Muslim, Budhist etc.

Why do you punish us this way on our own land? You same leaders are accusing the western world for maltreating us centuries ago on the issues of slavery but what do we see you doing to us now? Stealing our monies and saving it abroad, buying luxurious cars, arms made by these western worlds with hard currencies, spending lavishly shopping abroad by your wives and sending your children abroad for better education etc etc. Does the statement made by Dr.Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana that and I quote: ‘African is capable of managing his own affairs’ mean the sort of management we see today on our continent by our leaders to day or something more like what we see in a more democratic countries in the world today?. What do we see now? An Independence and leadership management that has brought us more sufferings than before. Your leadership has made us look useless in this world.

This was the message from a succession of African leaders who spoke at the UN Conference on Financing for Development and I quote: ‘If the noose of debt were removed from our necks, African governments would be able to take their destiny into their own hands and not have to depend only on increased aid flows from the industrialized countries’. I cried when I read this message from African leaders and wondered if the rest of the world would listen and should listen to them at all. My dear leaders, do you really need what you are asking for on a good purpose for the continent or your own selfish desires? Let’s be frank to our continent. Have we done what we deserve to merit such package? The little that we have, are you using it wisely? What do we see today and what example can you bodily state to defend your demands. Do you think when the rest of the world ask people from African continent to vote for you to indicate that, they have full confidence that you will brink about the changes you are saying, you will get at least 50% votes? I really do not think so all because look around you, your policies, life of the people, education, hungar, health etc.etc.

Do something my leaders to help the people and the continent now and all other things shall be added unto it. It’s similar to a situation that I witnessed when an African man was applying for a visa to go to the UK for a visit and was refused with an explanation he does not have a strong ties or landed property to compel him to return. You have rights to appeal or when your circumstances in your first application changes. Same applies to debt relief packages that we are asking from the western world. They would tell you that you do not have the requisite situation in your continent to apply for such package and therefore you are not granted or be granted when conditions changes. All I am saying is that, let’s change our way of governance and make the continent and people better and more packages will come.

Anytime one makes reference to an African continent then one quickly takes his mind back to something bad. Nothing good is associated with African continent. More than half of the world bodies like UN, UNESCO, IMF, WHO etc funds generated is spent on us because of bad policies and governance of our leaders who do not see our situation as their responsibility. I really do not have any adjective to describe how our leaders look like. Very horrible and inconsiderate in everything they do for us.Why? Look at Mugabe as an example. A man who holds degrees, a Christian and a father leaving his own people in such a situation and trying to rubbish every call prompting him of dangers he is bringing to his own people. What have they done to merit such punishment from their own blood related leader? Not him alone others are out there hiding. Zimbabwe story has exposed most of you and therefore all of you must change now.

African leaders wake up from your sleep and save your own people.Look! The rest of the world is tired of us and they are doing everything to prevent us getting close to them. What do we see today in respect of refugee situation? Africans are the majority seeking refugee status abroad. When you look at countries having visa free to the developed and developing world what do we see? African continent is not included and if it was it has been suspended. Why do we always want to be called poorest continent or third world? Meanwhile Africa continent is where God has blessed us with more than enough mineral resources and some countries happens to be the world highest producers and exporters of these rich minerals.

Mr. President/head of state/prime minister/commander or whatever title you may have, I want you to reason now and stop the country from further crises. Don’t be selfish just listen to the cry of your people and consider yourself that you were once like them or someone related to you is one of them and so do everything to get them out from where they are now. At least make a significant change for them to be comfortable and fearless on their own land that God has given them.Please, I am begging you to temper justice with mercy and help us to stop seeking refuge in other countries to seek for refugee status. We love where we come from and we believe that we can also climb the world rating ladder to second or first world country status if you change from your way of handling our economy or continent. Voluntarily or humbly or peacefully hand over or step down for or co-share with, a more likeable person with different vision.

I really do not blame the Embassies or consulate of these developed or great nations in the world about the wicked and in-human treatment they offered to us when we are trying to apply for visas. Look! These consulars are well educated on international issues.Incidentaly, they have knowledge on economic situation of almost all the African countries. Therefore any documents you present or interviews you go through for visa will not merit your legibility for visa. Tourist visa are forbidden by Africans and some Embassies shows a real racist kind of behavior towards Africans. They know that we are poor and always refused to return to our country of origin. They know of our intention to over-stay the visa or go against the privileges that would be offered and so you end up getting a refusal notice. One may defend by saying that some cases are not genuine in their applications for visas. I want to ask, what brings about all these fake documentation to travel? the answer to that is our continent is branded poorest, under-developed and so are the people and therefore there is an attempt by all to seek greener pastures elsewhere in the rest of the world called Asia, Europe, America and others. I would not like to waste time on this issue now but all I ask my leaders now is to bring the situation we are facing now in the continent to an end or to some a extent an appreciable level. We are tired and we really need rest from our present situation. Simple understanding of my plea to you the leaders would help prevent further crises and dangers affecting the continent. Just listen to the call of the people concerning the change they are asking for and remember in this simple experiment that when you leave water in a pot/bottle for a long time without changing, it turns to smell badly in other words stagnant water always has a bad smell.

In conclusion, all I’m asking is, listen to the voice and plight of your people you govern, give them a change they want and bring peace to our continent. Now, I say to you today my dear leaders, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the African dream. I have a dream that one day this continent will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ curled from Martin Luther King Jnr’s Speech at Civil Rights March on Washington, August 28, 1963

Written by: E.K.Boateng.