THE
DIFFERENCE PREVIEW EDITION
PAGE
32
WHY
AFRICA IS POOR AND AFRICANS SUFFER
BY
NNAMDI OBODOECHI
In most cases in Africa, those
who by virtue of the public offices they occupy are supposed to care for and
protect the citizens, tend to see them as animals fit only to be hunted and
killed.
“Most African
rulers do not value the lives and welfare of their citizens. Their main concern
in seeking public office appears to be to feather their own nests, which
explains why to them getting into office is often a matter of life and death.’’
Take Nigeria, for example. Those in
power tend not to care for the masses, and take pleasure in making false
promises to the citizens. Rather than work hard to solve the problems
confronting the people, successive governments and most public office holders
have chosen to compound the problems of the ordinary citizens. Going by the
enormous natural resources in Nigeria and the huge sums of money available to
the government, the country is supposed to be rubbing shoulder with advanced
nations such as the United States of America and Japan in terms of development
and attention given to the welfare of the citizens. Rather than work in this
direction, those in authority get busy looting the public treasury while making
empty claims that Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, is the giant of
the continent.
How can we be the giant of Africa
when Nigerians cannot enjoy basic facilities which are taken for granted in other
parts of the world? Nigerian rulers (that’s what I think they truly are) are
indeed a shameless lot. if not, I don’t see how they are able to carry on as if
all is well when the country cannot boast of even things like good road
network, pipe-borne water and stable power supply. These are things which are
enjoyed elsewhere even by citizens of less endowed nations.
How can Nigeria be claiming to be
the giant of Africa when hunger is ravishing the land and when insecurity of
lives and property is lot of the people? Poverty is increasing day after day. This
applies to comfort zone for the masses; not in the rural areas as well as in
the big towns and cities. What a shame! What a tragic situation!
In Nigeria and most other parts
of Africa, it is only the wealthy people that enjoy a semblance of security. For
the rest of the people, their unenviable lot is what Nigerians cal O-Y-O,
meaning “On your own.’’ The worse of it is that, in addition to not being
provided with protection from criminals, they also come under attack from those
who are paid to protect them! So the people, no matter how law-abiding they may
be, have to walk about like sheep without a shepherd. My interpretation of this
is that most African rulers do not value the lives and welfare of their
citizens. Their main concern in seeking public office appears to be to feather
their own nests, which explains why to them getting into office is often a
matter of life and death.
Those of us who left our beloved
homeland in search of greater pasture in Europe are daily confronted with
evidence of the fact that what seems to be germane to our rulers important to
many African public office holders is the looting the treasury of Africa and
ferrying these abroad for the whites to use and develop their areas. We know
that some of the best houses in Europe are owned by African public
servants-turned-masters and exploiters, and that they are among the best customers
of the elitist banks over here.
What I find hard to understand is
how these so called African leaders are able to sleep in peace when they return
home after each of their frequent foreign trips. I say this because when they
visit Europe and America and parts of even Asia, they see how things are done
and how things are supposed to be done. How they are able to carry on
thereafter as if all is well back home truly beats my imagination.
Here is Europe; it is hard for
someone to discern who is poor and who is rich. Government caters for everyone,
irrespective of his / her social or economic status. People are guaranteed a
reasonable standard of security and an equally reasonable standard of living.
Whenever something harmful
threatens or happen to the citizens, the police would promptly heed the call
and come to the rescue. This shows that they realise the value of the life of
every citizen and the meaning of democracy. Unlike the Nigerian police, they do
not see the citizens as they do not see the citizens as trees that can produce
money whenever requested to do so, especially at check point and police
stations.
Here in Europe, as well as in
most other parts of the world, you don’t have to buy your security, as the
government is fully alive to its responsibility in this regard. This applies
both in urban and rural areas. Another good thing is that every citizen enjoys
the right to express his or her opinion on any issue under the sun, including
pointing out the bad sides of the government. Rather than clamp down on whoever
does this, the government pays attention and acts fast to make amends where necessary.
I believe that this is another secret behind the development of Europe and
other advanced parts of the world. Indeed no nation can hope to make meaningful
progress in a situation where those authority assume an air of papal
infallibility and see whoever expresses contrary opinion as an enemy that must
be mercilessly crushed.
The disdain which many African
public office holders have for their citizens can be seen in the way they
relate with them. Talking of Nigeria of which I am quite familiar as a
Nigerian, no poor person is allowed to enter the office of a local government
chairman and have an audience with him, not to talk of that of a governor, a
minister or the President himself. This speaks volumes of how inferior they
take their citizens to be.
Obodoechi,
a,k.a Dee Ojukwu of Greece, is The Difference’s Contributing Writer in Greece
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