User talk:Madukar orji

AFRICA MUST HELP ITSELF

During his first visit to Africa President Barack Obama told the Ghanaian Parliament that the West, particularly the United States, is willing to assist Africa to rediscover its path to sustainable growth and development. But without prevarication he reminds Africa that it must help itself; he reminds Africa that its corrupt leaders remain setback to development; he calls the people of Africa to rise up to challenge of change. This he shoulders on African youths whose future, he says is at a crossroad. Africa’s leaders, he says, must be held accountable for good governance for the good of their people.

Though himself not a Diasporan, but a son of an African immigrant, Obama prides himself as he tells African people, standing on the very soil where generations of Africans were marched, assembled and shipped in shackled chains as cargo goods to the New World of Americas, that “I have the blood of Africa within me.”

His message of hope, he brought to the Coast of Africa. Africa must, like America, make use of the opportunity for change. The time has come for Africa to revolutionize its society and its attitude to governance. It is only the youths whose future is at a gloomy crossroad can sacrifice the present for a halcyon future. Obama ended his Gold Coast (Accra) speech by telling Africa youths, ‘yes we can’.

Though many critics say they are disappointed in Obama’s speech, which according to them is the same old rhetoric about good governance by Western leaders that falls short of policy. But what these critics fail to appreciate is that no one gives to a beggar when what is given is abused and looted for personal aggrandizement. A prodigal child must first show empathy for repentance before seeking forgiveness and restoration. Besides, as I critically argued in my book, ‘lust for corruption: the Africa you don’t know’ the West owes Africa no debt. The only thing the West must do for Africa is to discourage looting of public funds by politicians and their cronies by tracking and exposing looted funds deposited in vaults of European and North American banks, which some actions of Western governments in the past are appreciated.

Africa must help itself. How? Africa must bargain for better bilateral trade deals and open markets opportunities with the West, and not to sell away Africa’s opportunity in greedy trade negotiations that portray only but self interest; or to wear corrupt ‘babariga’ seen in corridors of Western capitals begging for alms and economic aid, which becomes object of loot.

I feel more sense of African now that the call for reawakening of consciousness of Africans is spreading like inferno from all geographical spheres. It is as if Obama paraphrased the book, ‘lust for corruption in his Accra speech. It is a book I encourage us to read, which contents no one will find insufficient in social responsibility for change

MADUKAR ORJI is a writer, sociopolitical activist on issues relating to Africa’s growth and development, and the author of 'Lust for Corruption: The Africa You Don't Know'; and ‘The Myth of National Reconciliation’. He is among the many African professionals in the Diaspora who harbors no illusion, but realism, that the future still lurks prosperity for Africa, only if its people can responsively revolutionize its society for change that reflects positivism.