Nigerian-political-leaders-should-take-a-cue-from-president-nana-addo-of-ghana-on-how-to-take-a-stand-against-western-supremacy-and-neocolonial-tendencies-toward-nigeria-and-africa
September 7, 2020 | News
NIGERIAN POLITICAL LEADERS SHOULD TAKE A CUE FROM PRESIDENT NANA ADDO OF GHANA, ON HOW TO TAKE A STAND AGAINST WESTERN SUPREMACY AND NEOCOLONIAL TENDENCIES TOWARD NIGERIA AND AFRICA
It is always sad and appalling to see how, often times, Nigerian and African political leaders do not exhibit the boldness and courage in speaking the truth in the face of the Western developed nations about how they have continued to act and contribute towards the underdevelopment of the nation and the African continent, with their neocolonial tendencies in this regard. Often times, we see some of our political leaders ever ready to bring out the red carpet and practically worship these foreigners of developed nations, as if without them the nation will not witness the needed development. Evidently, because of what they often hope to gain from these foreign nations, in terms of aid and whatever financial gains that can be provided, our political leaders cannot muster the courage to speak the truth and puncture holes in some of the foreign policies used by these developed nations to keep the African continent as a place where they can continue to reap from. Which is why I am very glad whenever I see few African leaders and persons of public influence, tell these foreign leaders the truth right in their face.
A short video that has gone viral online, of a statement made by the President of Ghana, Nana Addo, while with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, during a press briefing in Ghana in 2017. After the AU-EU summit in Abidjan that year, French President, Emmanuel Macron visited several African states, including Ghana. But contrary to other African heads of state, Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has a clear vision of how to make his country independent from development aid, as he delivered his statement that left the French President and many others around, speechless. And I could not help but pray that one day, we would start seeing our Nigerian political leaders at the Federal level and States level, demonstrate such courage and boldness with no apologies.
President Nana Addo in the said statement, started off by saying that: “I hope the statement that I am about to make will not offend the questioner too much and some people around here. But I think there is a fundamental mistake of the issues in the question. WE CAN NO LONGER CONTINUE TO MAKE POLICIES FOR OURSELVES, IN OUR COUNTRIES, IN OUR REGIONS AND IN OUR CONTINENT - ON THE BASIS OF WHATEVER SUPPORT THE WESTERN WORLD, OR FRANCE, OR THE EUROPEAN UNION CAN GIVE US. IT WILL NOT WORK; IT HAS NOT WORKED AND IT WILL NEVER WORK. OUR RESPONSIBILITY IS TO CHARTER A PATH, WHICH IS ABOUT HOW WE CAN DEVELOP OUR NATIONS OURSELVES.
“It is not right, for a country like Ghana, sixty years after independence, to still have its health and education budgets be financed on the basis of the generosity and charity of European tax payers. By now, we should be able to finance our basic needs by ourselves. And if we are going to look at the next 60 years as a period of transition, whereby we can stand on our feet, our perspective is not going to be what the French tax payers decides to do. Whatever services they have before them to offer, they are welcome. They will be appreciated for whatever intervention the taxpayer makes available to us, through its Government. It will be appreciated. We are not going to make any fuss about that. But this continent, with all that is happening, is still today the repository of at least 30% of the most important leaders of the world. It is the continent of vast arable and fertile lands; it has the youngest population more than any of the continents in the world. And the energy and the dynamism of these young men, who have shown resilience, ingenuity in crossing the Sahara, finding ways to go across the Mediterranean Sea. Those ‘energies’ we want to have them. We are going to have those energies working in our country, if we begin to build systems that tell the young people of our country that their hopes, the opportunities are right here with us.
“Migration and the movement of people, is being presented in a manner to suggest that somehow it is a new phenomenon. There is nothing new about it. It is as old as man – the movement of people. And it has always be linked to the same thing – the failure of where you are to provide you with the right opportunities. So, you now move somewhere else. Those of you who are familiar with the 19th Century European history will know that the biggest move of migration in the 19th Century was the movement that came from Ireland, Italy. It remains the largest documented voluntary emigration in history, known as the Italian diaspora, which migrated from Italy between 1861 and 1970, with 13 million people leaving the country. Italians and Irish people left their countries to seek American paradise. Largely because their land was not working. Italy was not working, but today, you do not hear it. The Italian young people are in Italy. Irish young people are in Ireland. We want young Africans to stay in Africa. And it means that we have to get away from this mindset of dependence.
“This mindset about what can France do for us. France will do whatever that it needs to do for its own sake. And if this coincides with our vision for our people, then so be it. But our main responsibility as leaders, as citizens - what we need to do to our own country is what we need to look at. We would need to have institutions that would work, that would allow us to have accountable governance. To make sure that the monies at the disposal of the leaders, are used for the interest of the State, and not of those of the leaders. Systems that allow for accountability will allow for diversity, will allow for people to be able to express themselves, and contribute to fashioning the public’s will and public’s interest.
“Our concern should be with what do we need to do in this 21st Century to move Africa away from being a cup in land and begging for aids, for charity, and handouts? THE AFRICAN CONTINENT, WHEN YOU LOOK AT ITS NUMEROUS RESOURCES, SHOULD BE GIVING MONEY TO OTHER PLACES. We have huge wealth in this continent. In our country Ghana. And we need to have a mindset that says we can do it. Others have done it; we can also do it. And once we have that mindset, we would see it as a liberating factor for ourselves. We are talking about, how it was that Koreans, Malaysians, Singaporeans, who got their independence at the same time with us. We are told that at the time of the Ghanaian independence, per Capita Ghanaian income was higher than that of Korea. Today, Korea is part of the first World. So is Malaysia, so is Singapore. What happened? How did they make that transition? And 50 years after, we are where we are. Those are the matters that should concern us as Africans, as Ghanaians. Am talking about our own proportion. What we need to do to get our countries to work, so that we can create the conditions that will allow our people to forgo these dangerous ways to get to Europe. And not really because they want to. They are going there because they do not believe that there is any opportunity for them in our continent.
“That should be our focus. And I believe that if we change that mindset; the mindset of dependence, that mindset which is comfortable with aids and charity, we would see that in the decades ahead, the full flowering of the African people will take place. The new African personality, that was talked about at the time of our independence, will become real and eminent in out time. And I hope am not upsetting the French President, and some of my friends here. But these are my strong beliefs. And that is the reason why I have adopted as a slogan for my presidency, of that period of superiority of Ghana, that we have to build a life beyond aid. A Ghana, which is really independent, self-sufficient. That is capable of standing on its own feet and building its own life. And I know we can do it. If we allow the mindset to do so. These are my contributions.”
Insightful words you would agree. Something our Nigerian political leaders at all levels really need to pay attention to. It is no news that the African continent has been massively exploited for as far as many can remember. While some have linked Africa’s underdevelopment to the exploitation suffered in the hands of capitalist Europe and North America, which is still very much alive today but in different dimensions of imperialism and neo-colonialism, others like us however, are of the view that the destiny and future of any nation or continent, squally rests on the hands of its people. This includes both the political leaders and the masses. Regardless of a continent’s or nation’s past/unfortunate bad experiences, what matters is how the people of that continent/nation are able to rise above such bad experiences to become what they ought to amongst the league of nations.
African leaders, especially those in Nigeria, must realize that these developed countries do not really want us to go beyond where we are as a people. The truth is, if Africa gets to attain a full development status to be reckoned with across the globe, who will the developed super-power nations like China, US, UK and other European nations etc., ‘exploit’ for their own continuous growth? As hard as this may sound, that is the bitter truth. Why did the slave trade era succeed? Amongst other factors, it is ‘primarily’ because these foreigners are only interested in places that will serve their economic interest. They really do not have anything concrete in terms of natural endowment like we do have here in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. These developed nations are nothing but exploiters, who live on the resources and sweat of others. Why do we think all the politically-exposed persons who have, one time or the other, stolen public funds from Nigeria are usually left to starch their loot in the banks of these foreign countries, and even allowed to roam and walk free? They only raise an eyebrow and pretend to be helping us recover/repatriate some of the stolen funds, after they must have used such funds in their banks for the benefit of their economy.
Africans and its political leaders should open their eyes and realize that this is “international politics” and survival of the wittiest – where every nation for itself first, in seeking for its ‘interests’ before any other thing. So, they really do not care about Africa’s development as they claim to portray. It is all ‘pretence’. Nigerians for instance, should not be under any illusion that these foreigners from China and the rest want us to succeed as a nation. No, they do not want us to succeed because if we succeed who are they going to exploit? This is international politics. So, we should not trust these developed foreign nations because they really do not like us, they do not want us to settle. They want Nigeria to continue having security challenges so that they will keep having somewhere to sell their guns and weapons of war? They want our health sectors to remain in comatose state so that our people will continue to patronize theirs in overseas. If not that the Coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone across the globe, we are certain that our Nigerian political leaders will move in their droves abroad for medical treatments, or to hide.
It is not wise for African political leaders and its people to think that the advanced countries will help us to grow our economy. These developed countries know very well that if we become developed like them, we will become an economic threat to them. That is why, despite the fact that the developed countries are seen to preach against racism, segregation, division, anti-sematic, and all kinds of names they give them, they are still the ones practicing these things in high degrees within and outside their countries, especially when dealing with Africans/Nigerians. It is all pretence.
There is no better time other than now, for Nigerian political leaders to wise up and start making the necessary changes they urgently need to make to turn things around for good in this country.
Zik Gbemre.
May 8, 2020
We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
It is always sad and appalling to see how, often times, Nigerian and African political leaders do not exhibit the boldness and courage in speaking the truth in the face of the Western developed nations about how they have continued to act and contribute towards the underdevelopment of the nation and the African continent, with their neocolonial tendencies in this regard. Often times, we see some of our political leaders ever ready to bring out the red carpet and practically worship these foreigners of developed nations, as if without them the nation will not witness the needed development. Evidently, because of what they often hope to gain from these foreign nations, in terms of aid and whatever financial gains that can be provided, our political leaders cannot muster the courage to speak the truth and puncture holes in some of the foreign policies used by these developed nations to keep the African continent as a place where they can continue to reap from. Which is why I am very glad whenever I see few African leaders and persons of public influence, tell these foreign leaders the truth right in their face.
A short video that has gone viral online, of a statement made by the President of Ghana, Nana Addo, while with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, during a press briefing in Ghana in 2017. After the AU-EU summit in Abidjan that year, French President, Emmanuel Macron visited several African states, including Ghana. But contrary to other African heads of state, Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has a clear vision of how to make his country independent from development aid, as he delivered his statement that left the French President and many others around, speechless. And I could not help but pray that one day, we would start seeing our Nigerian political leaders at the Federal level and States level, demonstrate such courage and boldness with no apologies.
President Nana Addo in the said statement, started off by saying that: “I hope the statement that I am about to make will not offend the questioner too much and some people around here. But I think there is a fundamental mistake of the issues in the question. WE CAN NO LONGER CONTINUE TO MAKE POLICIES FOR OURSELVES, IN OUR COUNTRIES, IN OUR REGIONS AND IN OUR CONTINENT - ON THE BASIS OF WHATEVER SUPPORT THE WESTERN WORLD, OR FRANCE, OR THE EUROPEAN UNION CAN GIVE US. IT WILL NOT WORK; IT HAS NOT WORKED AND IT WILL NEVER WORK. OUR RESPONSIBILITY IS TO CHARTER A PATH, WHICH IS ABOUT HOW WE CAN DEVELOP OUR NATIONS OURSELVES.
“It is not right, for a country like Ghana, sixty years after independence, to still have its health and education budgets be financed on the basis of the generosity and charity of European tax payers. By now, we should be able to finance our basic needs by ourselves. And if we are going to look at the next 60 years as a period of transition, whereby we can stand on our feet, our perspective is not going to be what the French tax payers decides to do. Whatever services they have before them to offer, they are welcome. They will be appreciated for whatever intervention the taxpayer makes available to us, through its Government. It will be appreciated. We are not going to make any fuss about that. But this continent, with all that is happening, is still today the repository of at least 30% of the most important leaders of the world. It is the continent of vast arable and fertile lands; it has the youngest population more than any of the continents in the world. And the energy and the dynamism of these young men, who have shown resilience, ingenuity in crossing the Sahara, finding ways to go across the Mediterranean Sea. Those ‘energies’ we want to have them. We are going to have those energies working in our country, if we begin to build systems that tell the young people of our country that their hopes, the opportunities are right here with us.
“Migration and the movement of people, is being presented in a manner to suggest that somehow it is a new phenomenon. There is nothing new about it. It is as old as man – the movement of people. And it has always be linked to the same thing – the failure of where you are to provide you with the right opportunities. So, you now move somewhere else. Those of you who are familiar with the 19th Century European history will know that the biggest move of migration in the 19th Century was the movement that came from Ireland, Italy. It remains the largest documented voluntary emigration in history, known as the Italian diaspora, which migrated from Italy between 1861 and 1970, with 13 million people leaving the country. Italians and Irish people left their countries to seek American paradise. Largely because their land was not working. Italy was not working, but today, you do not hear it. The Italian young people are in Italy. Irish young people are in Ireland. We want young Africans to stay in Africa. And it means that we have to get away from this mindset of dependence.
“This mindset about what can France do for us. France will do whatever that it needs to do for its own sake. And if this coincides with our vision for our people, then so be it. But our main responsibility as leaders, as citizens - what we need to do to our own country is what we need to look at. We would need to have institutions that would work, that would allow us to have accountable governance. To make sure that the monies at the disposal of the leaders, are used for the interest of the State, and not of those of the leaders. Systems that allow for accountability will allow for diversity, will allow for people to be able to express themselves, and contribute to fashioning the public’s will and public’s interest.
“Our concern should be with what do we need to do in this 21st Century to move Africa away from being a cup in land and begging for aids, for charity, and handouts? THE AFRICAN CONTINENT, WHEN YOU LOOK AT ITS NUMEROUS RESOURCES, SHOULD BE GIVING MONEY TO OTHER PLACES. We have huge wealth in this continent. In our country Ghana. And we need to have a mindset that says we can do it. Others have done it; we can also do it. And once we have that mindset, we would see it as a liberating factor for ourselves. We are talking about, how it was that Koreans, Malaysians, Singaporeans, who got their independence at the same time with us. We are told that at the time of the Ghanaian independence, per Capita Ghanaian income was higher than that of Korea. Today, Korea is part of the first World. So is Malaysia, so is Singapore. What happened? How did they make that transition? And 50 years after, we are where we are. Those are the matters that should concern us as Africans, as Ghanaians. Am talking about our own proportion. What we need to do to get our countries to work, so that we can create the conditions that will allow our people to forgo these dangerous ways to get to Europe. And not really because they want to. They are going there because they do not believe that there is any opportunity for them in our continent.
“That should be our focus. And I believe that if we change that mindset; the mindset of dependence, that mindset which is comfortable with aids and charity, we would see that in the decades ahead, the full flowering of the African people will take place. The new African personality, that was talked about at the time of our independence, will become real and eminent in out time. And I hope am not upsetting the French President, and some of my friends here. But these are my strong beliefs. And that is the reason why I have adopted as a slogan for my presidency, of that period of superiority of Ghana, that we have to build a life beyond aid. A Ghana, which is really independent, self-sufficient. That is capable of standing on its own feet and building its own life. And I know we can do it. If we allow the mindset to do so. These are my contributions.”
Insightful words you would agree. Something our Nigerian political leaders at all levels really need to pay attention to. It is no news that the African continent has been massively exploited for as far as many can remember. While some have linked Africa’s underdevelopment to the exploitation suffered in the hands of capitalist Europe and North America, which is still very much alive today but in different dimensions of imperialism and neo-colonialism, others like us however, are of the view that the destiny and future of any nation or continent, squally rests on the hands of its people. This includes both the political leaders and the masses. Regardless of a continent’s or nation’s past/unfortunate bad experiences, what matters is how the people of that continent/nation are able to rise above such bad experiences to become what they ought to amongst the league of nations.
African leaders, especially those in Nigeria, must realize that these developed countries do not really want us to go beyond where we are as a people. The truth is, if Africa gets to attain a full development status to be reckoned with across the globe, who will the developed super-power nations like China, US, UK and other European nations etc., ‘exploit’ for their own continuous growth? As hard as this may sound, that is the bitter truth. Why did the slave trade era succeed? Amongst other factors, it is ‘primarily’ because these foreigners are only interested in places that will serve their economic interest. They really do not have anything concrete in terms of natural endowment like we do have here in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. These developed nations are nothing but exploiters, who live on the resources and sweat of others. Why do we think all the politically-exposed persons who have, one time or the other, stolen public funds from Nigeria are usually left to starch their loot in the banks of these foreign countries, and even allowed to roam and walk free? They only raise an eyebrow and pretend to be helping us recover/repatriate some of the stolen funds, after they must have used such funds in their banks for the benefit of their economy.
Africans and its political leaders should open their eyes and realize that this is “international politics” and survival of the wittiest – where every nation for itself first, in seeking for its ‘interests’ before any other thing. So, they really do not care about Africa’s development as they claim to portray. It is all ‘pretence’. Nigerians for instance, should not be under any illusion that these foreigners from China and the rest want us to succeed as a nation. No, they do not want us to succeed because if we succeed who are they going to exploit? This is international politics. So, we should not trust these developed foreign nations because they really do not like us, they do not want us to settle. They want Nigeria to continue having security challenges so that they will keep having somewhere to sell their guns and weapons of war? They want our health sectors to remain in comatose state so that our people will continue to patronize theirs in overseas. If not that the Coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone across the globe, we are certain that our Nigerian political leaders will move in their droves abroad for medical treatments, or to hide.
It is not wise for African political leaders and its people to think that the advanced countries will help us to grow our economy. These developed countries know very well that if we become developed like them, we will become an economic threat to them. That is why, despite the fact that the developed countries are seen to preach against racism, segregation, division, anti-sematic, and all kinds of names they give them, they are still the ones practicing these things in high degrees within and outside their countries, especially when dealing with Africans/Nigerians. It is all pretence.
There is no better time other than now, for Nigerian political leaders to wise up and start making the necessary changes they urgently need to make to turn things around for good in this country.
Zik Gbemre.
May 8, 2020
We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes