By Prof Remi Sonaiya
Currently, all over the city of Bonn, former capital of Germany, and practically at every single bus stop, there are big posters advertising “Hunger in Africa” and calling on people to make donations. Of course, the focal point of the poster is the photograph of a dirty and terribly malnourished African child – the type that has become the standard representation of African poverty since the days of famine in Ethiopia and the “Live Aid” fundraising concert held in July 1985.
This is not a new development; I have seen such advertisements over and over since I began in 1995 to travel frequently to Germany as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Whenever I stood at such bus stations, and often I would be the only black person there, a sense of shame would come over me as I imagined what was going on in the minds of all the white people surrounding me. I have also often wondered whether this was the best way to go about the business of raising funds to help the poor in Africa; or, at least, whether it was necessary to continue what, to my mind, amounted to a public shaming of an entire continent, inadvertently or otherwise. However, my concern here is not about the Germans and what their intention might be in so graphically and publicly depicting the shame of our continent. In any case, they have been raising plenty of money over the years and helping millions of starving people all across Africa. Rather, my concern is about us, Africans, and why we seem unable to cast off the toga of “the wretched of the earth”. What are we doing to help ourselves?
A grandiose event that was held in Osogbo, Osun State, on Tuesday, 23rd May, 2017, was a source of grief and bewilderment. On that day, the legislators in the Osun State House of Assembly conferred on the state governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, an honorary life membership of the House, thus entitling him to be perpetually addressed as “Honourable”. One’s immediate reaction could not but be: “Of all the issues needing to be addressed in Osun State?!” This is a state that has all the signs of struggling, if not failure: abandoned construction projects all around; unsustainable and therefore unsuccessful initiatives (school uniforms, opon imo); arrears of salaries owed; indeed, half salary had been paid to certain levels of civil servants since June 2015, and the government is only now promising that this would come to an end with the payment of the July salary to workers. What need was there of conferring this honorary membership in the face of urgent and daunting problems facing the state? One cannot but imagine that there would be some political undercurrents to it, especially considering the fact that Aregbesola’s term comes to an end next year and the usual shenanigans that come to play before a successor is chosen are well under way.
And that is very often the sad reality about African leaders. The real, important issues appear not to catch their attention – issues about the wellbeing of their people, their country’s image in the world, what they are contributing to the global pool of knowledge and development, etc. All of that simply passes them by. Instead, their primary concerns are how to maintain themselves in power and amass wealth, as in the cases of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the former leader of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, who was said to be richer than the entire nation at the time he was forced out of office.
Many African leaders, and particularly those we have had in Nigeria, have been a great source of shame to their people; and that is why our shame cannot but continue to be broadcast to the rest of the world. The role of Nigeria is such that if as a country we could produce the kind of leadership that would move us forward as a nation, other African nations would also be positively influenced. It has often been said that if Nigeria could only get its house in order, that would spell prosperity for the whole of the continent. Unfortunately, we have been unable thus far to elect the kind of leaders who would deal effectively with corruption so that all the wastage and stealing would stop (both officially and illegally), and money would be available to improve our education and health systems, as well as for infrastructural development (power, roads, water, railway) which would provide the lifeline needed for economic renewal and, hopefully, the long-awaited industrialisation.
Instead of a keen realisation of these crucial issues, Nigeria’s political leadership is currently embroiled in rumours of an impending coup d’état, occasioned by the prolonged absences of President Muhammadu Buhari due to ill health. The North is said to be averse to a Yoruba presidency, in case of an eventual demise of the president, given that the Vice President is of Yoruba extraction. We definitely wish the president well and pray to God for His divine touch and healing for him. However, the issues facing the nation transcend individual or ethnic group considerations. Our leaders must come to believe that the wellbeing of the state and its people is supreme. Otherwise, Africa will continue to endure perpetual shame all over the world.