And where will the change come from? Am eagerly looking for sustainable solutions to Africa’s fundamental issues, and the more I try to dig and look the more am convinced that approaching it by throwing money at Africa or demanding changes premised on 0 foundation will not work.
It hasn’t worked anywhere else, and while the content is blessed with Magical moments of sunsets, the experience natures amazing habitat and packages of safari, the Magic of trying to find solutions will have to be when we as a people identify our leaders not by current methods and ways but by a new form of selection process. A process that ensures collective accountability, collective involvement and collectively baring the consequences.
Yes! Democracy may be a system for collective choice, but hasn’t it failed time and time again in societies that once were stable and prominent – India, Africa, Southern America’s? The continent hasn’t had the experience of it’s own modern forms of it’s leadership. It’s not been given the chance to try. Africa needs its system or allowed to develop one that will ensure the African people and their ways are catered for in a leadership mechanism that promotes endemic stability, continuity, affluence and indeed mass-fully eradicating poverty. It may be a series of systems, a roadmap of systems that could mean modified or adapted forms of exisiting – Communism, Socialism, Autocratic or Democratic. What ever it is, there are pros and cons with each system, but we’ve got to as a people appreciate our current situations and what’s invariably essential to emerge from the crisis of our current dispensation.
I believe this is what development parters must be, help to develop what’s sustainable, affordable and workable.
The Africa should be supported in trying out models and finding what for the people is appropriate and as well enabling growth. An African agenda rather than a western agenda.
Will Africa be better with modified forms of Communism? Perhaps yes, maybe No, the answers are not exactly very clear or indeed verifiable even based on current practices. One would say Communism maybe has not worked very well for Cuba, on the other hand others may argue it has worked in China. Same situation can be seen with Democracy, it may be working in the US but failed to deliver the promise of incredible India.
The world should in the interest of our diversity, be open to pluralism of governance systems. Am not in the least an expert on forms of Governance, but when it is clear that the mandate which we have chosen as Africans, a blatant copy if “democracy” either metered on us or whipped to continues to fail all of us, including the so called development partners. Therefore it’s time we go back to the drawing board without “teacher” but all as learners and be allowed to assess and re-learn what will work.
At the U.S.-Africa Summit, I hope Leaders will not be jacket-minded on the same old ideology of making Africa “fit”, but rather how to adapt practices and systems to fit the African continent.
We all seek change, a revolution of our situation as a continent, a people and cradle of humanity.
There is a real Need beyond the rhetoric to Signal Change – http://pulse.me/s/1UrOpA
