Former United States President, Barrack Obama, famously made a
statement that Africa did not need strong men
but strong institutions. Like many, I had swallowed the import of this message
until prevailing circumstances compelled me to see reason on the flip side. On
the contrary, the continent needs both strong men and strong institutions
because it takes strong men to build strong institutions that would endure in
their own spheres of influence.
The general perception of many is that strong
men in power denotes negativity but the experience in other climes that had
similar situations and challenges as Africa showed that the emergence of such
super strong men was the turning point in the history of their countries.
Strong men can be positive too, it depends on how they are skewed; the negative
image of the strong men who dominated My argument in capsule is that Africa, bedeviled on all fronts, laid back and stunted in growth in every ramification and lagging behind the rest of the world, still needs strong men (and perhaps women) to enable it come out of its darkness into light. For now, Africa especially Nigeria truly has no real business with the mode of democracy that was patented in Greece, championed and marketed now to the rest of the world by the United States, the number one law breaker in a world where might is right. But it is not a call for anarchy either or for dictatorship. Except for
A gaze through history shows that some individuals of exemplary
character and rare vision birthed the civilisation that the world enjoys today
largely through the efforts they made to create conducive political environment
in their own specific spheres of influence. Instructively, most of the nation
builders of many modern states such as Chairman Mao in China , Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore , Dr. Mahathir Mohammed in Malaysia , Chiang Kai Shek in Taiwan , Fidel Castro in Cuba among
several others were neither true democrats nor full blown despots.
Circumstances foisted these individuals on their countries that were remarkably
at par with most of Africa at independence but now have Africa losing trail of
them in every gamut of modernity. Similarly, it was during the tenure of Adolf
Hitler, loathe or love him that the famous Volkswagen Beetle car was birthed to
be the common man’s automobile. Chairman Mao’s feat is a lesson indeed of how
fundamental and foundational genuine builders are to their nations at the
outset of any sound developmental process. Mao, it was who initiated the
required necessities which modern China now effortlessly prides
itself as the second largest world’s economy.
Development does not come about by happenstance or by accident; it
is painstakingly planned and ruthlessly executed. Africa is not yet at a
destination where institutions work and although pseudo democracy is practised
in many countries in Africa , it is founded on
very faulty foundations where greed and selfish interests are the order of the
day, leaving the masses forlorn and empty handed. Africa
needs strong men and women who are nation builders. It needs leaders who are
not only fearless but ready to take the risks and whatever it takes to create
societies where the interests of all are protected and the rule of law
prevails.
Sometime ago, the current president of the United States of America, Donald
Trump, in his usual bullish manner made a derogatory remark, ‘shit hole
countries’ targeted at Africa, remarkably not one President in Africa could
muster a whimper of reaction or come out and call his bluff. A few who
initially reacted denied thereafter out of fear. Even as the remark was made,
some leaders were hopping on the next flight to Washington DC !
What is the pride of the continent, where are the Muammar Gadafis of the
continent whose country, Libya
has been fragmented since his death? Africa
needs strong leaders who will bargain hard with the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and others on the international financial arena and leave
their country’s economy stable without swallowing the painful pill of
devaluation of their currencies which these myopic international financiers always
prescribe as a bait to attract investments that never come.
The present charade in Nigeria called democracy will not lead
anywhere except there is a fundamental change in the entire structure which
only a strong man or woman can bring about. The National Assembly and by
extension, the State Houses of Assembly will never enact laws that will bring
real change but only those that will protect their selfish interests ad
infinitum . They are not interested in laws that would move the country
forward. The executive arm is not any different: visionless and incompetent, unfortunately
the whole country has to move along at their pace. The party that held the
executive reins of power before now for sixteen years equally did an abysmally
awful job that to even imagine it is a wise choice to go back to them merely
shows the level the country has sunk.
Things are this way because the fundamentals have never been
addressed; they were not addressed before the advent of the present democracy.
The leopard does not change its colour overnight, who among the major
gladiators aspiring for the nation’s number one seat will make a change? Were
they not there before? What impact did they make? Even if the country gets its
right tomorrow at the Executive level, won’t the president not be stifled by an
overbearing, uninspiring and unpatriotic National Assembly that is driven by
selfish interests and mundane issues? It is the country that would continue to
move in vicious cycle. Unfortunately, time waits for no one and while other
countries are taking great leaps into the future, Nigeria is moving in the
opposite direction and the suffering of a vast majority of the people painfully
appears not to have any expiry date in the future.
*Ojenagbon is a public affairs commentator, lives inLagos .
*Ojenagbon is a public affairs commentator, lives in
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