Africa Truly Rising

By Tony Ademiluyi

After the return of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu from England in 1957 after a 13-year sojourn for his educational pursuits, his wealthy and influential father wanted him to put his education to good use by joining the family business. He had other ideas as he had a brief stint in the colonial service and then headed to the army then known as the Queen’s Regiment.

A livid Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu tried to ‘talk some sense’ into the young man and enlisted the support of the then Governor-General, James Robertson to ‘bail him out.’ The British colonial administrator told Emeka point-blank that if he thought what happened in Egypt in 1952 when Colonel Abdel Nasser came to power through a coup could ever happen in Nigeria, he was mistaken. That statement turned out to be prophetic as it marked the pattern of Africa’s governance for the next three decades.

Military rule became the preferred mode of administration for many African nations. Pan Africanism which was largely spearheaded by Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah hurriedly gave way to the spread of cult-like cold-blooded dictators.

The continent bred the likes of Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin, Sani Abacha, Gnassingbe Eyadema and so on whose brutality and visionless leadership saw to the perpetual under-development of the world’s second largest continent.

No form of dissent especially from the impoverished intelligentsia and media was tolerated and the large wave of emigration especially for economic reasons started as a result of the incursion by the men in uniform.

Corruption was another sinister legacy that military rule in Africa bequeathed which is still haunting the continent till date. The practice of salting away billions of dollars from here to the developed economies especially in Europe had its roots during the military rule. Mobuto Sese Seko was allegedly far richer than his Country, Zaire which he ruled with an iron fist for over three decades. Dictators like Ibrahim Babaginda, Idi Amin, Omar Bongo, Teodoro Mbasogo, Jean Bedel Bokassa amassed obscene wealth appropriated from the commonwealth of their countries and so drove their people to destitution that they longed for a return of their erstwhile colonial masters.