Obama: After the preachment

U.S. President Barack Obama was here in Africa. He visited two key countries in East Africa-Kenya and Ethiopia. Since I am not a foreign policy expert I will not try to analyse the key points of that visit. What I can only say is that as is the lot of Africa, when our leaders go […]

U.S. President Barack Obama was here in Africa. He visited two key countries in East Africa-Kenya and Ethiopia. Since I am not a foreign policy expert I will not try to analyse the key points of that visit. What I can only say is that as is the lot of Africa, when our leaders go out to visit other countries, we are talked down or tongue lashed and when other leaders visit our own countries, we are talked to. We are perennially at the receiving end of others’ tongue. They always talk to or lecture us about democracy, corruption, human rights, free enterprise economy, women’s rights, gay rights, press freedom, family planning, climate change, environmental degradation, senseless wars, dictatorship and, in recent times, how to contain insurgency.
Sometimes I just sit down in my little corner and shake my head in sympathy for Africa. We seem to be guilty of so many wrong things. I get the impression that we are thought of as a people who cannot measure up to any world standards. There is a certain universal value to which all civilized countries and peoples need to adhere to and we in these parts are not yet there or not yet willing to measure up to, hence the need for constant hectoring, reminding us all that we should wake up from either our slumber or our stupidity or our ignorance or all of the above.
To be sure, Obama did not disappoint in that regard. He came here to talk to us as is the usual remit of ‘’world leaders’’. But what is pleasantly different is that he did not adopt the headmaster type of approach usually adopted by others before him in speaking to us their school children. It was in his first coming to Africa as USA president that he adopted that rebuking body language by telling us of democracy and the need to jettison strong men and instead to build strong institutions. I think he was different because he realized and he even confessed it that he has African blood running in his veins.
This time around, he came with a key message of entrepreneurship which I think issues forth from a mindset of solidarity with Africa and a determination to pull the continent out from its self-imposed pit of poverty and lack in a sea of uncountable opportunities. He, of course, also talked about the usual culprit corruption and the new lecture point, insurgency. What particularly caught my attention was the point he made while in Kenya that his movement has been able to generate about a billion dollars to support some determined entrepreneurs with innovative ideas from Africa and around the world.
With this last bit added to the major message of entrepreneurship, Obama’s lecture is different from the usual ones we have been hearing from his likes. Others would talk and talk and talk about their concerns for Africa but are not ready to match their words with meaningful action that would change the fortunes of Africa. While they condemn dictatorship in one breath, they will condone an African dictator that is serving the interests of one of them in another; while they preach the right of a woman to her body, they forget about the right of a helpless infant to life; while they lecture us about how to attain economic well- being, they conveniently forget about fair trade, the absence of which is really responsible for the economic misfortune of Africa and while they harp on gay rights, they deny others the right not to like gay life, to mention a few of their contradictory deceits.
I agree with Obama that the future of Africa’s economic progress and stability lie in entrepreneurship. The people of Africa must be taught and also, more importantly, be supported to be business owners. I however have a word of advice for the POTUS if he really wants to leave a mark on his original continent. And it is that his entrepreneurial message and promised support should be anchored on agriculture and principally on the promotion of farm settlement. I am volunteering this piece of advice because before we know it, the type of entrepreneurs that would be selected to benefit from any grant or loans may be those who are interested in ICT or who wish to set up import businesses to encourage the dumping of foreign made goods further compounding the continent’s woes.
To really assist Africa, she must be steered to learn that her first responsibility is how to feed itself and to grow her GDP on activities that will touch a majority if not all of her population. The present growth in GDP which Afro-optimists like Obama talk about only tells a small part of the African story. It is fuelled by the exploitative exploitation of the continent’s mineral wealth by expatriates and the quantum of money made available in the national treasury thus, has little or no impact on the real lives of a vast majority of the population. That is why poverty is still a monster in even some countries of Africa which are often touted as being among the seven of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Economics is too important to be left to those who are trained in the University of Chicago and similar famous institutions. As a Holy Spirit-tutored economist, I see so many advantages in the idea of establishing farm settlements all over Africa. They would act as the engine room or incubation points that would revitalize the continent’s productive forces as the young people in those farms would take over from most of our farmers who are old and dying and who do not have the requisite modern knowledge to engage in agriculture as real profitable business. The farm settlements will not only ensure food security, they engagement they provide will help to cut down drastically on violence and insurgency. A whole book can be written on the many advantages of this idea if one is requested to provide further insights on this.