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Momodou
Denmark
11681 Posts |
 Posted - 14 Nov 2007 : 18:44:17
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Africa: Progress or Retrogress
By Yaya Bajo
It is quite disheartening to see that the name of our beloved continent, Africa has been synonymous to wars, diseases and poverty. Quite often a day passed without hearing on the radio or seeing on the screen incidents of political topsy-turvy, refugees or internally displaced people with exposed ribs and naked breasts or migrating youths with little hope of reaching their destinations. It is also not uncommon to see or hear outbreaks of life threatening disease on the continent like Ebola virus, HIV/AIDS, cholera to name but a few.
Interestingly enough, most of these unfortunate scenarios that have continued to plague our dear motherland is nothing but self inflicting. For instance, take the current state of affairs in countries like Somalia, democratic republic of Congo, Chad, Nigeria’s Niger Delta region and worst of all the Sudanese region of Darfur. The inhabitants of these countries or regions are most of the time utterly helpless and hopeless who always wait for the benevolence of the west.
The children and women in these war-torn areas who no doubt always bear the brunt of the turmoil live in perpetual starvation with flies on their eyelids and pot bellies which result to severe malnutrition thus, making their dramatic moments completely ruined.
However, the perpetrators of these heinous crimes on our continent are citizens of nowhere but Africa. Their act is tantamount to nothing but cruelty, barbarism and cannibalism. Their “work” has contributed tremendously to the retardation of all meaningful socio-economic developments on our continent. Development projects have been grossly interrupted or out rightly stagnated hence, fuel the rate of poverty on the continent. In fact, it is sad to note at this juncture that at the time of writing this article, media report stated that about seventy people have been gruesomely massacred in Somalia. This unparallel wave of turmoil across the continent is rather retrogressive instead of forging ahead in this era of globalization.
Children, who are the future generation, are deprived of basic education, health and protection in these war-torn areas. Educational institutions in these places are either completely devastated or used as settlements for internally displaced people. School children are either killed in crossfire or abducted and used as child soldiers, and their female counterparts are kidnapped and served as sexual slaves for the so-called warlords. These children become immensely hopeless and their future turned gloom. They end up becoming destitute unless they are rehabilitated.
Furthermore, health care service in this war ravaged countries remained sub-standard as lots of people die every day because they can’t afford to see a doctor or nurse or even to acquire basic health care simply because of poverty.
Not-with-standing, you can hardly come across inhabitants, particularly women and children of these areas who are not suffering from health problems like yaws, Ebola fever or sexually transmissible infections.
However, this beautiful endowed continent with over fifty countries and 900 million inhabitants deserve peace and tranquility, education, economic and social empowerment and good governance in order to serve as a catalyst for achieving a developed Africa. Indeed, this can be achieved in many ways, but it needs concerted efforts and partnership with the rest of the international community.
First and foremost, we the Africans have to take the bull by the horn and accept the fact that our problem has to be solved by ourselves. We need to do away with senseless wars and focus on consolidating democracy, good governance and socio-economic advancement for the benefit of all and sundry.
Additionally, the richest countries need to stem the arms trade to Africa and further redouble their efforts if they are to deliver on their promises to fight against war and poverty in Africa. While progress has been made on debt and aid, trade imbalances between Africa and the rest of the world remain ugly. Also the international community ought to give more help to fight corruption that affect the poor. They should also give more help to countries suffering from wars, disasters or extreme poverty.
In conclusion, I subscribe to the fact that “it is easy to help Africa do nothing. The only people who can really help the Africans are the Africans themselves”.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issues
Issue No. 134/2007, 14 - 15 November, 2007
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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