Colonial Era And Afro Self Leadership

AMBASSADOR EZEWELE CYRIL ABIONANOJIE

Colonialism is the practice of forcefully and oppressively securing absolute control over other countries and occupying them with settlers for the interest of the colonial masters. While leadership in its true state is to influence others true positive inspiration, motivated by passion through clear pro people vision and conviction with an altruistic purpose of creating a new reality for them. The above stated leadership materials can only be cultivated from a genuine heart whose compositions are products of good vantage point of view.

In 1950s and 1960s, the struggle for freedom from the oppression and extortion of colonial masters was the heat of the day. The smoke of the heat was all over the cloud of Africa, agitating for freedom. The few ones that had the privilege to school in the western world were championing the struggle with a ready mind set to face the uncertainty as far as their people will be set free. African people have never been so united. There were no tribal or religious differences in the struggle. It was all a matter of all for one and one for all. Their determination were channeled towards same goal, struggling for the procurement of freedom and the building of a continent that will be able to feed herself, educate herself, treat herself and defend herself.

On their way to freedom, many of them were imprisoned, tortured, forced into hiding while many were brutally hacked to death. Many of the names of the freedom fighters were recorded while the majority of their names are unknown to history. And you cannot think of such heroes without mentioning the names of Amilcar Cabral of Cape Verde and of Guinea – Bissau extraction, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Andrew Mlangeni of South Africa, Joshua Nkomo of Zimbabwe. It will be unfair to forget in a hurry, Eduardo Mondlane of Mozambique who was assassinated on February 3^rd, 1969 as he struggled towards the liberation of his people. What of Walter Sisulu of South Africa who was jailed with Mandela and spent 26 years in prison after his previous arrests and imprisonments?  Or should our history be completed without mentioning the contribution of Anthony Enahoro of Nigeria who in 1953 moved the motion and ignited the movement that led to the independence of Nigeria?

If the vision and pursuit of our heroes past were to be esteemed and respected by our political leaders today, the African woman will stop being a victim of violence, she would stop giving birth under the unprofessional supervision of village midwives and quack doctors. And an Africa child would never be a victim of becoming a kid soldier with the habit of taking hard drugs and shedding innocent blood. He would never become a commodity in baby factories and never would he be a sacrificial lamb to political vampires and religious fanatics whose weapon of war is to kill harmless women and children in order to instill fear into the heart of their erroneously perceived opposition instead of engaging dialectical wisdom solution to every life situation. Our young brothers and sisters would not be drowning and dying in the Mediterranean Sea in search of green pastures. Africa nations would have been freed from foreign debt traps as China is fast taking over the major public facilities in Africa. There would not have been tribal and religious war as we would have understood that we are the same people from the same source going same direction in the same boat of destiny.

The love of our local patriotic leaders for their people in the colonial era was an AGAPE love. The type of love that expects nothing in return as far as the public is free. They were ready to lose their lives for the betterment of their nations. But today, virtually all our political leaders have made themselves colonial masters, doing more evil than the foreign colonial masters, becoming a stumbling block to the growth of their nations, and in extension, to that of Africa. Virtually everywhere you go in Africa, our political leaders have many things in common, the looting of public funds and money laundry; the setting up of innocent people; the arresting and the killings of their perceived political enemies; the rigging of elections in order to remain in the corridors of power and so on. They have forgotten the labours of our heroes past. Their irrational love for public funds has led us to misery. Democracy ought to be a system of transparency and accountability in governance for the advancement of a nation or that of a People. But Africa presidents are celebrating and turning blind eye to each other’s evil activities as they have unconstitutionally legalized corruption, making our democracy to be running on a treadmill going nowhere.

Our patriotic fathers struggled to liberate us from the shackles of colonialism and now that we are free and fit to design our future, we have become stiff necked fools forgetting or ignoring the reasons why our fathers struggled in the first place.

There are strident questions we need to ask ourselves. Firstly, we need to ask ourselves that as we have struggled to send colonial masters away and now that they have left, what has become of us? Secondly, look into the mirror and ask the image in the mirror, would the innocent child you were be proud of the man you are today? Thirdly, you need to ask yourself, how could we have gained independence if everybody were like you doing nothing to stop the corrupt system that had kept us in the bench of failure? And finally, we need to ask in regret and in tears, was it a huge mistake to have struggled for independence from colonial masters in the first place as the evil of the colonial masters is lesser than that of our present day political leaders?

It will interest you to know that the evil rods of neocolonialism are no longer in the hands of foreign task masters but are presently in the hands of our political leaders whose hunger for public wealth can never be satisfied. Therefore, our future depends on us. Are we to sit and watch our narrow minded politicians ruin our society continuously? Or, are we to stand up with our heads raised up and collectively say enough is enough? The decision is ours today! It is either we push for a brighter tomorrow or slack and wait for a darker future. No two ways about it! Our leaders are not ready to change their opinions in order to correct their foolish mistakes. Rather, they are growing worse as time flies by. And no non African man will come and change our situation for good if we don’t change it ourselves. There is no playing neutral in this call for change. It is either we are part of the way forward or we are part of the setback.

Note: Until you are ready to swallow a bitter pill for what you want, you do not really want it.

Ambassador Ezewele Cyril Abionanojie is the author of the book ‘The Enemy Called Corruption’ and writes from Lagos.