Africa(ns) in deep melancholy

Despite half a century of independence from colonial rule and global emancipation Africa is still plagued by ailments such as HIV/AIDS, inter/intra state conflicts, governmental unaccountability, election rigging, corruption, and all sorts of malpractices. Though these omens are rife in almost all countries of the world, most countries are employing rigid statutory and institutional mechanisms to deplete them. The vices are on the increase in Africa and she (Africa) continues to give legislative birth to novel vices such as the legalization of prostitution; affording invisible or lukewarm techniques to militate against crime, limitless defining concepts such as freedom in Human Rights; and a determination to sleep on their rights and be poor bargainers in any international trade, diplomatic and political debates with other developed countries.

With recent talks about meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, it seems imperative to ask whether Africa is undertaking any efforts to meet some of these (MDG) essential needs of its people or even to democratize as a stepping stone to creating a just and equitable society where such needs would eventually ensue. The answer in my opinion seems to be that,—the MDGs are a craving for Africa(ns), but not a single state has engaged transformative measures towards meeting ALL these noble goals. Owing to the tasking or rather thorny and mountainous nature of the changes adumbrated in the MDGs, the few (States) who have ventured into attaining one or two of such goals have been applauded beyond Africa’s Diplomatic corridor by (amongst others), ‘stayist’ leaders who are driven by the lack of vision to drive any changes beneficial to their population.

Considering that African states have set themselves up as street beggars from the West and quite recently friends of the predator East (China), it is yet to be seen whether these financial gurus would fold their arms and watch Africa develop faster than them or meet the MDGs which some of them are struggling with? It is no news that various proxy attempts have been done to disunite Africa, and owing to our inadvertent gullibility, we have succumbed and woefully fallen to the snares of our paddies who embellish friendship and equality in the loin of hardship, brain drain, and divide & rule tactics, and serve it to us in the golden platter of humanitarian aid. Should Africa be an arm-free zone the sale and donation of ammunition to Africans to exacerbate barbarism on other people will greatly degenerate? These destructive sophisticated scientific works of human hands have succeeded in sidetracking some glorious African virtues like UBUNTU, UJAMA, and their adjunct corollaries. In my opinion, conflicts do not arise because we’re different from one another, but because we cannot celebrate our differences. Africans have been manned to be suspicious of one another, and thus the bonds of love and fraternity amongst them have been dislocated, and fractured to create increasing and incessant conflicts. Though contemporarily a plethora of African conflicts are catalyzed by external factors, those that are triggered from within Africa, by especially African leaders are prolonged by the West and sustained by donation from western arm companies. Despondently, most arm companies that trade with Africa and impalpably trigger and fuel African conflicts are owned by the G5 (Permanent members of the UN Security Council).

Thus there is a muddle understanding of how an arm trader could conveniently wish conflicts ended in the guise of supporting peacekeeping operations. One may well from this perspective understand the reason why even concepts such as Humanitarian Intervention ridiculously designed to protect conflict ridden countries from plunging into limbo only comes in when such countries have experienced untold human and material loss. One may well salute Humanitarian intervention for the beautiful clauses and prerequisite requirements for intervention, but one sets to lament when one critically understands that it can only be effected in genocide and other related malice cases. The concept of State Sovereignty and its emphasis on ephemeral borders has been the bedrock of conflicts in Nigeria and Cameroon, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and a host of other places in the world. Persons were displaced, others lost their lives, and others their property, and as the conflict sky-rocketed, no international efforts concerted to extinguish it as foreign powers were using the countries as proxies for their ideological conflicts and shreds for arm markets and to manufacture relations on which they could perch and pest in the aftermath of the conflict. Why doesn’t the UNSC intervene in Bakasi or in Badne when people are being displaced, others being killed, or when women and children are being exposed to all sorts of malaise? Why should they wait when a clan is systematically targeted by the ruling class (genocide)? Has the concept of Sovereignty more value than Human blood?

Even the birth of Humanitarian intervention knows its ills; existing empirical evidence suggests that HIV/AIDS in Africa spreads quickly through peacekeepers and soldiers (referees of war)—humanitarian interventionists. Women and children who are most vulnerable in wartime usually in the search for protection find themselves in army barracks, being used as articles of sexual gratification by their said protectors. Given the age groups of some of these peacekeepers, and their resort to engaging into vigour stimulating activities believed to boost their courage; these (especially) young men usually go by plural partners and engage in unprotected sex—thus assisting in the spread of and high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa. It is for this reason that Rwandan Genocide ended up with more children orphaned to AIDS and a sick population than there were before the conflict. This therefore suggests that should there be no conflicts in Africa (requiring military intervention) entirely, this may lead to a considerable drop in the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Since from the time when such seditious acts by peacekeepers were labelled crimes against humanity, some countries backed-off from engaging and committing themselves to succumb to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which could tax them for the conduct of their soldiers.

In order to ascertain and quantify the value of lives lost in conflicts in Africa (a really absurd thing to do), Africa should be declared an arm-free zone and the revenue the arm companies will loose will be commensurate to the Number of lives Africa will gain.
“…The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.” Asian proverb.
As earlier said, conflicts ensue from our inability to celebrate our differences; should we be able to appreciate our differences as a jealous value to protect, and a spice to stay with, Africans will stop boosting the revenue of arm companies, and will conversely invest in projects which lay a platform for the attainment of MDGs and create a conducive environment for the thriving of peace and development. This can however be hardly achieved without Africans understanding that they are masters of their destiny—that they have to invest Diaspora-acquired knowledge in Africa, resort to peaceful means of dispute resolution (Arbitration, Negotiation, Dialogue, Conciliation, mediation, judicial dispute settlement, etc…), denounce nepotism, and celebrate their cultural differences. The systemization of these values will unite Africans in the fight for ailments, which still account for high death tolls like Tuberculosis, Polio, diarrhea, cholera, Ebola fever, malaria, not to talk of the canker worm—HIV/AIDS. And this will be achieved through concertedly sponsoring some African geniuses to consecrate their ingenuity to the search for such medications