Once upon a time, a man of Ghana origin regained his freedom after many tortuous years in slavery. His white captors made him the first black bishop as he returned to his native soil – Africa. At the taste of his cherished freedom and what should be an inalienable right to life, Pastor JK Agrey left everyone spellbound in his vintage speech declaration saying “I am proud of my colour; he who is not proud of his colour is not fit to live. In the whole wide world Africa, my own Africa comes first. Let Africans remain good Africans, and not poor copies of Europeans. Only the best is good enough for Africa”. Good talk; but something unique must have informed Agrey to lay claim to his belief that Africa is a home to relish, to honour, to eulogize and favourably accepted over the Whiteman’s land at the time. It is anyone’s guess if Agrey could be so convinced and assertive were he to be alive today and see what has become of his glorious past Africa in the hands of evil genius military despots and brain drain politicians of our time.
In the absence of Agrey, Africa has witnessed and (been) preyed upon by despotic, animalistic, demonic and carnivorous leaders who in their mischievous tendencies bled the people to their skeleton. It is too early for one to easily forget what leaders like Emperor Jean- Bédel Bokassa of Central African Republic, Field Marshall Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, the duo Nigerian Generals – Sanni Abacha and Badamosi Babagida, Col Muammar Gadhafi and Sergeant Doe of Liberia did to send thousands of innocent lives to their early graves courtesy of their wicked antecedent of mass killings, contract killings, corruption, nepotism, stealing, and brazen neglect of social and economic development. President Goodluck Jonathan might yet be a candidate of condemnation and a serious contender in the hall of shame for his style of governance that benevolently enriches Nigeria with army of Boko Haram – an Islamic religious bigots that hold preference to drinking human blood than sharing Champaign at dinner time. Jonathan once told Nigerians to contend with the Boko Haram onslaught for the sympathy he seemingly shared with their known sponsors and supporters in his cabinet, in the Judiciary, the legislature, the civil service, the police and the armed forces and perhaps, until the last man standing in the Northern States of Nigeria. Jonathan is averse to creative approach to solving the plague of Boko Haram and his caricature model to handling corruption is non sequitur to its ending. It is now a fact that Jonathan presides over and manages the most corrupt economy in the world, yet, it is business as usual without reprieve.
Africa in the hands of Jonathan and co has come last and that is against the conviction of Agrey. There are no more poor copies of Europeans but impoverished and helpless Africans. Nigeria and most other African nations have been bedevilled by desperate leaders who are short sighted and still allowed to continuously hold on to power beyond their usefulness. Nigeria is speedily falling apart whilst Jonathan looks on bemused. This may be the time when Jonathan led PDP government would finally fall out of love with Nigerians. It is hard to overstate how supine and insipid the president as a leader and his PDP party were on multiple issues of national interest. From their seed we shall know them. Henry Dickson (Bayelsa State Governor) has started toeing the sycophancy line of governance. His decision to appoint Dame Patience Jonathan (wife of the president) as a Permanent Secretary in the state whilst ignoring hundreds of highly placed career civil servants might yet become an unpopular decision in due course. Such action is devoid of lateral thinking, lacks focus and shows little or no knowledge of human capital development. I weep for Nigeria.
Samuel Aruleba, PhD email: samarus@rocketmail.com
