Features
What’s wrong with our leaders?
Macky Sall
When I tuned in to my popular FM station this morning to listen to what was going on in the political realm, I was stunned by what I heard. Another coup in Africa, in Gabon to be specific.
The question that immediately came to mind was, what is wrong with our leaders? In three years, there has been eight coups including this current one in Gabon. It started from Mali, to Guinea then Burkina Faso and now Gabon.
What is sad and unique about these coups is that they all hap¬pened in former French colonies and this raises an eyebrow. The natural question that readily comes to mind is why are they all happening in former French colonies?
A careful observation will also reveal that apart from this curious occurrence of all these coups happen¬ing in French-speaking countries, they are all linked with either dissatisfac¬tion with elections and the results or the way the fight against terrorism has been conducted.
A discerning observer, however will notice that there is more to this seemingly contagious event sweeping across mostly the West African region than just the above reasons. One of them has to do with the tendency of some leaders to hold on to power contrary to the constitution of their countries.
This breeds the grounds of dissat¬isfaction among the populace and it creates a fertile ground for military adventurists who step in ostensibly to right the wrongs but over the years have turned out to be worse leaders than those they overthrew.
There is another factor that cannot be ignored, the lack of action of ECOWAS leaders who look on uncon¬cerned when their colleagues start to violate the constitution of their respective countries knowing the po¬tential consequence of their actions.
We are not talking about a coup in Senegal today because there was a strong public push back against the attempt by Macky Sall to manipulate the Senegalese constitution to enable him run for a third term.
The elephant in the room is the role of the nation called France in all these coups. France has over the years played an ignominious role in the former colonies which has re¬sulted in the spate of coups. France supports and gloss over the evil deeds of many if not all the heads of states of their former colonies, like Gabon.
The Bongo family has taken over the country like their own personal property. France claims it is a bastion of democracy, yet has been looking on for the Bongo’s to rule Gabon like a dictator. After the Omar Bongo era, his son Ali has been rigging elections to hold on to power, including the recent one that has led to the military coup.
It is estimated that every one in three bulbs in France is lighted by Uranium from Niger but power is a huge challenge for Niger. Most of their power supply is from Nigeria, how can any rational person accept this situa-tion, hence the coup in Niger.
If you look at the agreement signed between France and the former colonies you would become very angry about anything French. Among the lot is a stipulation that when the colonies access their own money that has been deposited in France’s Central Bank, it would be given them as a loan at commercial rates.
This is incredible. It is cheating beyond comprehension. No wonder, the people who are mostly the youth in the countries where coups have oc¬curred in the former French colonies, are now agitating for the French to leave their countries.
• The awareness have started dawning on African youth, that our colonial masters especially the French, have not dealt kindly and fairly with our various countries and would there¬fore not tolerate their meddling in our internal affairs again.
• Until our leaders imbibe and demon¬strate real democratic tendencies, I would not be surprised, should we wake up tomorrow to hear that, there has been a coup in Togo.
By Laud Kissi Mensah
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
