African-Spectrum Online


AFRICAN-SPECTRUM
October 2000	Volume II - Issue 7

CLARION CALL AFRICA!

Serwah Akoto Coker

I remember the day when we heard that Mr. Kofi Annan was to become the U.N. Secretary General. I was with my father Baffour Osei-Akoto, Senior Linguist to the Asantehene, Nana Osei Tutu II. My father incidentally is regarded by the U.N. Sectretary General as his father due to the very close relationship that existed between him and Kofi Annan’s father. Mr. Annan had visited father in Kumasi a few week’s before his august appointment where I was priviledged to shake hands and speak with this gentle and quiet spoken man, who sits astride the world as a Colossus.

Well, back to the time we heard of his appointment . I predicted to my father then that Kofi Annan was going to handle the job very well because he was to be the 7th U.N. Secretary General because I believed that this number apart from being a lucky number is also God’s special number. I reminded father of the success of his own tenure of office as one of the most successful linguists of past and present Asantehene’s because again, he is the 7th occupant of the Butuakwa Stool. I mean, he has been the only linguist, past and present and probably the future, who has had the priviledge of serving three Asantehenes, the present included.

Hold on! I’m getting to the point!

I still believe that Kofi Annan will be one of the most successful U.N. Secretary General’s the world will ever know. But have you ever stopped to consider how this man feels about Africa? I happened to listen to an interview he had with Kweku Sekyi Addo, a Ghanaian B.B.C correspondent, on Joy FM, an Accra radio station, on Friday morning, the 14th of July,2000. One could tell that Kofi Annan was disappointed by some of his African brethren . He gave his answer to a question that when he resumed his duties as the first black African U.N. Secretary General, he had expected greater support from African countries but ironically , it has been these same countries who have been his greatest headaches.

At a point, he even had to query with concern “What is it in our society that makes us turn on each other?” He even said that it pained him to see Africans fighting each other. He was actually echoing my own frustrated outrage in one of my earlier articles “Mother Africa Weeps”. When he was asked why he thought this was so, he replied that it was greed and ambition for power and that the leaders’ drive for power blinds their ability to ascertain the situation of their people.

I agree with him a 100% because why else would Charles Taylor kill and torture his own people just because he wanted to be the leader of the Liberians? Why would Foday Sankoh of the RUF in Sierra Leone mutilate and amputate his own people to fulfill his personal ambition of becoming their leader? Why would Savimbi fight the legitimate government of Santos of Angola for nearly two decades, killing and destroying his own people in the process , just because he wants to be their leader? Why would Laurent Kabila use the same brutal tactics his predecessor Mobutu used to suppress his opponents just to entrench himself in the Democratic Republic of Congo ?

Why would the late Sanni Abacha earn the title of the bloodiest ruler Nigeria has ever had , if not for his own personal ambitions and wound up being the most corrupt of all, ‘the father of all greed’ by sending millions of dollars he stole from his own people to Swiss Banks ? Does this make sense to somebody? Please tell me! Does this make sense to brutalize one’s own people as a stepping stone to power? Would this same people ever be LOYAL to this particular ruler? Do you understand why some African rulers have to rule with iron hands?

The next question , the million dollar question is this, Can one actually say that most African leaders really care for the people they want to rule? Really? OH PLEASE! What is even annoying and frustrating is that in their pursuit of power, wars and bloodshed results. The weak in the society, namely women and children bear the brunt of these gruesome and senseless murders. Kofi Annan then will have to scramble to get troops and aid from outside Africa to go to the aid of these helpless, displaced people. More often than not as Kofi Annan stated in the interview, many countries, including Africans, lack the political will to get engaged (remember the flood of Mozambique?), delaying immediate help to these conflict areas by not supplying the needed troops, which in turn worsens the plight of these people. When help finally comes, more often than not it’s too little too late.

Again, the budget from the United Nations, needed for Africa’s development then has to be re-channeled into wars and resettlement of refugees. Thus delaying the continent’s social, economic and technological development.

A VICIOUS CIRCLE, YOU SAY? You’re perfectly right, my brother! When will Africa wake up? Arise Mother Africa! Shake your glorious body. Turn your eyes to the North, the West and the East. See the decadence of your people!

THINK! THINK AFRICA BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE! ARISE AND SHINE ELSE WHEN WILL YOUR TIME COME?

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