body-container-line-1
29.07.2020 Feature Article

Slaves Wearing Crowns: The Perils of African Leaders

Slaves Wearing Crowns: The Perils of African Leaders
29.07.2020 LISTEN

Africa has seen close to 60 coups between the 1960s to 1980s. 56 coups were staged with 106 alleged military plots. Again, 54 African States have either experienced at least one coup or a related incident to it.

Why should this happen?

Why did it happen?

Historians and political experts will attest that it is because of bad leadership.

I agree.

Everything they say rises and falls on leadership.

But why was it that in our case as Africa we kept falling?

Every since the governors left the shores of Gold Coast( now Ghana), the real enemy showed up.

The enemy was us.

The governors never trained Africans to assume their leadership position. During their political regime, Once their tenure of office is over, another governor was sent to the land.

Have you now seen why most of the revolutionaries had to go and study in foreign lands just to come and change what was happening in their country?

I partly blame the colonial rule for some of our woes.

But now that they are gone, the real enemy became a person with low self-esteem who is seeking to get power and authority.

Because of the poor mindset of our leaders; they treat their environment as a disease. They try to hoard, steal, loot and kill for their interest. It was evident in the case of Zambia’s Frederick Chiluba. At the trial, it came out that on one trip abroad, Chiluba went on a shopping spree and came home with 11 trunks of personal items made up of 64 shoes; 206 designer suits; 185 shirts; 74 designer ties; 36 jackets and 157 trousers. Total cost: $1.1 million.

Countless times, our leaders keep making fun of us. They do not know how to handle power. Once power is given to them, they manipulate and use it to destroy others.

The countless coups depict how our leaders have allowed greed and entitlement to ruin us. Greed has evaded our society at all levels. The average person wants something in exchange for a service. Truthfully, they receive salaries to render those services.

Sadly, our leaders’ loyalty can be priced.

Now the story is different

Look at an average Ghanaian who is trying to secure a job.

Can you feel what I am about saying?

The majority of them are broken-hearted. It has nothing to do with whether are they skilled or not. It all boils that bad environment as a result of poor leadership. This may be the stories in other countries in Africa.

I may be sentimental. But anytime I look at how the energies of the youth go waste due to our leaders, I cry.

Have you wondered why most of our embassies are flooded with young people who want to run away for their own lives?

And those who are privileged also sit back to say the youth are lazy.

Honestly, you will be amazed at how most of our leaders pride themselves in how they were able to endure hardships in the past.

For that, they tie their self-worth and self-esteem to titles and positions.

Ain’t they still victims of the slavery mindset?

When you equate who you are( value) as a person to what you do (activity), then you are equally a victim of the slavery mindset.

That is why many of our leaders keep fighting and killing one another just to keep and maintain their position.

They can not let go. And if they let go, they make sure no one is leaders around them. An insecure person who was not trained to use power properly will use it on his own family.

That is why we do not support ourselves.

That is why we hate ourselves.

That is why we do not even believe we can succeed.

And if some people try to cross those belief systems to succeed, they have to apologize for being successful.

But how can we turn things around?

The youth must not give up on leadership. Like I stated, leadership is beyond positions and titles. We have to start becoming the leaders we needed while growing up.

Whatever we have in our hands, we have to make sure we serve them to the benefit of the country. No partisan politics has ever built a great nation. We need to focus on the vision of making sure we provide a safe environment for the next generation devoid of self-hatred.

We can do that by supporting another. It is time for us to collaborate more to champion issues that will promote us. We have to take our destiny into our own hands. Most importantly, we have to develop ourselves through continuous learning.

When we change ourselves, everything around us changes.

We have now to do it.

There is no time for envy and jealousy. Let us all get together and collaborate to build a connected environment for our future.

It is time for us to rise. But let us rise together.

It is well

body-container-line