Why did we stop using the PWD?

A question that pops into the mind whenever we consider the state of affairs in Africa is: from where came the peculiar amnesia that afflicts our continent and compels us to discard the very structures that once promised order and collective well-being in our society, only for us to embrace the decaying carcass of a foreign ideology enthusiastically?

I don't speak of romanticized pre-colonial utopias but of tangible, albeit colonial-era, institutions such as the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Town Council, Tankasu in local parlance.

The two institutions were the sinews of urban and rural sanitation, the bedrock of communal hygiene and infrastructural upkeep. They were imperfect, yes, born of an oppressive system, yet they functioned very well.

The fear of a visit by khaki-uniformed Tankasu officers made every household keep its surroundings clean.

These two institutions ensured that our towns did not drown in their own refuse and that basic amenities, however rudimentary, reached the populace.

Why, then, in our post-independence zeal, did we not merely dismantle the colonial yoke, but also jettison these functional remnants, leaving a vacuum now filled with squalor, disarray, flood, and lamentation?

And the cosmic irony is this: having cast off the chains of political subjugation, we willingly shackle ourselves to the ideological cadaver of Europe?

We, who once thrived on the profound wisdom of Ubuntu, on the interconnectedness of being, on the communal spirit that saw every individual as an indispensable thread in the tapestry of society, now slavishly ape a European model that has fragmented humanity into granular, alienated, and atomized individual units.

The consequences of our stupid predilection are not merely academic; they are visceral and devastating.

A pervasive sense of alienation gnaws at our African soul, as our society stratifies into grotesque caricatures of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots,’ and the very fabric of our communities unravels.

Today’s Africa was not what our parents bequeathed to us. Of course, society must be dynamic, but what it should not do is retard, which is exactly what we have done in Africa.

As we wallow in our self-generated squalor, are we so utterly blind, deaf, and dumb that we cannot perceive the glaring failures of this Western paradigm that we copied?

The economies of most European countries totter on the brink, racial and class riots scar its metropolises, faith in its much-vaunted democracy wanes with each passing election, leaving leaders with approval ratings that scrape the single digits.

Yet, Africa, in its bewildering obstinacy, clings to this sinking ship, convinced it is the only vessel to salvation.

Contrast this self-defeating myopia with the audacious pragmatism of a nation like China.

There, the focus is not on atomized individualism but on national cohesion, on forging a collective destiny in which every citizen is a vital contributor to a progressive nation.

The results are not merely impressive; they are staggering: 800 million souls lifted from the abyss of poverty, breakthroughs in every conceivable field of human endeavor, a nation ascending with a unified purpose.

This is not an endorsement of the Chinese political system, but a stark illustration of what can be achieved when pragmatism trumps dogmatic adherence to failed foreign models.

It is time, Africa, to awaken from this prolonged slumber. It is time for us to shed the debilitating colonial hangover that compels us to seek validation and models from our former oppressors.

We in Africa should borrow, lend, adapt, and innovate from everywhere.

For example, the unemployment that plagues our youth can be ameliorated, not by endless begging bowls to foreign creditors, but by resurrecting and modernizing institutions like the PWD and Town Councils.

The labor of our youth could be employed to clear the mess from our environment and beautify our cities. Let us deploy them with renewed vigor, transforming them into engines of employment and community development.

Instead of squandering precious resources on foreign expertise, we should cultivate our own. We can and should draw inspiration from any corner of the globe where success blossoms.

As the sagacious Deng Xiaoping once declared, with an unassailable logic that cuts through ideological cant: “The color of the cat does not matter as long as it catches the mouse.”

Africa, it is time to catch our own mouse, by any effective means necessary.

The hour for intellectual liberation is long overdue.

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