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Fiifi Essandoh Writes: Is It That We Don't Plan Or Africa Is Really Poor?

By Fiifi Essandoh
Opinion Fiifi Essandoh Writes: Is It That We Don't Plan Or Africa Is Really Poor?
APR 19, 2020 LISTEN

Africa is a worthy continent with a lot of skills and good people. It's full of rich heritage and people that have religion at heart. Africans love and eschew evil. These are people that think about their kinsmen sometimes even above themselves. They live and think of everyone in their community. People that can fight for the existence of another generation of themselves.

People from this continent are a delight to live with. Their educational system in the olden days was very practical. A continent that everyone would be proud of. However, these things said about Africa is just the least. She is faced with the worst problem of all time. Mother Africa as I will be addressing her in this piece is really saddled with unemployment.

Her youth travel overseas to look for greener pastures that don't exist in some cases, corruption, queuing for everything and to a large extent education with no practicality.

She can not sing her own story as the western media tells it better. In all instances, we are blessed and highly favoured by God, but we are the least of all the continents. We have to virtually borrow everything. We are free from colonial rule but are controlled by our colonial masters. They dictate to us. We produce our raw materials, and they give us the price they would want to buy it. Painfully, we don't transform our raw materials into finished or semi-finished goods. Even when it is done, it's a sad scenario for us to know, we like to wear foreign clothing and goods to our own. The same football that is played on the field comes with different praises from fans even on our continent. We look at the foreign ones as interesting while our own doesn't receive any credit.

In these COVID-19 moments of our world, we as a continent are faced with the reality. There is no money to used to treat ourselves with this pandemic. This pandemic has brought the things I have been thinking of for years into bear. We are a good continent. People sacrificed to make the other places that we see great. These people are stricken by this disease but are in great shape. We have even gone to them to borrow. Is it that as Africans, we don't plan or are poor in planning? What's going on?

Sad to hear from our leaders how we need to go borrow before we can take care of people infested with the virus and educate those who are not having the virus on good ways to keep themselves healthy and not contract the disease.

Africa, we need to learn from our setting and rise beyond some things. We need not go borrow before we can take care of ourselves. We can plan and do proactive thinking in everything we do.

Africa needs to be up and doing. Our leaders need to walk their talk and be counted. I pray for greater wisdom and strength for them as they go about their duties to lift the name of our continents higher. Africans need their integrity back. Their love for humanity shouldn't go extinct.

Help us move from borrowing and aids. We simply need great policies and sound ones that, can make Africa rise up.

Bless Oh! Lord our land of Africa

Lift its name and make it people free ...

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