Mother Africa Needs No Elections.

I have come to realize the harm that elections have caused in Africa. This has come at a heavy price with the loss of human lives and property. We as Africans try to please the so called western democracies by ascribing to their so called democratic ideologies. Most often election results in African countries are disputed by the parties involved, and this later leads to conflicts with innocent citizens bearing the brunt of a few selfish and greedy politicians. Examples cold be found in the Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and simmering now is the one in Senegal. You just calculate the huge amounts of money used in organizing elections, this runs into millions of dollars. Why cant we device our own means of choosing our political leaders, and i mean this system should be distinct from the western type of elections. The money used for these elections could be used to improve the living conditions of the citizens of the countries on the African continent. We still live in a continent where people do not have access to the basic needs of life such as good drinking water, stable power supply, good educational infrastructure, access to health care etc. I  see elections in Africa as a waste of time, energy and money. Lets use Ghana as an example. The year 2012 is an election year, and the government is planning to spend almost about $20million on a biometric register and verification process. Do we need to go through all that hustle to elect our leaders, who only promise us the good things when they need our votes but do nothing when they assume the reigns of power. To correct this anomaly, i have some suggestions: Instead of elections, why don't we have a constitution drafted by the people, and all the political parties recognized by this legal document. Guidelines should be clearly specified for this recognition to be accepted by all.  The representatives of all these parties should ballot to choose who would rule in an orderly manner, with a rotational system in place. The moment this rotation ends, another balloting should be done to keep the system working. This i know would be accepted by all the parties, and harmony would prevail in our continent. The legislature must also be made up of representatives of all the political parties chosen by their respective parties. But the party winning the first ballot should be given the opportunity to allow their party leader to become president and he should also choose his ministers and appointees. They stay on for eight years as would be specified in the constitution. When their term ends, the next party which picked the second ballot takes over. This will go on until it gets to the last party on the ballot. Each would serve for eight years. I truly believe we don't need elections in Africa, but hey, these are just the suggestions of an African man who wants to see some change and a departure from what the West wants us to do. Your criticisms and suggestions are welcome.   

Nigeria Bleeds, Mother Africa Cries.

It seems since the new year, 2012 began, not a day passes by without any good news from our brothers in Nigeria. We always hear of bombings which lead to many deaths in some of the Nigerian northern states. More people are being killed by the islamic sect Boko Haram in the name of religion. There is a state of insecurity in nigeria as i write this post. More Christians are fleeing from the northern states as the islamic sect has given them an ultimatum to leave the north or face death. I would like to know what the African Union is doing to combat such terrorist activities? Are they waiting for this crisis to engulf the whole of the West African subregion before they take the necessary actions. When this crisis gets out of hand it will affect the whole of the African continent. Beccuase, when Nigeria starts bleeding, the whole of Africa will cry and the repercursions would be disastrous. What if the Christians in the southern part of the country also decide to sack or kill all moslems there, the unthinkable will happen. What is happening in the north amounts to genocide as hundreds of people are being killed by the Boko Haram sect every week. I just cant fathom what the Nigerian security services are doing about all these killings. ECOWAS must be seen doing something to help the Nigerian Government on this crisis, but it seems the nigerians have been left to their own fate. We should not wait for an escalationb of the crisis before we start sending aid and troops into Nigeria to put an end to the carnage going on there. We should not behave like ostriches and put our heads in the sand and pretend nothing is happening. I love my continent so much that my heart will be broken if this crisis is not resolved by all means possible. We must start behaving like the brothers that we are on our dear continent and help one another in times of conflicts. What happened to the so called African solutions to solve African problems? We should becareful of this Nigerian crisis becuase it can seriuosly affect the growth and development of the African continent. When Mother Africa cries, who do you expect to wipe away the tears for her? Your guess is as good as mine, but hey, you should know that these are just the thoughts of an African brother who loves his continent very much and cant afford to see the continent fail the unborn generations, so lets help stop the bleeding going on in Nigeria.

Neocolonialism In Africa.

My heart is heavy with sadness whenever i see bad images of the African continent on the various international media networks. They keep on showing images of starving African children with flies hovering around them, and dead bodies in conflict zones on my dear continent. They are just trying to show to the whole world that we Africans can not rule ourselves without resorting to war. Thats why the western powers are making everything possible to take over the continent once more so as to control our natural mineral resources. It seems we are giving them the opportunity to do just that. Our political leaders are not helping us curb this trend thats gotten beyond our control. Why cant we follow the example of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who nationalized all the oil drilling installations in his country when the multinational companies refused to accept the 70- 30% he was proposing. He was looking at the interest of the citizens of Venezuela. He also during the latter part of the year 2011 repatriated all the country's gold reserves abroad back to Venezuela. Why cant we follow his example. Our leaders keep fat bank accounts in foreign banks and when they are being hounded out of power, they are exposed and these accounts are frozen by the western powers. Its like we give the western powers the ammunition to propagate their agenda. Now the new form of colonialism is in the form of a fight for the continent's mineral resources. The Chinese, Russians, British, Americans, French etc are all coming in their numbers just to take over our resources. Nigeria is being turned into a lawless state by certain faceless entities, and there might be a western power behind all the chaos and confusion going on in that country. The West is also now asking all African countries to recognize gay and lesbian rights as they have made it a conditionality in their giving of aid to the continent. We must stand up and fight this disease which is trying to destroy our African continent, for it seems we would betray the African continent by doing nothing about this emerging threat. They first start with a group of people being coerced to organize a protest and more people join when the security forces use all means necessary to quell such protests, thats all they need to accuse an African government of committing human rights abuses. But hey, these are just the thoughts of an African man who loves his continent with all his heart, mind and soul.

World War 3?

It seems we started the New Year on a rather sad note as on Christmas Day, two churches were bombed in Nigeria leaving scores of people dead.  Now the Boko Hara sect is warning Christians living in the northern part of the country a one week ultimatum to leave that part of the country. The Iranians also threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz where about 40% of the world crude oil is shipped through. The Americans responded by moving their aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis into the Persian Gulf just to call the bluff of the Iranians. The Chinese have also warned the Americans that they are going to defend the Iranians in case of a war  by the Americans. These might be the precursors to a Third World War if i am not mistaken. This saber rattling by these countries have already pushed the price of crude oil on the world market to an unprecedented level. And we in Africa are feeling the effects as my country Ghana has scrapped off the subsidies that were put on the crude oil. It is bringing hardship on Ghanaians. Nigeria also followed suit by removing all the subsidies placed on imported refined crude oil. Very soon, major protests will break out in most countries around the world as the economic hardship becomes unbearable by the poor masses. The UN as we see right now is just a toothless bulldog as it can not prevent another war from happening. If it should happen  more people are going to die. The question i am asking is that, are the Americans and the Iranians about to start a Third World War? God help us.