Africa is now at a cross-roads! We can make a complete and confounding positive turnaround or head totally in the opposite direction - depending on what the current crop of leaders choose to do and/or not do. It is that simple, and that tricky! If I were Nelson Mandela, retired president of South Africa, elder statesman, crusading icon, moral barometer and African legend, I will now step in because I do KNOW the dangers, and have always embraced the golden duty to do good.
And here is why: The creeping intolerance, sit-tight tendencies, merciless looting, hounding of all and any opponents, the crude use of power and debasement of democracy make the story of our political leadership and national development on this continent a sorry tale indeed. And we must worry. The statistics and indicators are not good at all. We must all worry. If I were President Mandela, I will be "The Chief of all Worriers"!
Not total woes, though. Two recent meetings on the continent's future give us great hope: The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing and the Africa-South America Summit in Abuja are very promising. They can help us achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, faster. They can also move us into solid sustainable development realms within a decade. And that is both the real promise and the lurking problem! Which is why we need Madiba...now. We must use WHO we have to get and gain WHAT we need/want!
Pa Mandela should summon ALL African leaders to Pretoria immediately, and help us BEG them to give our continent and race the right leadership, the undiluted loyal service, the honour of creation by which we be the "Cradle of Humanity/Humankind", the glory of our rich heritage, and the beauty of our deserved destiny...so that the African Renaissance may become the solid reality we have been yearning and striving for. Papa should also BEG/ASK all our long-serving leaders to kindly step down through immediate systematic and credible democratic transition.
They should all be gunning for world acclaim and our gratitudes, including honours like that of the recently-endowed Mo Ibrahim African Leadership Prize plus the verdict of posterity.
Why Mandela? Because he has done exactly what I ask him to extract from our leaders. Hey, why not Mandela? Is it for nothing that Time Magazine honoured him among the 60 Heroes of our time, in its 60th Anniversary Issue (November 13, 2006).......saying, "with Mandela, and because of Mandela, no noble cause is unachievable"! The tribute was penned, for Time, by Gordon Brown, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer - the man who helped persuade G8 countries to increase debt relief and aid for Africa, and the Prime Minister-in-waiting!!
Papa, I beg o....ACT fast!
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