AFRICA: OUR CHALLENGES AND THE WAY FORWARD

      

Africa, as you already know, is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent. Africa comes from the Latin word "aprica", meaning "sunny." Africa is considered by most palaeoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory in earth and has the human species originating from the continent. Africa has a large quantity of natural resources including oil, ore, diamonds, gold, aluminium, uranium, cocoa, steel among others. Africa is really a blessed continent. Ask me why! We have a lot of resources to build Africa. However, as a nation and continent, there are some setbacks that are holding us from moving forward. Of these are; 

Retrogression in Education, Science and Technology. 

Civilization is believed to have started in Africa, but currently, it looks like we haven't heard or seen alot about Civilization. Science and technology is one of the most powerful tools which help in developing a country or a continent. Africans have the knowledge, but applying seems to be our problem. We see opportunities, but we fail to make good use of them. We have the ideas, but lacked how to develop them. Education, as we know, is a vital developmental tool as it promotes entrepreneurship and also creates a highly skilled workforce. Only quality education can give the African populace the needed skills and knowledge to create and manufacture artifacts for our benefit. Thus, it is true to say that the current education offered in countries within the continent hasn't enabled the students to produce anything of worth. It's for these reasons changes must be made in the education system to ensure that students are being equipped with the right kind of information that will enable them participate in the global market. Education in Africa has been focused on theories,  leaving the practical aspect. Currently, many inventors in the world are people of Africa descent. It's very true that the Africa environment is hostile to innovations. Africans either discourage or criticise you, or make you feel strange for coming up with something unique. Wake up Africans, for our brains are being "stolen". Let's raise up our Mother Africa for we are running out of time.  Many of our resources are untapped because of these reasons. Yet,  if you can see far, you will realise that the future is bright.

Ineffective Leadership 

According to Wikipedia, "Leadership is both a research area and a  practical skill, regarding the ability of an individual/organisation to lead or guide other individuals to achieve a specific purpose". It's so disheartening when we take a look at leadership in Africa. Many of our leaders are either self-centered-money-making people or cannot-see far. They focus on making money for themselves,  leaving their duties which should be performed to achieve a positive change in the standard of living of the people. I don't really know whether leadership has a different meaning to our leaders. True leaders sacrifice for their people. Take a look at our past leaders like Nelson Mandela, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, whose names will never be forgotten. They fought for their people, but unfortunately in our time the people rather fight for the leaders. Some current Africa leaders don't try to solve the challenges their people are facing, but instead add more oil to the flame. They keep encouraging poverty! It's so sad when you consider that they are not putting themselves into the shoes of their people. Leadership has now become a wealth-making occupation. Corruption has been their hallmark! Embezzlement of funds is what they always think of. Forgive my harshness , I just get agitated when I think of all our suffering. Africa is ours! To our dear leaders, what good stepping-stone or foundation are you laying for the youth? Is it corruption? I guess the answer is no. There is one adage which says, "Good name is better than riches." 

In sum, Africa faces  problems of  technology application, corruption and bad leadership. All these problems have solutions. Let's come together as one people to fight and work harder for Mother Africa. The future is still bright.

Edited by: Michelle Amma Richter