THE AFRICA WE WANT -ESSAY

 

                                                      THE AFRICA WE WANT

Africa as a continent we are blessed with a lot of natural resources that need to be explored properly if we are to develop. We have plenty fertile soil and minerals. Africa would have been the richest in the world by now but because of so many things that happens like Corruption which makes it hard to achieve her goals. The cases of wars and presence of terrorist attacks, economic crisis and old fashioned education system are all serious issues hindering development. This is not Africa we want, we need socio-economic transformation and a zero tolerance on corruption with no more absolute poverty but with people doing things they want without being oppressed in any way because of gender or physical make up. Africa as united as we are, we need to do things together as one country especially neighbouring countries. For example, Ghana and Nigeria already started this in movies where they do together and they are progressing.

The case of corruption is what is killing most African economies. It is a shame to note that African leaders are the ones in forefront doing corrupt practices in the continent. The billions of money which would have been used for development and developing people is being embezzled by the leaders making the citizens suffer. Most elected leaders’ first priority dwells on making themselves rich and not developing the people. This is shown whereby, the elected presidents acquire so much wealth within the short period in office. The sad thing is these people involved in corruption are not punished and yet they are stealing billions of taxpayer’s money while those  punished are the ones stealing little things in shops, houses and are sentenced to hard labour in prison. This is not Africa we want to see in the years to come we want a corruption free Africa. Our scores in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) should be high not 20 out of 100 as of many African countries right now. The African Union should take an active role in combating Corruption in all the countries. It should have an agreement with all the heads of states signing it to have people in the Union who will be in different countries to report of any corruption cases that is happening and they should also audit financial reports of how the government used its funds including donor funding every year. This should be taken serious because corruption is hindering the Africa’s development.

The other thing is that, we want Africa which utilizes its natural resources very well to the development of the continent. For example, Africa has a lot of land which is left unused. The leadership should be in fore front utilizing this land for agriculture by planting things that can sell abroad like Tobacco, tea, coffee, sisal and other things or building factories where farmers can sell their produce, at the end importing the products. In addition, Africa’s minerals like coal, copper, oil, gold, diamond if utilized properly can help develop us. Most countries which have these minerals do not handle properly these important earth’s gifts, lack of good management leads to losses of billions of dollars every year. It is also a shame that some countries have not yet explored these minerals for fear of unknown yet they are there wasted and which only in the end encourages illegal miners to explore them on their own and usually die in the process. This happened in Zimbabwe whereby, illegal miners died while mining because the government was not doing anything with the minerals. In Malawi, the same issue, the government does not have interest in exploring gold that a lot of people are claiming it’s there and a lot of people are dying through illegal mining on their own. We want Africa with full confidence to know what they want, explore these minerals and learn how to manage them properly.

On the other hand, poverty free continent is what we want in Africa. A lot of poor people are found in Africa than in any other continent and this is because the young people are not empowered in many sectors. If the youths are empowered there cannot be a high unemployment rate because they will be busy doing their own things as entrepreneurs and some using their different talents they possess. The problem is that our education system is old fashioned meaning it is no longer relevant in today’s economy. A lot of things have changed and the coming of technology has changed a lot of things. The children need to be taught on how to manufacture products and succeed in entrepreneurship at an early stage, they should grow up being taught these subject in schools rather than telling them that they will find work after school which is not true. This is because a lot of youths have graduated and companies are very few. For example, a University graduate instead of looking for a job can write a book about what he learnt in college or other things that happen every day and can make money selling that book but this is not being taught in our schools. The education system need a restructure and another new replacement for example, the kids that fail in class they should have all sorts of human activities that they can learn and explore at an early stage. They can also be taught on different technologies that are coming while young in school. In future these kids will know how to make phones, laptops etc. and be able to sell to make money. Africa can no longer import these technologies again. What is it that the kid is doing best? What does he/she like? That should be nurtured at an early stage in order for that kid to be good in future and not forcing him to keep doing things he is failing which is his weakness. It is better to concentrate on their strength rather than wasting time in their weaknesses which only demotivate their confidence and self-esteem. European countries already do this by nurturing their kid’s talents while young, why us Africa?

In addition, Africa has a lot of victims of people denied equal rights in societies. In many societies, women and disabled people fall victims of social exclusion to important decisions, they face a lot of challenges every day. There’s need of civic education that we are all equal as human beings and that whatever a man can do a woman can also do and can do it even better to prove men wrong. Even the disabled people if empowered can contribute a lot to development rather than leaving them aside like they are inability. The African leadership should take an initiative by making sure that all the disabled people and women are being considered as human beings who can contribute a lot to development and that their rights are protected. They should introduce different programs in creative arts like singing, acting, Painting, making handcrafts, writing books, tailoring and other things that encourages youths, women and disabled people to take part to develop themselves.

Furthermore, Africa should dwell much in combating terrorism which contributes to underdevelopment. Terrorists destroy people and structures contributing to poverty. Development cannot happen if the buildings being built are being destroyed, that means the money meant for other developments will be used to reconstruct the damaged buildings. We want Africa with no terrorists groups and it should start now. The leadership should make sure their country does not have them and it should put measures to make sure they are not established. They should be searched wherever they are based and taken to prison. Those countries that have them should call out for outside help from European countries which have agencies that deal with them.  

In conclusion, as Africans we believe in unity and together we can achieve our dreams. We want Africa with too much wealthy where we cannot even depend on donor funding which mostly comes with conditions that cannot help us. Leaders should be visionary and not corrupt. Our relationship with our neighbours should be strong so that we can be supporting each other economically. This is Africa we want to see now as the future is here.