| Book Review
Excepts from REVIVE AFRICA (African Crisis Management) PART 1
‘Crisis’ and ‘Management’ are two words that should be clearly understood in the perspective of their definitions. The words ‘crisis’ is known to be the turbulent point, the decisive moment, especially a time of danger or suspense in politics, to bring to a crisis, to bring (affairs) to a culminating point.
Also, ‘crisis, in the theological realm is a point of departure in a man’s awareness of the inner Contradictions in his nature. It is particularly associated with Barth, a Swiss protestant theologian (Kark, Barth 1886-1986), who rejected what he held to be the errors of post-Renaissance humanism in the name of revealed religion and a doctrine of total grace. His teaching is called ‘crisis theology’, emphasizing the gulf between the creator and his Creatures, which can be bridged on by God.
Furthermore, the word ‘manage means’ to exercise control over, to handle, to manipulate, to influence (someone) so that he does as one wishes, to use economically and with fore-thought. To manage one’s resources, to succeed in accomplishing or handling, but with difficulty, to be able to cope with a situation, a manager is somebody who manages a company, department, institution, house-hold or affairs of others in a special way. A managerialist is one who believes that government business should be run by professional managers e.g. city managers. Finally, the word ‘management’ is the act of managing a business or such other collective enterprise.
It can also refer to the body of those in position of administrative authority, in the past three decades or more, Africa has been an outstanding continent prone to crisis, for which she has become greatly known. Africa occupies a central position in the sphere hat
‘AFRICA’ and ‘CRISIS’ must be looked upon as synonymous in their meanings. In the terrorist acts and the threats to taking a global magnitude as evident in the September 11, 2001 attack on the U.S. The prime suspect in the act, Osama Bin Laden was initially hosted by Africa on Sudanese soil. After his operation in Nairobi and Der-as-salaam (Kenya and Tanzania), Sudan was forced to boot him out while Afghanistan received him as their guest. Today, Osama is accused of the terrorist operation that claimed the lives 4,000 people. Africans living within the continent and in the Diaspora are battling with the crisis in one form or the other (drugs crime, racism and terrorism).
Moreover, former U.N Secretary General, Mr. Koffi Annan in an overwhelming state of mind looks at Africa’s crisis and described it as a ‘cocktail of disasters’. He was fed up with the pathetic state of the continent’s persistent and Consistent helpless situation.
Indeed, the world is a planet embattled! Crisis, one way or the other has deep roots and there is the need for Africans particularly to be conscious of themselves and their environment. Crisis in Africa can be traced back to the year 2000BC. This is further explained in this book under the heading ‘GENERATIONAL CURSE’. This generational curse gave birth to Africa’s main deficiencies (mental, health, or financial) such as the mental wounds of slavery, racism & apartheid, economic apartheid, acute state of abject poverty, indebtedness, state of penury, health hazards, autocracy and the much talked about Neo-colonialism.
The birth of neo-colonialism can partly be traced to the investigation of a journalist b name wolf, working for a leftist magazine in the U.S with the title ‘Executive Intelligence review”. He said in the 1940’s, the imperialist initiative of a particular developed world’s yester-years leader was to shift the battle from the control of the land, to the control of the mind. In his article ‘TAVISTOCK Imperial Brain washing project’. Wolf quoted the leader as saying that to control what men think ‘offers far better prices than taking other peoples land or province or grinding them down in exploitation.
The leader added ‘the empires of the future will be empires of the mind’. To implement this colonialism of the mind (neo-colonialism), global organization, sub-regional organizations, together with international finance organization (W.T.O) spear-headed by the developed world were infiltrated and there platforms were converted to ‘world’s longest, continuously run brain-washing program for the third world leaders. Those their bureaucracy, Wolf added lost touch with reality and where brain-washing failed, as was the case with Nkrumah, Lumumba and Sekou Toure, those leaders were dethroned, isolated or murdered. This imperialist initiative, Wolf revealed started a process that would keep the 3rd world countries semi-industrial, mineral extractive countries. The way this worked was through research psychology. On how to get a country to make ‘critical choices in which all choices are bad’, research by a top psychologist found that an individual would make such critical choices with equally bad outcomes when place under extreme stress. The reality was that if a country was under extreme stress called ‘social turbulence or shock therapy’, it could be manipulated to make choices that are against its own interests. Onwards, third world countries were subjected to social, economic, cultural and political shocks to force to engage in what is defensive adaptation.
THE SHORTCOMINGS IN THE OLD O.A.U
The Organization of African Unity, which came into being in 1963 in Addis Ababa, had not been able to stabilize Africa politically. Initially, it started with 32 leaders of independent’ African states as we knew it, basically to construct a continental instrument for advancing mutual interests. The O.A.U was founded to promote the unity and solidarity of African states. But at the time of its founding, the dominant problem in Africa was the issue of colonialism, apartheid and the subjugation of many African states in different parts of the continent. The O.A.U then set a task and agenda for it, i.e. to free the continent from the shackles of colonialism and racism and ensure that the African People live under freedom and democracy.
Now, the O.A.U which is the umbrella organization that was suppose to spearhead realignment and restructuring process, merely rubber-stamped the existing post-colonial structures and tacitly and implicitly assented to the priority of slavery and colonization in he continent. Apart from a declared ‘intent’ to the pursuit of a programme of ‘reparation’, there was no schedule of constructive action to combat the after-effects of slavery and apartheid.
ADVICE TO AFRICAN LEADERS
The earlier African leaders, particularly those noted for their autocracy, transformed themselves to inspired democrats, the better for everyone. The admonition cannot be well established without dabbling into ethics.
ETHICS
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with human behavior. It is a normative science of human conduct. So, a leader must attach much importance to his conduct in relation to his or her environment. Thus, his conduct is judged and evaluated by human standards known as norms (Normative standards and moral standards in ethical language). According to S.K Ola, ‘everyone lives a personal life but no one lives a life that is entirely personal’. In other words, citizens and the people of Africa need their leaders as much as their leaders need them. Aristotle also had this to say in his days, ‘the happiness of a whole people is a higher end than the happiness of oneself In this case; the issue of the self-centeredness of African leaders has been jeopardizing Africa’s progress. Life is best enjoyed (including Africa’s abundant resources) only when shared in love. Any sit-tight leader is egocentric in nature. PSYCHOLOGY OR MORAL BEHAVIOR (For sit-tight presidents) the word ‘egoism’ (from the Greek word ‘ego’) has a psychological theory known as psychological egoism, which states that man is by nature selfish and self-seeking. He derives fame, wealth, praise, honors, and money in any action he carries out. Also, ‘hedonism’ *from the Greek word ‘heron’) means ‘pleasure’. Hedonism is of two types
Psychological Hedonism: Holds the view that man is by nature a pleasure-seeking animal. Whosoever is found wanting in this regard has all his human actions directed towards the selfish, animalistic search for pleasure. This pleasure is the driving force of such leaders activities. That is why they run the government for the benefit of the few. The exponent of this theory is JEREMIAH BENTHAM. His theory is based on UTILITARIANISM. Experience has shown that pleasure-seeking is not the driving force of all human actions. There are occasions when we carry out certain actions in which we derive no pleasure. After all, man is not entirely selfish, self-seeking, or pleasure seeking as psychological egoism and hedonism would make us believe.
Ethical Hedonism (Aristippus initiative): This theory holds the fact that pleasure is the only value worth desiring for its own sake. Consequently, those actions that produce pleasure are good actions while those actions that produce pain are evil.
Also, Epicures, another exponent of Hedonism did not consider all types of pleasure good, for example, he frowned at sensual pleasure, as a sexual pleasure, gluttony, drunkenness. He preferred long-term pleasure. So, according to him, ethical Hedonism is based on an heronious premise. However, an act of seeking pleasure for others that's praise-worthy and this is called ‘Altruism’. A person may enjoy any pleasure and yet be unhappy. Happiness is closely linked with peace of mind and moral rectitude. Hence, a person who has no peace of mind cannot be happy.
Lessons can also be drawn from logic, which studies the rules of correct reasoning and genuine understanding as well as of nature and ideas. An example of such hindrances is prejudice, which could cause people to fall into errors. To admit the existence of errors in the governance of people implies an existence of moral judgment of good or bad, right or wrong, correct or incorrect.
Rebellions and coups are always the end result of political crisis. Life president’s would-be-life presidents and their sponsors should re-consider and give their ambition of self-succession a second thought for the sake of their fellow citizens who are always at the receiving end. To buttress this point, the total number of people reported killed in African crisis situation in 1982-1991 were 575,160, in 1992 40, 076, and in 2002 44,475 while the ones affected by the disaster were 144,422,612 (1982-1991), 136,953,503 (1992-2001) and 18,377 (2001). In all humility, African autocrats in this new century should control their life presidency appetite. According to W.G Jordan, “man’s greatest enemy is himself. Man at his strength is the creator of circumstances and in his own destiny. It is not the best to tread on the path of failure and then attribute the failure to someone else. N. Nartmann also had this to say: ‘A deed passes beyond the doer, sets his mark upon him and judges him without money’. President Mobutu Seseseko and Samuel Doe are good examples of this. The Africa of 1960’1990’s is different from the Africa of this new century (2000). Life presidents as mentioned earlier will definitely be the target of rebels in future, if care is not taken. As a good leader, do your best and leave the rest for others who have something good to offer and retire as a respected and honorable statesman like President Nelson Mandela.
The old Mandiba spent or sacrificed his youthful and middle age years for the freedom of his fellow Bantos (blacks). He is the only leader in Africa who has a very good reason to establish himself as
South Africa’s life president, but he only spent the first term in office, allowing himself to be succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki.
Finally, African leaders should know that they are the answer to Africa’s crisis by disengaging themselves from foreign elements. The advice the former U.N Secretary-General, Mr. Koffi Anan, at the 2000 A.U summit is a good antidote. Annan had urged the summiteers to review their leadership styles and policies, which he also blamed for the continent’s woes. The new continental Africa Union will remain a mirage unless African leaders heed Annan’s timely counsel.
From Part 2
In addition to this, the chairman of the peace and security committee of the African Union (A.U), Prof. Dipo Kolawole has warned that crisis will persist in African countries until the continent’s leaders adhere to the rule of law and good governance.
Excepts from the foreword written by:
Chief Segun Olusola, mni
Former Nigerian Ambassador to Ethiopia and
member, African Union committee for Refugees.
Founder,
African Refugees Foundation,
October 1, 2004.
All those interested in understanding root causes of the poor state of the African condition with a view to designing appropriate development strategies will be served by this book, which I warmly recommend to society.
Just as the refugees ‘do not drop from the skies’, poverty is not Africa’s natural endowment. But has its root causes, the understanding of which will certainly REVIVE AFRICA.
Excepts from the foreword written by:
Dr. Ogaba Oche,
Director of Research studies,
Nigerian Institute of International Affairs,
Feb.13, 2009.
This state of continental disorder in which the continent finds itself in contemporary times is akin to a deep-seated crisis that has deep historical roots. It is in an attempt to explain the historical and multifaceted character of the African crisis that Jonathan Gbolahan Laniyan has written this work entitled ‘Revive Africa: African Crisis Management’. The roots of the African crisis are explored in a manner that is both deep and exploratory as well as being readily comprehensible.
Finally, the recommendation which is inherent in the book is that in contemporary times, the adoption of early preventive measures will go a long way towards containing and ameliorating circumstances that lead to crises.
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