Africa Suffering Because We Elect The 'Worst' To Lead Us – Lumumba

[Music] Professor p lumumba is a distinguished scholar and legal luminary holding a doctor of laws in the law of the sea from University of gent Belgium as well as a master of laws and Bachelor of laws from the University of Nairobi he has received honorary doctor of letters degrees from the University of Cape Town of Cape Coast Ghana and a doctor of Science degree from B's University of Technology here in Nigeria with a rich background in human rights humanitarian law and international humanitarian law professor lumumba has served as an advocate in the high courts of

Kenya and tanganika and he's a certified mediator his influence extends beyond the legal realm welcome professor Sol thank you thank you very much thank you you may resume your seats I'm a great opponent of lengthy introductions it let me start by thanking the pastor and his wife and also appreciating those who have spoken before me and those who are present to listen to our presentations without you we would be talking to ourselves there is a sense in which much has been said if it is the history of the continent slavery that has been mentioned if

it is colonization that has been spoken to if it is neoc colonization that has been spoken to if it is in describing the continent of Africa as having been divided so very arbitrarily in Berlin in 1884 and 18 85 that has been spoken too and we have been told so very correctly how that continues to bedevil the continent of Africa and to undermine our attempts at Unity those of you who are students of History will remember that in 1963 in Adis SAA Ethiopia and in 1964 in Cairo Egypt the debate was should we rraw the

boundaries it was agreed by the founding fathers then that that would be an exercise in failing conflict and that if we were moving towards Unity then redrawing boundaries was unnecessary the oou was of course founded in 1963 a we organization which as it were introduced the concept of inviolability of boundaries and placed emphasis on sovereignty we have been told that that could very well be the reason why Africa's growth has been stuned there are those and theism War has told us so very effectively that are upon consultation with the gods he has been told very

useful things and the gods are right in the Revelation that they have made the gods the gods are right in saying that we have suffered in many ways and continue to do so and that therefore the post Independence African country or countries are beveled by many things that could be a reason it has also been said that part of the reason why we have not realized our potential is because we make the wrong choices and that could very well be true and my brother who spoke about choices so very well told us that it all

rests on the choices that you make and you who are uh Christians will remember that at critical moments even in the Christian tradition it has always been a question of choices if you read the book of First Kings at chapter 18 when there is conflict in that little place called Israel Elijah summons them and says choose you now if Bal is God bring the 450 Disciples of Bal and the 400 of Aer who D with Jezebel and if God is God let him be woried his b is B let him be worshiped perhaps that is

the reason why we are where we are we never make the right choices we choose Bal when we should be choosing God there are those who have said possibly and you see this choice if you read the book of Joshua chapter 24 when he calls the Israelites and tells them choose you now do you want to worship the gods whom your ancestors worship before they cross the River or the gods of the amorites in whose land you dwell as for me and my house We Shall Serve the Lord perhaps we are not serving the gods

and that the gods are angry and in the anger they continue to visit pain upon us so there is a sense in which all and many things have been talked about but Africa sometimes judg es ourselves very harshly and with a jist sense of History the post Colonial African State the oldest postcolonial African state is Ghana 66 years only Nigeria 63 years only and we often forget this very important and Immortal words of John Henrik Clark when he said that all African countries upon regaining Independence started to conduct the Affairs on the basis of systems

of governments that were borrowed from Europe and that none of them will ever succeed on the basis of borrowed systems and as if he were a Jewish prophet he is being proven right on a daily basis because whenever we in the African countries think that we have identified the problem and that we have identified the antidote when we apply the antidote new wounds appear that has been the state of Africa and that continues to be a state and therefore when we judge Africa we must ask ourselves from whose lens are we judging Africa when in

1965 theuma wrote the book neocolonialism the last stage of imperialism and the most dangerous he was right and he was overthrown for it because the colonizer left but never left and if you have any doubt see what is happening in n in guina in bukina Faso in Mali they are alive and well and Africa remained the only continent in the world that is still referred to as frankophone anglophone lusophone and now we are beginning to even call it russophone and sinophone and indone there is a sense in which we must never forget this so that

when we are judging Africa we ought to juder on the basis and upon the realization that the headwinds that stand on our path are numerous and that there are there is no shortage of fifth columnists within our ranks the Smo spoke and if the Smo were to speak a little longer longer he would have reminded you of what chinu said in Things Fall Apart that they came and put the things that held us together and we can no longer reason as one and he said we may have sent the white man away but what about

our brothers whose minds they have infected and infested and there is no shortage of them so Africa can and will arise and if you look at the continent of Africa she has always been conscious of the need to do right things and if you look at the continent since 1963 and I can remember this so very vividly I can remember Quam kuruma in 1957 on the 6th of March saying the freedom of Ghana means nothing if the rest of Africa is not free he says the same thing in 1958 he repeats the same thing in

196 in Casablanca Morocco he repeats it again on 25th of May 1963 in Adis sabab Ethiopia where he tells the 32 STS of States gathered there we must live here with one Army we must leave here with one currency we must leave here with one foreign policy coordinated and I even suggest that we can have a capital and I suggest bangi in Central African Republic because it is the more Central but we listen to him not after that of course we have had our Gams under the igis of the oou Africa was able to eliminate

appetite South Africa under the eiges of the oau Africa was able to chase away the Portuguese in Cabo ver in Angola in mosambik in Gina B under the eiges of of the oou Africa was able to chase away the apte regime in what is now Namibia and the Ian Smith regime in what is now Zimbabwe let us not judge ourselves too harshly we have made our mistakes but sometimes it is proper as my sister say that we see half full glass rather than half empty we must not debilitate ourselves by constantly bashing ourselves and looking

at Africa from junest eyes from Europe and America and I'm suggesting to you we have and will continue to make make our mistakes look at Africa and the decision that she has made for ourselves over the years as early as 1980 Africans sitting here in Legos Nigeria came up with the Legos plan of action and the Legos plan of action told Africa in order for Africa to realize our potential itial we must trade amongst ourselves but the neoc colonizer was not resting a little earlier 5 years earlier the neoc colonizers that sat down in L

in Togo not too far from here and came up with an agreement of African and European and Pacific countries and when that did not work they sat again in kotono here in Benin and came up with the coton agreement they are never resting we must never forget that the ne colonialist are alive and well and is always trying to frustrate what we do because Africa is their hunting ground and we did not stop there when we are doing things you tell me what Africa has not tried to do in terms of the airspace we agreed

in yamasu in laivo that we will open our airspaces in 1988 we sat in Abuja here in Nigeria in 2001 one and said we are going to spend not less than 15% of our budget in the health sector we sat in malabo Equatorial G in 2014 and said we are going to focus on agriculture we sat down in maputo in 2013 and said we were going to ensure that our women were mainstreamed in the activities of Africa we sat down in Abuja in 2013 in 2014 and said we were going to have free movement of

people and once again sat down in Kali Randa 2018 and said we are going to eliminate visas we sat down in Abuja and said that we were going to silence the guns in 2013 we did not and we sat down in 20120 and said we were going to silence them and now the guns are alive and well and who are supplying us with the weapons it is not us it is others should we blame them yes we we should should we blame ourselves yes we should so Africa has always been a Battleground and the rhetoric

that we see and the manner in which we ourselves are educated my sister talked about education but really what are we teaching ourselves it is fell Nikola PO he said teacher don't teach me nonsense and I'm suggesting to us that most of us including most of us who are here we are so very thoroughly miseducated that what we must do is to unlearn the burden that we have in our mind those of us who are lawyers when we when do we feel happiest when we site an English authority to determine a land case in in

auta when we talk about the the reasonable man we don't talk about the reasonable man in in a in a Papa we talk about the reasonable man being the man in the Clapham Omnibus in London England that is how miseducated we are and until we are re-educated we who are present here are part of the danger to Africa because even in our unguarded moments I went several years ago to the University at Harvard and to students and one of them said that Harvard was the best school in law in teaching of law I said who

law Nigerian law Ugandan law Zimbabwean law they can only be best in teaching their law not ours and I've seen we we who are in this space of Education somebody spends six years at unilog and when they go to Harvard or Stanford for 3 weeks for a short course where they spend most of the time taking tea he comes back and says an alumni of Harvard so the time is now the time is now to begin re-educating ourselves the time is now to exercise the ghost of low self-esteem you know Africa has many things we

have talked about our mineral resources we've talked about our Arab land we have talked about many things but from where I said the greatest African resource is the human resource you know Africa has been so wronged by other civilization we were the enablers of the first Industrial Revolution ution when our ancestors were taken to work in the farms in Europe we enabled that Revolution right now we are enabling the fourth Industrial Revolution and the fifth Industrial Revolution that is why they have talent visors because they are taking our talent if it is not nursers it

is our it gurus if it is not our it gurus it is our engineers and we are gly letting them away I see our our heads of state saying we have signed a contract to take our workers to Saudi Arabia modern day slavery and you know just this morning my wife sent me a proverb from turkey that when you elect a clown and you think that he will be a king what he does is to convert the kingdom into a suckers and I am suggesting to us that that is part of the African problem because

it starts with political hygiene most of Africa is suffering because we do not have democracies we have kakistocracy and kakistocracy are governments by our very worst this is what we must deal with and this is what we must say who do we elect into our public offices because as I've said before when you allow hyenas to take care of goats why should you be surprised when the goats are e this is the same and Africa is only going to realize the potential in all areas when by Dent of choice we enable and allow our best

men and women to serve in different areas I've heard it being said about Lian u in Singapore I've heard it being suggested about Mah Muhammad in Malaysia I've heard it being said about Japan I've heard it being said about other countries but there was a conscious decision on the part of those individuals and the followership we always talk about leaders but we never talk about the followers the followers must also style up Africans on average are some for some reason attracted to thieves Africans are for some reason attracted to men and women who cannot serve

and when they are not served then they complain when Africans are told Choose You Now whom we shall release Jesus of Nazareth or Barabas they say release Barabas and when Barabas behaves like Barabas they say why are you not behaving like Christ it cannot be done and this is what we must do and I am submitting to us that it can be done and it should be done I know a number of African countries and I travel this continent sufficiently to know that they are African and countries that are doing well they are trying there

is no Nation without trials and tribulation we are fond of talking about the United States of America as an Exemplar of that which is good and bad when they said in 1776 that they held certain truth to be self-evident that all men were born equal that they were endowed by their creator with certain alienable right that among those were are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness were blacks included no they were not did they not fight a civil war yes they did are they not frustrating people until 1963 did George Floyd was he not

killed only recently there is not a single nation without trials and tribulation and we must therefore remind ourselves that we have the wherewith all to catapult Africa into a different orbit and of Tanzania once said we must also Define what development means and he said said development does not mean necessarily the building of skycrapers there is nothing wrong with that but let the Americans go to the Moon we are going to provide water to our villages we must Define what development means and once we Define what development means and we Define ourselves then Africa shall

realize our potential in 1996 tabi talked about an African who is an African who are you define yourself first the Chinese Define themselves the Indonesians Define themselves the Koreans Define themselves we must Define ourselves and begin to believe in our institutions you know and I see it in this part of the world when we want to look at our economy we say what does the what does Moody say and Moody is very moody when they come to Africa moodies can the department of Economics at unilog not do that can they McKenzie and American outfit they

are the ones who come here and tell us how our economy is behaving when the American dollar as much as sneezes the naira goes into a coma what why 63 years after Independence in Nigeria 66 in Ghana 61 in Kenya and many other countries we still believe that somebody else's currency is what must Define us 63 years after Independence we are still importing chicken as if our chicken forgot how to [Applause] leg the time is now for Africa to ask fundamental questions because if you ask the wrong questions you'll get the wrong answers and I'm

suggesting to us that Africa is already asking those questions you know in the year 2013 African heads of states and government sat in Adis sa Ethiopia that was during the chairmanship of South Africa in Kaza and AD lamini Zuma and they decided that we can no longer continue to live in this Mark and mire Africa must know progress and they came up with Africa agenda 2063 my sister spoke to it so very ably and eloquently and passionately what we don't say is that during that week Nan Zuma wrote an apology letter toq Kuma telling quame

we apologize what we are doing now you saw in 1963 A house divided against itself cannot stand now we are living through Africa agenda 2063 we are leing through the sustainable development goals and I'm not a Jewish Prophet nor related to one but I can confirm to you we will not fulfill any one of them you cannot in the nature of things engage the reverse gear and then think you'll reach your destination na you cannot and that is what most African countries have done so the time is now as the cliche goes when you are

in a hole you stop digging and Africa must stop digging and if we stop digging and we look at what we have Africa Continental free trade area says that we are going to trade amongst ourselves in the world Africa trades ourself at best at 20% Europe at about 70% % North America possibly 65% Asia now going to 60% Latin America going to 55% Africa 20% what must we do we must stop certain things that stand in our way conflict look at Africa as I speak to you look at Sudan for the last two months there

is no economic activity in Sudan they are destroying what they once built even if you wanted to trade who do you trade with generating as at now 2.5 million refugees I do not hear the voices of African leaders no their silence is eloquent and when they speak they speak muted in sanitized languages and people are dying children who ought to be vaccinated in Sudan are not getting vaccinated here in your neighborhood in Cameroon children have not gone to school for the last many years conflict in Northern Mali the country is divided de facto into two

in the Democratic Republic of Congo 120 armed groups yet it is the the busiest airspace in the continent of Africa minerals are being taken away to Europe and America Central African Republic the same Libya the same several months ago I wrote to the chair of the African Union and all African heads of states and said convene a meeting with only one agenda item what can we do to save Africa from this slide only four applied that is the state of the continent of Africa we must deal with the basic things we must solve conflict we

must change our governance because if we don't deal with the question of governance we are going nowhere Africa has become a continent where after every election there is conflict because the pursuit of power is the a cutthoat competition where throats are actually cut and when the Smo was here and he consulted the oracles he discovered that we have a problem in that direction and that the sooner we resolve that the safer we will be Africa can rise and Africa will rise but he not going to rise by prayer and fasting we must pray and fast

but it will not happen because the last time I checked even those of you you are believers when Abraham was taken from W of the calans and given Canan it was not on a silver platter he had to fight the Canaanites he had to fight the Philistines that is the nature of divine instruction go ye and subdue the World by the sweat of thy brow the kitchen where they make Mana was closed Mana will no longer come because you must now make your Manner and it is our duty therefore as Africans to begin to rethink

the younger generation you know there is a saying in chicha in Malawi that more precious than our children our children's children so when we are doing these things we must remind ourselves that we are doing for this generation and generations yet to be bor when my good sister was speaking she started in 1969 about the education we were alive then you came to the year 2023 and we are alive but when you came to the year 2077 knowing as we do that we are not Immortal we shall been assumed into heaven some of you who

will be alive you'll be old and possibly stupid and not very useful to anybody this is why we say it is intergenerational so Brethren what we must now do is to ask ourselves then what do we do beyond the rhetoric what do we do and what is beautiful in Africa now not only in the continent of Africa is that there is a consciousness you know I'm in a church setting and sometimes it is good to remind you for those of you who believe and believe rightly even in the Bible sometimes those who are saying the

right things thinks that they are the only one thinking in Silo you remember Elijah going and say but Lord I'm the only one who has not bowed to B he was told no no there are 7,000 others and as I travel across Africa there are 7,000 others to today I've seen many of them today I've had the honor and privilege of listening to many of them one enlightened more than the other one more passionate than the other talking about what we can do and talking about the place of Nigeria in that space times without number

I've talked about Nigeria and reminded Nigerians that the day you become great that is the day Africa becomes great when I hear Nigeria economists and politicians telling me that the GDP of Nigeria is 500 billion United States dollars and that therefore it is the biggest economy in the world I reminded of the words of Yer Kut mus my friend when he says in a debate between dwarfs what is the value of one dwarf saying I'm taller than the other [Music] dwarfs you are still a dwarf this Nigeria this Nigeria is capable in 5 years of

becoming a 3 trillion GDP economy the fundamentals are there the the fundament talk of human resource and I think it is my sister you go to anywhere in the world tell me engineering artificial intelligence space Nigerians the saying goes if you go to any part of the world and you do not find a Nigerian run away from there because there is nothing to be done there it is these Nigerian an who will move the country I keep on reminding my Nigerian friends you say you are 220 million no you are not I suspect you are

300 million and if my suspicion is correct you all this region and this continent the talent you know when people talk about instability in Nigeria I ask them can you handle refugees from Nigeria can you you cannot they'll overwhelm the entire West Africa so it is in African need genuine desire that AF Nigeria remains great and becomes great all the ingredients are there writing in 1983 chinua in his book The Trouble with Nigeria said that it is simply and squarely a problem of leadership that is an African problem and I also want to say it

is also a problem of followership before the ASU started speaking he talked about what is expected of him in the village when you are appointed into a public office in Africa they actually expect you to be a thief and if you don't steal they say you are not wise so in the minds of many people in Africa Abuja and Legos are hunting grounds where they send their sons and daughters to steal to take antelopes which they share in the village that thinking must change because service for Humanity is what we must look at and I

have no doubt in my mind that Africa can do it when I look at Africa and I look at Nigeria I see an Africa that is capable of rising because our sons and daughters now present in the continent and even in the diaspora you go and see the Africans in the diaspora whether they are in Antiga and Baba and my good friend here the ambassador of Antiga and Baba Wallace Williams trinder and Tobago will agree with me in that regard you go to St Vincent and Grenadines you go to Jamaica everybody now wants to come

and invest in Africa but we must make the circumstances right so we must improve our politics we must en make our laws enabling we must improve our agriculture we must improve our Health we must improve our education system we must improve the quality of the environment so that we stop our young men and women dying in the Mediterranean Sea dying off the coast of Dhaka going into modernday slavery in Saudi Arabia in that part of the world it can be done we have seen it done during our lifetime we have seen South Korea do it

we have seen China do it we are seeing India do it we can see Indonesia doing it we have seen Vietnam after the war doing and within the continent of Africa there are other examples we have seen Rwanda Rise Like a Phoenix during our lifetime we have seen Botswana do it we have seen Cabo Verde do it we have seen macius doing it it can be done and if we agree that it can be done what we must now do is to take a solemn vow and that solemn vow must come from these words spoken

by Julius karag on the 6th day of March 1997 in arra GH when he was called upon to be the guest on the 40th anniversary of Ghana's Independence this is what he said and I say this then I shut up and sit down mimu said when quam kuruma told us in 1963 that we ought to unite we agreed with him and we did not for one moment believe that unity in and of it solve will will solve our problems what we believe that Unity will make our voices as Africans to be respected because the rest

of the world is not bothered about our ghanan or our Tanzanian he did not say this but I'm adding but our Nigerian or Ugandan the rest of the world only knows about Africa the time is now our generation fought the colonialist and brought what we thought was independent but they gave us the crown without the jewels but of all the sins that we have committed there is a single sin that we must never commit the sin of giving up the sin of Despair and each one of us must remember that we have a role to

play we have a role to play because if the ocean is to exist the droplets must be good if the forest is to exist the trees must be good Play Your Part and let the results be the testimony of your efforts God bless [Applause] [Music] you