Is it not the injustice and tyranny that the French, the Russian, the American, the English, the Chinese and many others were subjected to hundreds of years ago that pushed them to the wall and inspired and provoked them to take up arms and unleash some of the most violent and bloodthirsty rebellions and revolutions in the history of humanity?
Read Also: When rebellion is a virtue (Part 1) – By Femi Fani-Kayode
Was this not the right and proper thing for them to do and had it not been for their resistance to such barbarous oppression and subjugation from their erstwhile oppressors and slave masters would they be the free, civilised, great and powerful nations that they are today?
Had it not been for Flt. Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings’ revolution and coup d’etat in 1979 and 1983 respectively would Ghana be the great and stable nation and flourishing democracy that she is today?
Had it not been for Nelson Mandela and the gallant and heroic struggle, resistence and open rebellion of the ANC and its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (meaning “Spear of the Nation”), would South Africa had been rid of white minority rule today, would the cruel and inhuman system of apartheid still not be in place, would the majority black population still not be referred to as “filthy kafirs” and nothing but “hewers of the wood and drawers of the water” and would the Boers still not be in power up until today?
Had it not been for Fidel Castro’s revolution and armed struggle, with the support of great men like Che Guevera, would Cuba have ever been able to break the yoke of the hegemony and tyranny of the United States of America and rid themselves of their corrupt Yankee-loving President Fulgencio Batista?
We must learn from the history of others and not continue to accept injustice simply because we believe that we must keep the peace at the expense of our fundamental liberties, human rights, basic humanity and God-given freedom.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States of America said, “the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism: ownership of Government by an individual, by a group or by any other controlling private power.”
Is this not what we are witnessing in much of Africa today?
Is this not the elephant in the room that few care to admit exists much less talk about on our continent today?
If a so-called leader degrades you to a point of being regarded and treated as nothing but a worthless animal, dashes all your aspirations, controls your essence and very being and takes everything away from you, including your future and that of your loved ones, is it not logical and indeed mandatory for you to rise up in resistence, fight for your rights and, if necessary, break every state-imposed rule in the book in order to restore your God-given self-respect, self-esteem, dignity, freedom and fundamental rights?
Must the cruel will and vainglorious and gluttonous aspirations and desires of the few be imposed on the destiny and future of the many?
Must an entire nation bend the knee to one man and his family in perpetuity?
Were some born to rule whilst others were born to be slaves?
This is the tragedy of Africa and these questions need to be answered.
Can we boast of being a continent where justice reigns and men treat one another in an equitable, humane and just manner?
Why do we as a people glorify injustice and wickedness and why do we so readily accept it?
Do those that deserve to lead ever really get a chance to do so given the sit tight mentality, inexplicable cruelty and lust for power of most African leaders?
What makes it worse is that most of those “leaders” are loyal servants and willing slaves of the Western neo-colonial powers and imperialists who see no wrong in the pain, suffering, hunger, abject poverty, penury, bondage, shame and disgrace that they have thrown the people of their respective nation’s into.
As a matter of fact it is to the advantage of the western powers for such gutless and feckless quislings to remain in power for life simply because it guarantees the fact that Africa will remain servile, docile, impoverished, underdeveloped, weak and totally dependent on their goodwill, accursed aid and wretched loans forever.
This is what much of Africa has been reduced to by their “leaders” with thankfully a few notable exceptions such as the leadership in Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia, Ethiopia, Ghana and a handful of others.
The rest are in the main nothing but cheap and inconsequential peddlers of filth and falsehood, tin pot dictators, hopeless pretenders, clowns and court jesters and propagators of falsehood, rubbish and arrant nonsense.
When confronted and saddled with a such a depressing and uninspiring coterie of destructive leaders is resistance and rebellion not the only way forward?
Is it any wonder that, according to a statement published in the Iranian Government’s website, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, whilst receiving Olivia Rouamba, the Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso, a country which recently experienced her own military coup and armed rebellion “praised the resistance of African countries in the face of colonialism and terrorism and hailed their stance as a sign of vigilance and awakening”.
A vivid illustration and graphic example of the indignity and injustice that the people of Africa have been subjected to is appropriate here.
Consider the fact that just 11 men, namely Paul Kagame of Rwanda (23 years), Paul Biya of Cameroons (42 years), Teodoro Mbasogo of Equitorial Guinea (43 years), Dennis Nguesso of Congo (38 years), Isias Afwerki of Eritrea (30 years), Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (37years), Alhassan Outtara of Ivory Coast (13 years), Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo (38 years), his son Faure Eyadema of Togo (18 years), Omar Bongo of Gabon (42 years) and his son Ali Bongo of Gabon (14 years) collectively ruled different African countries for a total of 347 years!
As my dear friend and brother Femi Adesina, the ersthwhile spokesman to President Muhammadu Buhari, would say: “Jumping Jehoshaphat!”
347 long years of bondage, suffering and trauma!
347 years of torture, incarceration, humiliation, slavery and the glorification and deification of a single man and his family!
347 years of an Orwellian nightmare unleashed and imposed upon millions of innocent, helpless and defenceless people whose dreams, aspirations and hopes were shattered and whose dignity, self-respect and sense of self-worth were crushed and buried.
347 years of pillaging, plundering, looting and stealing of their respective nation’s patrimony.
347 years of slaughtering, butchering and maiming of the few dissenting voices and courageous men and women who had the strength and fortitude to resist the evil and to rise up and say “no more!”
Is this not totally and completely unacceptable?
Is it not utterly repugnant and reprehensible?
Is it not a shame!
Worse still they have all done it in the name of democracy!
I am at a loss for words! I do not know whether to laugh or cry! The only thing I can say is “come and see AFRICA WONDER!”
A few comparisons are appropriate here.
The House of Romanov ruled Russia for 300 years. The House of Bourbon ruled France for 218 years.
The House of Plantagenet, Tudor and Stuart collectively and respectively ruled England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland for 500 years.
The House of Bourbon ruled Spain for 400 years. The House of Osman ruled Turkey for 700 years.
The House of Hohenzollern ruled Germany for 500 years. The House of Pahlavi ruled Iran for 54 years.
The House of Bernadotte ruled Sweden for 200 years. The House of Saud have ruled Saudi Arabia for 123 years.
The House of Alouite has ruled Morocco for the last 400 years.
The House of Orange-Nassau ruled Holland for 208 years.
These families of noble and bona fide Kings and Queens were all blue-blooded and were rooted in an enviable Royal heritage.
They hailed from a Royal lineage and they were indeed Royalty in every true sense of the word believing in the ‘divine right of Kings’.
The same cannot be said of our 11 pitiful and deluded sit-tight African rulers who have collectively ruled their domains for the last 354 years.
None of them can lay claim to blue blood or a royal heritage and lineage. Far from being blue their blood is rather something akin to the blood of rats.
Every single one of these 11 criminals and tyrants are unlettered, irreverent feral psychopaths whose bloodline is not worthy of mention.
Yet the truth is that all those African leaders, including the ones listed above, that have become sit-tight rulers and life-time President’s in their respective nations are NOT democrats: they are nothing but illegitimate pretenders, unhinged and psychotic meglomaniacs and irredeemable, unrepentant and vicious barbarians and power grabbers with no valid mandate.
They are also mostly social deviants and insidious cowards.
Simply put, they are an utter and complete disgrace to Africa.
The sooner they are removed from power the better for us all.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
*Fani-Kayode is a former Aviation Minister