I failed to make the deadline for this week’s
column in the Daily Monitor because a public officer decided that his time was far more valuable
than that of the people he is paid to serve. So he kept us waiting a total of
six hours and completely ruined my day. The editor was patient but could not accomodate me beyond 7.00 p.m. and I was still trying to recover all the time I lost standing in a corridor, waiting. There were several other people standing there with me, multiply this by the number of people across the country who were waiting for one public official in one venue or another across the country and you get an idea about how much productivity we lose every day, week, month and year to public officers who abuse their offices by failing to keep time!
To all you public officials, big and small, who waste our time because you think your time is more valuable than ours, I say - #BringBackOurTime
I have posted a modified version of the column that I submitted to the editor at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday 8th May 2014 below.
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For the past few years, it has been
trendy to be an Afro-optimist. Coverage of any bad news coming out of Africa
has been generally condemned as being pessimistic and, essentially, racist. Afro-optimists
complained that most reports about Africa in the global media concentrated on war,
poverty and disease. The Afro-optimists prevailed and so, lately, the
preferred narrative has been about Africa’s promise and how Africa is rising.
News reports have concentrated on the improving social and economic indicators
and Africa’s story has been about roads, bridges, dams, mines, oil wells, pipelines, immunization
and gender. Conferences have been held in Europe and in flashy hotels in capitals across the Continent. I doubt that there is any investor out there who hasn’t heard the
song about the highest and quickest returns on investment being in one of
Africa’s fast growing economies.
I am sure that the WEF in Abuja this week was slated to be another in the many Africa Rising conferences. But reality has crept in and exposed
the naiveté of the single strand narrative. How do we deal with the continued fighting
or instability in Mali, Eastern DRC, Somalia and the Central African Republic? How
do we reckon with the persistent terrorist attacks in Nigeria and Kenya? Then,
as if those problems were not enough, how do we reconcile the calamity of South
Sudan with the Africa Rising narrative? What about the political instability in
Libya and Egypt?
The truth is, whilst things
are not all bad on the Continent, it is highly misleading to say that they
are all good. They simply are not, and anybody who would argue otherwise needs their head checked. How do you reconcile the jolly Africa Rising
narrative with the massive loss of life being caused all over by conflict, poverty and
disease? Would anybody in their right mind say that Europe or America are
booming if as many people were dying from conflict and disease as are dying in
Africa? If Africa is booming despite all the death and suffering around us,
should we conclude that African lives are cheaper or of less significance than
European or American lives?
Speaking of the relative value of
African lives, what better example can there be of the lack of respect for lives
than the reaction of the Nigerian authorities to the recent kidnapping of three
hundred school girls from Chibok, in Northern Nigeria, by the Boko Haram
terrorists? It took the Nigerian President, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, a good three
weeks to bestir himself to say something about the kidnapping of the girls in
public. The public statement only came after social media had goaded the global
media into covering the issue with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. The noise
from social media grew so loud that soon celebrities and international public
figures were talking about the kidnapped Nigerian girls. Only then did the
Nigerian authorities realize that this tragedy had happened to young girls
under their watch and that they had to express some concern as well as do something
about it.
If there had been no global social
media outrage, it is most likely that the story about the missing three hundred
girls would have gone the same way as all stories of the numerous Boko Haram
attacks that have come before. They would have been drowned out by the chorus
about how well Nigeria is doing economically and lifestyle pieces about “Afropolitan”
Nigerians, with cut glass English accents, doing so well in the creative arts.
The trendy social economic development
approach to things has also made it easier to disregard the worth of human beings.
Where else in the world would a Minister of Health attend a glitzy launch of a
report that states that 16 women die every day during childbirth along with 106
new born children under his watch and not only keep his job but also have a
drink and a piece of, what Kalundi Serumaga calls, roast Millennium Development
Goat at the cocktail? Only in Uganda, which is in Africa! Let me say that again, in case you cannot read bold print - in Uganda today, 16 women die everyday whilst giving birth and 106 newborn children die every day of neonatal complications!
But to our leaders and the flippant Africa Rising narrators these are just numbers not real human lives. They can be
waved away by saying that things were much worse in 1986 or that there is a mega hydroelectric
dam, a refinery or a pipeline on the way. Would we think and speak in the same glib way if 16 women
and 106 babies were lined up at Constitutional Square and shot in the head
every day? Do we need pictures of their bloated corpses and coagulated blood get us
to realize that something is still very wrong?
I do not raise these issues to induce a feeling of hopelessness or
depression but to provoke deep thought and to call for perspective. Yes, lots of good things are happening in Africa today but people (yes, flesh and blood human beings like you and I) are still dying needlessy from those things that the Afro-optimists would have us believe no longer exist - war, poverty and disease. We all need to focus very steadfastly on these issues. We need to celebrate what we are doing right but we must also realise that there is still much in the realm of governance and development. And if we can't realise the importance of anything until it is trending on Twitter, then perhaps Michelle Obama could be so kind as to tweet a photograph herself holding
up a placard with the hashtag #BringBackOurPerspective.
