Writer: Malek Arol Dhieu
Two days ago, the Obama Presidential Centre was opened in Chicago and was attended by former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Joe Biden. It was such an amazing occasion that raised the eyebrows of every former president, whether in the USA or elsewhere in the world, to open a presidential centre or its equivalent to remain an iconic centre for remembrance and appreciation of the people who helped such a president become who he is today.
A word of appreciation is important, but not as important as a structure for appreciation, because a word may change its meaning as time goes on, but a structure lays a groundwork for a century of innovation.
The Obama Presidential Centre is a museum, library, and conference facility. It also houses the nonprofit Obama Foundation, a foundation whose mission is to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world. While watching the people giving speeches during the opening, jealousy caught me by the collar, with its other hand holding me by the belt as if I were being carried by a policeman to a prison cell.
I was like, why was it not the former president of South Sudan opening a presidential centre in South Sudan? But I shortly realised that South Sudan has no former president. Even the former presidents of the Republic of Sudan are too vulnerable to establish even a youth centre in their respective payams. One has an agricultural farm, but it is a small-scale thing that cannot create job opportunities beyond the level of his family.
People see democracy with short-sightedness. Democracy gives an opportunity to each and every person to lead people, and it also creates an opportunity for people waiting to lead. So, everyone becomes equal, and therefore, they serve not themselves, but the community or country they represent.
Narrowing it to Africa, it is hell to talk about presidents serving and stepping down young and not being wanted by the ICC on criminal or corruption charges. It is as if most of the presidents in Africa agree to dance to the tune “from presidency to the cemetery. Once someone becomes a president, he uses all his strength to rule for life, giving himself no chance to think of innovation and appreciation for the people who made him who he is.
All he gives as payback is war, corruption, tribalism, and dictatorship. Instead of building hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, airstrips/airports, and railways as a token of appreciation to the people who made him president, he builds barracks and prisons.
So, barracks are for community members being routinely recruited to protect him, and prisons are for community members who tell him what you are doing is not good: give democracy a chance. The only innovation is to have a sophisticated army of his own and well-structured prisons. So, if a natural disaster destroys schools and prisons alike, the first to renovate are prisons, not schools.
There are more barracks than schools. There are more army generals than professors. There are more guns than pens. “Divide and rule” sets in, and war becomes the order of the day. War is then used as an excuse to stay in power in the name of bringing peace, paving the way for elections. Peace is preached in the daytime, and war is preached at night, with actions towards war being taken and implemented and those towards peace being unimplemented.
Africa is dominated by leaders who pay back by taking what belongs to other people because their greed for power makes them feel they are more Africans than others. African leaders should learn from Barack Obama and begin to be democratic, appreciative, forgiving, innovative, loving, and charismatic.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth.” The author can be reached at malengaroldit@gmail.com
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