On May 7, the French people elected Emmanuel Macron as their new president. Macron was born on 21 December 1977, which means he is only 39 years old.
France was a major colonial power in the past holding more than half the space of Africa as its possession. Even when those colonies gained independence in the 1960s, France continues to wield huge power and control over 14 French-speaking countries in Africa until today. These countries continue to pay a colonial tax to France until today. Paris also controls the economies and treasuries of these hapless African countries until today.
While that is already a mindboggling reality, the other shameful reality is that Macron was only between 10 and 20 years old when many of these African presidents took office. In fact in the case of Pres. Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, Macron was just two years old when that dictator took power through a coup. Macron was only three years when Mugabe took power in Zimbabwe. Macron was only 10 years when Museveni became president of Uganda, and Macron was only 20 years when Dennis Sassou Nguesso became President of Congo in 1997 for the second time.
Yet that young boy has now grown old enough to become the president of one of the most powerful nations in the world at just 39 years! Meantime these African presidents still serve as presidents in their impoverished and oppressed countries for decades thanks to their corrupt leadership. Here are some of them.
1. Pres. José Eduardo dos Santos, President of Angola (1979–present)
2. Pres. Paul Biya, President of Cameroon (1982–present)
3. Pres. Idriss Déby, President of Chad (1990–present)
4. Pres. Denis Sassou Nguesso, President of the Congo (1997–present)
5. Pres. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea (1979–present)
6. Pres. Isaias Afwerki, President of Eritrea (1991–present)
7. Pres. Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan (1989–present)
8. Pres. Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda (1986–present)
9. Pres. Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe (1980–present)
Yet none of these leaders has any plans to quit office after so many years in power, which has brought nothing to their people other than more poverty, deprivation, oppression and exploitation. Interestingly soon they will all answer to the call of Pres. Emmanuel Macron in Paris to talk about the development of Africa. This is because the first thing each and every new French president does is to call all his African Slave Presidents to answer to him to further cement the control of France over Africa.
The sweetest part this time is that all the African Slave Presidents will now be answering to their son and grandson Emmanuel Macron. They will all pretend to be his children as they pose with him for photos and bow and smile to him as they greet him at the Elysees Palace. They will listen to him keenly to tell them how France will help Africa and what kind of behaviour he expects from them. Yet it is clear that France has never and will never help Africa to develop but will continue to exploit and loot Africa as it has always done since the days before Napoleon Bonaparte!
But the fact that there are so many such presidents in Africa clearly speaks to the very weakness and stagnation of the continent. These leaders have succeeded in nothing other than paralyzing the continent into the wretched of the earth where countries like France or China or US among many others just enter to rape and pillage our people and resources with impunity.
Even those governments in countries we consider to be democracies such as Ghana, Senegal, Botswana, Cape Verde and Mauritius have failed to provide the necessary and strategic leadership that should have transformed those countries into highly developed countries by now after having up to 20 years of consistent democratic stability. By now these countries must have removed most of their populations out of poverty with affordable and efficient social services available to most people, with quality infrastructure in all sectors and vibrant economies.
Sometimes one wonders what goes on in the heads of Africa’s intellectuals and politicians in charge of our institutions of governance and development. One wonders whether we do reflect indeed as human beings to study how the rest of the world is unfolding and acting before our eyes. One wonders whether we do have an idea about where we came from and what experiences we encountered in that history in order to know where we need to go.
How come with such large army of educated people with abundant natural resources and a hard working, law abiding and young population, yet our leaders and governments cannot fully mobilize these huge resources and opportunities to bring about tangible change in our lives after so many decades of independence. Yet one can see how non-Africans easily come into Africa to reap billions of dollars in profit while leaving our teeming masses in poverty and deprivation. It makes one wonder really…!
God Bless Africa.
