WHY AFRICA CANNOT WAIT

LECTURE OUTLINE BY:

PROFESSOR PLO-LUMUMBA
LL.D, D.Litt (hc), D.Sc (hc), FCPS (K), FKIM, FAAS (hon)

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AT THE 9TH ANNUAL SIR AHMADU BELLO MEMORIAL

LECTURE ON 18TH FEBRUARY, 2023 AT LAFIA,
NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Theme: “Credible 2023 General Elections As the Panacea To The

Search For Quality Leadership.”

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Saturday the 18th day of February, 2023

Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria.
We have met here today to honor the memory of Ahmadu Bello,
fondly known as the Sardauna of Sokoto. This gathering is
purposely designed to memorialize the now immortalized ideals of
Sir Ahmadu Bello.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should take this action at

this particular time. Today, more than ever, we are called upon to
come to grips with the challenges of our times as we get into a
critical phase in the life of Nigeria and by extension, the life of
Africa.

On the 25th day of February, and the 11th day of March 2023
Nigerians will defy race, color and creed to exercise their right to
vote. It will be a critical litmus test for Nigerians of goodwill who
desire to see a Nigeria that plays its rightful leadership role in the
continent of Africa and the world at large.

At this momentous time, we cannot fail to remember the role

played by Sir Ahmadu Bello and his compatriots in the struggle to
free Nigeria from the manacles of sorrow and want visited upon it
by the diabolical enterprise that colonialism was.

Commentators and historians alike have long said that the

Sardauna was a controversial figure but today let us contextualize
his controversial views. Like many, the Sardauna appreciated that
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all post-colonial African countries were artificial constructs
conceived by the European Colonial powers during the infamous
Berlin Conference between 1884 and 1885. This realization was
necessary if only to warn all that the struggle for unity would not
be for the fainthearted.

Who among you here will not remember that what is today’s Nigeria was
put together by Lugard working for the British Colonists?

Who among you here will not remember that the New Nigeria brought
different nations together?

Who among you here will not remember that the New Nigeria is an
amalgamation of many nations?

Who among you here will not remember that the diverse Nigeria demanded
and still demands careful crafting?

If we all remember these, then Sir Ahmadu Bello’s exhortation for

unity spoken in 1959 regarding Northern Nigeria rings true and
applies with equal force to the whole of Nigeria. The Sardauna
said:

“Here in Northern Nigeria, we have people of many different races,

tribes and religion who are knit together to common history, common
interest and common ideas, the things that unite us are stronger than
the things that divide us.”

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Today, brothers and sisters, as we remember the Sardauna, we
must remind ourselves that the quest to unite Nigeria in her
diversity is our solemn duty and calling. It is like the quest of the
river which seeks to join the ocean; it may have its fears but her
safety lies in becoming part of the ocean. This was masterfully
captured by the great Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran in his
poem Fear:

“It is said that before entering the sea

a river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,

from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.

The river cannot go back.

Nobody can go back.

To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk

of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.”

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Dear brethren, our gathering today must be a clarion call for the
urgency of the moment. We are remembering Sir Ahmadu Bello at
a time when Africa, and indeed the world, is convulsing in many
ways; but let me focus on Africa because she is our home, our
mother and indeed our patrimony.

Throughout the ages, particularly in recent history, our Africa has

been abused and exploited and her sons and daughters have been
dehumanized. History has taught us how our kith and kin were
sold into slavery. History has taught us how the colonial project
was used to exploit us. History has taught us how the neo-colonial
project, which is alive and well, continues to exploit and disable
us. Yet in the face of all these, our quest for that which is good and
right has never died, and must never die.

Through the vicissitudes of time I can still hear the voices of great
Africans calling for our total liberation. I can particularly hear the
words of Ahmadu Bello as he says:

“In our prayers, let us beseech the Almighty God for continued and
peaceful progress, and for the furtherance of prosperity and happiness
of the people of this land.”

In some ways, the Sardauna’s prayers have been answered, but

there is a sense in which many Nigerians and Africans still say that
it could have been better. Brothers and sisters, can we blame God
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for all our misfortunes as we remember the Sardauna’s prayers?
No! We are also co-authors of our misfortunes.

You know, the Sardauna was also a Pan Africanist and his Pan
Africanism was informed by the realization that a divided Africa
could be susceptible to manipulation.

The Sardauna, like the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, recognized

that “the social effects of colonialism are more insidious than the
political and economic…because they go deep into the minds of
the people and therefore take longer to eradicate.” This may very
well be true, but today we must take stock of our circumstances as
we remember the Sardauna. We must ask painful, irritating,
uncomfortable and annoying questions of ourselves. We must ask
these questions because on the eve of independence, we promised
ourselves that we would have better Schools, better Hospitals,
better Roads, better Agriculture, social harmony and political
stability; but permit me to say that we have underachieved.

On a solemn and important occasion such as this, some in the

audience may want me to give a better report but I cannot
manufacture good news. All I ask is that we face the ugly truth
with fortitude and do something for the better. Truth cannot be
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manufactured in the same way that wedding songs must not be
sang at a funeral.

On different occasions, I have said, and permit me to say it again,

that the day Nigeria gets it right, that is the day that Africa will get
it right and that is the day that Africans will be respected across the
world.

Africa has diagnosed her problems and many an antidote has been
prescribed for the many of her maladies. Kindly walk with me
through the journey of the promises Africa has made for herself in
the recent past.

• When Africa realized that her sons and daughters were not trading
among themselves, her leaders, sitting in Lagos here in Nigeria, hatched
the Lagos plan of Action in 1980. The Plan of Action was implemented
halfheartedly.

• When Africa recognized that her sons and daughters could not travel
with ease, her leaders sat in Yamoussoukro in Côte d’Ivoire in 1988 and
made the Yamoussoukro Decision to ease air travel. Since then, most
African Airlines have collapsed and intra-African travel has become more
difficult and more expensive.

• When African leaders recognized that her sons and daughters needed
good Healthcare, her leaders met in Abuja in 2001 and came up with the
Abuja Declaration, where they committed to utilize 15% of their budget
in their Healthcare. This was not and has not been implemented.

• In 2013, the Maputo Declaration took the view that Women must be
given their pride of place but several years since then, beyond tokenism,
Women still play the gooseberry in many of Africa’s affairs.
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• In the same year 2013, in an obvious apology to Kwame Nkrumah, the
African Union adopted ‘Africa Agenda 2063’ as the blueprint for
catapulting the continent into the orbit of Comprehensive and
Sustainable Development. Its implementation continues at the speed of
the snail.

• When Africa realized that she could not feed herself, her leaders
assembled in Malabo in Equatorial Guinea and hatched the Malabo
Declaration of 2014 to improve Agricultural production, but this has
equally been implemented only halfheartedly.

• In the year 2018, African leaders recognized that visas were an

impediment to free movement of persons, and the Addis Ababa Protocol
came into force, but permit me to say that travelling in Africa has become
even more difficult.

• In 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) came into
force to ease intra-Africa trade but the jury is still out on its
performance.

• In the same year 2021, the African Union declared a year of the silencing
of the guns, but guns became even louder as successful coups were carried
out in Chad, Mali, Guinea, Sudan and unease remains in Central African
Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.

• In 2022, the African Union declared a year of Agriculture and Nutrition

but we all know that Africa cannot feed herself.

• This year, the year 2023, has been declared the year of Food Security and
Climate Change, and we wait to see what will happen; but holding all
factors constant, I expect little.

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When I remember the Sardauna, I cannot fail but to remember the
gathering of Heads of state and Government in May 1963, when
thirty-two (32) of them met and the Organization of African Unity
was born. The speech that I remember most vividly is that of
Kwame Nkrumah and how so passionately and with a sense of
urgency he urged his audience to embrace unity in diversity. The
Osagyefo called for one Government, one Army, one Currency;
but we listened to him not, and today our continent remains
dangerously divided and susceptible to external manipulation. It
leaves me wondering therefore what the Sardauna would have
said if he were present with us today. Allow my mind a little
imagination and a little fertility.

He would have asked of Nigeria:

“Dear motherland, you have enjoyed independence for sixty-three (63)

years. Show me your dividends.”

He would have exhorted Africa:

“Improve your Education system, improve your Healthcare system, improve

your Agriculture, harness your Natural Resources, embrace Technology,
provide Leadership for Africa, emphasize the things that unite you, exploit
your diversity.”

He would have said:

“Oh motherland, rise to your deserved heights!”

To the sons and daughters of Africa he would have said:

“Do not labor under the weight of low self-esteem, rise up and create a
safe haven for yourselves, because fortune favors the vigilant.”

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To the Leaders here present he would have repeated the words of
the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad Abubakar and reminded
them that:

“The quality of leadership invariably determines the manner by which a

society conducts its public affairs. A visionary, God-fearing and accountable
leadership produces a purposeful, productive and prosperous society. A
heedless, self-centred and corrupt leadership would necessarily engender a
dis-oriented society which is unable to meet the legitimate expectations of its
people. Societal transformation, regardless of time and place, must begin
with the emergence of a transformational leadership which has the interest
of the society at heart and is able and willing to mobilize the innate and
transformative energies of the peoples to move the society forward.”

Brothers and sisters, as we remember Sir Ahmadu Bello, we must

recognize that we cannot afford the luxury of twiddling our
thumbs and then stop at intellectualization, moralizing and
philosophizing our problems. All of us, and particularly those of us
to whom the honour and privilege of holding the reigns of public
service have been given, must take a solemn vow to eschew
selfishness and parochialism in the quest to regenerate Africa in the
way that the great son of South Africa, Pixley Ka Isaka Seme,
contemplated when he spoke in 1906. I remember him saying so
very eloquently and passionately:

…The African people, although not a strictly homogeneous race, possess a

common fundamental sentiment which is everywhere manifest, crystallizing
itself into one common controlling idea. Conflicts and strife are rapidly
disappearing before the fusing force of this enlightened perception of the true
intertribal relation, which relation should subsist among a people with a
common destiny. Agencies of a social, economic and religious advance tell of
a new spirit which, acting as a leavening ferment, shall raise the anxious and
aspiring mass to the level of their ancient glory. The ancestral greatness, the
unimpaired genius, and the recuperative power of the race, its irrepressibility,

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 which assures its permanence, constitute the African`s greatest source of
inspiration…

Today, as we remember the Sardauna let us make a solemn vow

to rise above the parapet of debilitating and numbing ethnic and
religious divisions.
Let us vow to embrace unity in diversity.

Let us be faithful soldiers in the Army of Moral – Rearmament that

we may exorcise the ghosts of avarice, nepotism, poor leadership
that continue to dance their macabre dance of death to the
detriment of our Society.

Let us embrace merit as the touch stone of our progress.

Brothers, I speak for the Sardauna in whose symbolic presence we

are gathered here today.

Let us honour his memory by our words and deeds.

Thank you.

God Bless!

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