RETHINKING A NEW INDEPENDENCE FOR AFRICA

In as much as we blame the colonial masters, we shouldn't forget to apportion the African leader's own share of the blame. Their egoistic, power hungry attitudes is what had and has driven them to sheepishly remain tied to the aprons of colonists especially France in the hope of maintaining their grip on power. If only these leaders had the interest of their people at heart, they would have from the very onset of independence crafted mechanisms to forster complete independence which should have severed the umbilical cord that bound newly independent states to the imperial masters.
If only they saw their position of power as a means of bringing economic, political, ideological and social freedoms to their people then they should have laid the right foundations for the attainment of such goals from the onset of independence. The shaking nature of the foundations on which our independence was built is the very cause for why we find ourselves where we are today.

This said, most African countries had 'negotiated' independence deals from colonisers especially France, as a result the old saying: "he who pays the piper calls the tunes" become true as seen in the way African  affairs are handled. Consequently, the sorry state of affairs in the continent is testimony of the predatory and incestuous relationship and presence of Western nations in the life of infant African 'democratic' states.
If we are to move forward, we must therefore rethink the grounds on which our independence was acquired. African countries need to go back to the board and chart a new timetable for African independence: an independence that will be whole and complete, an independence that will bring African nations and European nations especially France on the negotiating table as equal partners in this new dispensation of Multiculturalism and Globalisation.
To be continued