It’s time for Africans to sweep our huts clean of dirty politics
By Obang Metho
The African roosters are crowing from the north to the south to the east and to the west as the first rays of dawn’s light are cracking through the darkness hanging over Africa. From all over the continent, Africans are awakening to a new understanding of their God-given rights, their democratic rights and with them, to the desire to rule themselves. No longer are they willing to put up with a legacy of corrupt, greedy and power-hungry dictators, no different from the colonizers, who controlled the continent for years with their evil policies of divide and conquer.
The people of Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Chad, Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda, the Congo—too many places to name, are challenging the status quo of dirty politics and dirty politicians, not with guns, but with their brooms! We are entering a new era and it is time to clean our huts of corrupt leaders who refuse to give up power while robbing and oppressing the people they are supposed to serve! This is the root of our suffering, misery and pain.
Dear Africans, it does not matter our ethnic group, region, country, religion, political group, gender, age, language or culture, it is time to truly choose leaders who follow the rule of law and respect the rights of the people. We must start by sweeping away the ill-smelling garbage they helped to produce—hatred, ethnic divisions, violence, poverty, oppression, injustice, immorality and greed—it is contaminating our continent and if we don’t sweep out the dirt and the rot ourselves, no one else will do it for us!
Part of cleaning up that dirt begins with understanding better how it got there. In other words, we must be careful not to fall in the trap of the corrupt politicians by fighting the wrong fight as they turn the truth upside down just to confuse the public. A good example of this is what happened in the general elections in Zimbabwe on March 11, 2002, in Ethiopia on May 15, 2005, in Uganda on February 23, 2006, in the Congo on July 30, 2006, in Nigeria on April 21, 2007, and now in Kenya since the national election on December 27, 2007.
The truth is that it is not a battle of politicians and their political agendas; it is a battle for real democracy, freedom, justice and peace against corruption of the democratic process. Any peace agreement that does not fearlessly address this key issue will be a cover up of the truth. Yet, in both Ethiopia and Kenya, the incumbents have attempted to convince others that the real problem was with those who protested against their claimed victory rather than with the actual stolen election.
When the protest in Kenya became violent, the incumbent was quick to define it as “ethnically-based protest.” This seemed to best serve to advance the cause of the incumbent who then can blame the opposition for not bringing an end to the violence and humanitarian crisis by simply accepting their loss. If Africans do not understand these manipulations, they may fall into the trap of committing violence against their fellow innocent countrymen—something that has already created deep societal wounds that will take years to heal. Yet, the motivation to create the illusion that the violence is only a power struggle between ethnic groups, vying for power, is simply a diversionary tactic meant to cover up the allegedly fraudulent election so as to undermine totally or at least delay calls for a re-count or re-vote that might lead to a different election outcome.
In a Reuters’ press release on February 16, 2008, Jendayi Frazer, the U. S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs was reported to say that both Kibaki and Odinga “understood they had to find a credible lasting solution to the dispute.” She added, “Any individuals seen as obstructing the effort for a peace process, a power-sharing agreement, the president stated, will be subject to possible further sanctions by the U.S.”
Hopefully, this does not mean peace at any price, such as through a cover-up that focuses on the aftermath of the alleged election fraud rather than on the alleged fraud itself that ignited the unrest. If there was fraud on the part of Kibaki, why should there be power-sharing and how could Kibaki be trusted under those conditions to actually share the power? Would a power-sharing agreement, something which would never be considered in a western country, work in Kenya? Why is the west proposing something like this rather than standing up for a fair election? What would Jendayi Frazer say about Bush sharing power with Gore after the 2000 election dispute in the US?
One of them would certainly have ended up with more power than the other. Instead, democratic enthusiasts should be lobbying for the truth, now popularly called “good governance confronting their so-called allies in the War on Terror, like both Kibaki and Meles, on their failures to hold fair elections and to respect the human rights of their citizens!
Disturbingly, throughout the international media, much of the coverage about what was happening in Kenya focused not on the election irregularities, but on the ethnic dimensions of the violence and ways to re-stabilize the country. There was little voice calling for examination of the root of the problem originating in Kibaki declaring himself a winner before the dispute was settled.
If the emphasis is not on conducting a fair and honest election, what price will Kenyans and other Africans have to pay in the future for choosing a “feeble peace” over the establishment of long-term justice? It is simply another example of sweeping the dirt and rot under the carpet rather than out of the house—it will still smell! If it does not work in the US, the UK, Canada, Europe and other western countries, why should we think it would it work in Africa?
The people chose the ballot box to vote for change rather than the gun. They did everything right, but were cheated out of the fruits of their earnest desire for justice, opportunity, the rule of law, development and human rights. Those who historically benefited from the favors of the incumbent, including those outside the country, largely supported Kibaki’s assertion of winning, despite the evidence to the contrary.
The Kikuyus, Luos, Kalenjins, Luhyias, Kisiis and others should join together and vote for fair elections; thereby refusing to fall victim to an ethnic struggle no matter how much pressure there is to put them in an ethnic box. Kenyans with vision and wisdom must stand together with other Africans in destroying the ethnic manipulations that keep the corrupt in power by using the people against each other! Instead, it is a great insult to freedom-loving Africans who have been cheated out of their votes by a deceitful leader posing in democratic clothes that do not fit his actions!
Please learn from what happened in Ethiopia. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi never was held accountable for the rigged election or for the deaths of the protestors following that election, killed by his own security agents. He remains in power today and he has only proceeded to further suppress any resistance to his falsely won regime. The majority of the people of Ethiopia are deeply suffering.
Look at what God says about it in the Biblical book of Ezekiel when he condemns the “princes” who plot ways to oppress and rob the people of their rights, property, justice and lives.
“There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her…Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey: they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations… The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice. I looked for a man among them who would…stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not destroy it, but I found none.” (Ezekiel 22: 25, 27-30)
People of Africa, we must first see ourselves and others as being equally created in the image of God. We will all face judgment someday and the decisions we make now, may forever influence the outcome. Will you be one of those willing to do the right thing? If we refuse to stand in the gap for what is right, we will see the destruction of not only ourselves, our families and our communities, but we will bring destruction to our countries and to our continent! Yet, if we fear God with all our heart, soul and mind the darkness will lift off of Africa.
It will require that we treat our fellow Africans and all of human kind, especially the vulnerable, as part of us and as someone equally precious to God. If we do, He promises to bless us as seen in Psalm 41: 1 and in Psalm 72: 4. Let us seek such a blessing and deliverance for our continent!
“Blessed is he who has regard for the weak: the LORD delivers him in times of trouble.” “He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy: he will crush the oppressor.”
The darkest part of the night is right before the dawn so expect that those who see the darkness as an opportunity for evil to increasingly resist the people who love the daylight, but the daylight is coming anyway. Therefore, we should not be discouraged but instead, we should press on all the harder by joining together with others who value doing what is right. It is not a time to be timid or to give up.
Even dictators, who many times flourish only because of the support of outsiders, cannot overcome a united people who join together to sing the praises of freedom, justice, equality and love towards each other. As such a groundswell from the people emerges; it will become like the journey of the sun through the day– impossible to alter. The sun is setting on the old Africa of dictators and they know it, yet we too must change! We Africans must come out to the light if we want Africa to come out of the dark! It is not only about our dictators—we too have a responsibility!
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. (I John 1:5-6, 2:9-10)
This means an end to ethnic hatred or discrimination. This means an end to violence and barbaric acts. This means an end to corruption, bribery and false testimony. This means returning to God, promoting respect for the rights and lives of the people He has created. This means we must choose the side of morality, righteousness, compassion, integrity, forgiveness, reconciliation and goodness as we call out for God’s help or He will not be with us and we will be no better than those we are fighting against.
Look at the following passage from Psalm 34: 17 and Psalm 35: 4-5 where God hears the cries of the righteous and those righteous may be the ones we have wounded by our actions. May we be willing for God to change us quickly where we have done wrong!
“The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. May those who seek [our lives] be disgraced and put to shame…May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away…”
The real struggle in Africa is no longer between different power-hungry leaders, but it is between people who want freedom and those who are trying to repress it. It is between morality and immorality and between truth and the lie. With some exceptions, our institutions, like the African Union, have become “social clubs of dictators for life.” They back up each other so that they will not be held responsible for the crimes they have committed to gain and maintain their power and riches. They are a union of the shameless, leaving a trail of blood, horror and immoral actions behind them.
They are unconscious and uncaring about the pain of the child whose limbs have been cut off, the orphan without parents, the screams of the woman who was raped by a gang of soldiers and the widow whose hovel was bull-dozed to make room for the business of the privileged elite who have been favored for supporting the regime. These dictators have abandoned their duties like parents who have come into a union of marriage and given birth to a child they refuse to parent.
Where was their voice when the Rwandan genocide occurred or when the atrocities against young children were occurring in Liberia, Sierra Leone and which are still occurring in Northern Uganda? Where is their voice for those in Darfur, the Congo, Somalia and Ethiopia?
As the African Union accepted Kibaki’s participation in this past months’ summit meeting, protecting him by refusing to put the election dispute and ensuing crisis on the agenda, they showed their refusal to face the hard issues of Africans. Instead the crisis was referred to IGAD, another ineffective organization which is headed by Kenya, which is no different than telling a criminal to investigate his own crime!
This all happened in Addis Ababa where their host, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, is trying desperately to hang on to power after his own stolen election of 2005. Is he going to speak up for the execution of justice when such a thing does not exist anywhere in Ethiopia? Is he going to stand up for the oppressed when his own people are oppressed and terrorized by him? Will he speak out against human rights abuses when in southeastern Ethiopia, in the Ogaden region, and all the way to Mogadishu, Somalia, Ethiopian National Defense Forces are committing widespread crimes against humanity—even carpet-bombing Ethiopian civilians in the Ogaden? Should we expect Mugabe to speak out or Museveni, al Bashir and others in the Union of Dictators? Who will speak for the people of Africa who have been abandoned by those who are supposed to care?
This African Union should be a union that gives life, nurturing, compassion and wise guidance to the continent, but instead it has become a union that promotes the perpetrators of death and destruction to the continent. Those of integrity, courage and moral strength are too few. As long as the major players, including the West, are willing to “look the other way to corruption, human rights abuses and electoral fraud,” it appears that the payoff is worth the risk—look at Ethiopia. However, in Kenya, the results have not gone as smoothly as they have in other African countries, having turned one of the most stable countries in Africa into political turmoil, seriously affecting the Kenyan economy. Unfortunately, many innocent Africans, from all different groups, have suffered for it.
Let us first look at how it played out. On election day, Kenyans did exactly what they were supposed to—they came out in the millions and peacefully voted, standing in line with other Kenyans from every ethnic group and political persuasion to cast their votes, some for President Mwai Kibaki, others for Raila Odinga, the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). At their polling booths, the Kenyan people voted not only for a president, but even more so for democracy. Tragically, the deciding vote against democracy was cast when President Kibaki, according to credible sources, stole the election and defrauded the Kenyan people out of their vote.
Look at the chaos that erupted when Kibaki refused to accept the truthful results of the election. One thousand lives were lost, a tragedy that could have been avoided had he acted with integrity and morality instead of hurriedly being sworn in as president by Mr. Samuel Kivuitu the Chairman of the Kenyan Election commission when both knew the election dispute was unresolved.
Despite being a Kibaki supporter, Mr. Samuel Kivuitu could have refused to support the flawed election, but he instead lied about the results, along with 22 others on the Board. The next few days when Mr. Samuel Kivuitu took back his declaration of Kibaki as winner of the election, stating it was impossible to know the real winner, it was already too late—the chaos had begun.
Even though voters did not follow rigid ethnic lines in voting for Odinga and the ODM, causing them to win in six out of eight of the provinces and the majority of parliamentary seats, it was later falsely defined as a power battle along ethnic lines, between Odinga and Kibaki, rather than a power struggle between a leader who wants to stay in power at any cost and the people, who should have the right to decide.
The West should be affronted by this Kenyan result for in a perverse way the West has now become victim of its own values and rhetoric – freedom and democracy and the right of the people to choose their leaders through the ballot box. Here is the real dilemma for the Western liberal democracies – in the Kenya case which represents blatant electoral fraud – can we allow Kibaki to continue when all know the political class whom he represents will flaunt democracy at every moment in order to remain in power.
How can the West preach democracy and `good governance’ when the people of the most advanced and stable country in East and Central Africa are robbed of their voice? What are we to do now? Support Kibaki, court Kibaki, install of minor sharing of power under the title of `power sharing’, or, more appropriately, disown Kibaki as no true friend of democracy and demand his resignation in favour of Odinga and the ODM. Given that Kibaki was willing to sacrifice his own people in the post-election violence and turn his police on non-Kikuyu protestors, can the West expect him to suddenly acquiesce to `power-sharing’?
As donor countries are placing incentives and expectations on these countries to become democratic, the voting public will be betrayed if election fraud is ignored by those donors who choose a band-aid approach to peace that will not lead to sustainable resolution of the root problem.
Honest and fair elections are the groundwork for a free society and Africans should not ever side with corruption. It is the wrong side and pits like-minded people against each other along ethnic lines instead of bringing them together to stand against injustice. Today’s injustice will tomorrow become one’s own.
Therefore, the desire for a free and democratic Kenya should unify Kikuyus, Luos, Kalenjins, Luhyias, Kisiis and all the other many ethnic groups in Kenya to fight against electoral manipulations or all will lose. This does not mean that they do not have legitimate complaints and disagreements (like land disputes) that must be fairly settled, but these may be all the more difficult to settle after a fraudulent election, especially if a peace-agreement is only superficial and used to further suppress justice, truth and honest democratic expression.
Let us look again at the ethnic tensions that continue to exist in Ethiopia. They are serious enough that the wrong set of circumstances, like another flawed election, could potentially explode into chaos that could exceed that in Kenya. However, the many legitimate complaints that various groups and factions have against one another; should not be approached using violence.
Instead, Ethiopians and Kenyans need to rally behind a consensus to resolve these disagreements fairly and civilly. Yet, in Ethiopia, Meles has been masterful at inciting dissension between groups, a tactic that most certainly will backfire and is now also being used in Kenya. In fact, there are allegations being made that some are stirring up the violence for their own benefit.
Currently, some witnesses have come forward to report that some of the financial elite within Kenyan society, who have a vested interest in ensuring that Kibaki stays in power, have reportedly been bribing “Mungiki” or unemployed youths on the streets to commit violence, even violence directed at innocent members of Kibaki’s own ethnic group, the Kikuyus, in order to exert pressure on Odinga and the ODM to give up their positions by blaming their refusal to accept Kibaki as the winner as the reason for the continued violence. Such subterfuge! However, this tactic is not original—ask Meles!
Let us look how the same thing was done in Ethiopia. The opposition party was blamed for the violence following the rigged election even though a later governmental report was leaked that indicated Meles’ security agents were responsible. The Opposition Party, under pressure from outsiders, agreed not to protest, but later were thrown in prison for twenty months. The movement lost its momentum. Meles is still in power and has only become more and more repressive due to his fear of being overthrown.
Most all sources of communication in the country are blocked. For instance, because the radio, TV and newspapers are all controlled by the government, because many Internet sites are blocked and because spies are all over, Meles has effectively created a wall of silence around Ethiopia. Many Ethiopians have no idea what is going on in Kenya and Meles obviously would like to keep it that way.
As long as ethnic groups are divided, Meles is stronger, but Ethiopians are starting to see through this, including many Tigrayans from his own ethnic group who do not support him. The soil of Ethiopia is stained with the blood of its citizens due to immoral leaders who are willing to sacrifice their own people. Do not let this happen in Kenya!
Certainly some are always willing to commit violence against their fellow countrymen and women, but just like there are criminals in every society, the majority should not condone it. However, when it is supported by those in power, the people of Ethiopia, Kenya and others should be outraged and stand against it in a joint effort of diverse, but united people who value life and liberty.
When Kenyans first began their protest, it was governed by the Kenyan values, conscience and the constitution. It was peaceful and respectful until the police shot live bullets and sprayed water canyons at the people. Now, a thousand or more Kenyans have been killed and 500,000 others displaced.
Africans and others in the world are closely watching what happens in Kenya. What happens there will have an effect in other places on the continent. Freedom and democracy must be the winner. Humanity over ethnicity must win. We must unite against the dictators who have united themselves against us. Mr. Kibaki can go to the school of other dictators who will support them and instruct them in the fine nuances of maintaining control.
Mr. Kibaki can learn from the likes of Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Museveni of Uganda, Kabila of the Congo, Al Bashir of Sudan, Isayas of Eritrea, Deba of Chad, along with many others. They will be tutored on the fine details of how to subvert democracy, how to silence the opposition, how to divert attention by instigating ethnic conflict and humanitarian crises while at the same time, reaping the financial benefits. However, these dictators will never stop the light that is bringing Africans to see each other as fellow Africans.
The signs are everywhere that the roosters of Africa are crowing. They are crowing for a new day for Africans where we will look upwards to God, our Creator, the provider of that light who cares about the oppressed and the harassed. He cares for our neighbors like He cares for us. As we can have perfect trust that the light of dawn and will bring a new day, we can have faith that a humble people who look to God, will never be disappointed. As we do, we will see our African-ness more than our ethnicity and our humanity more than our African-ness.
This is a fight for a new Africa by new Africans. The old Africans are like old seeds you put in the ground that never rises from the ground to produce any crop. It is the old Africans that makes Africa to be known as a dark continent, full of misery, pain, death, bloodshed and sorrow. These old Africans are not like our African forefathers who invest their wisdom, love and strength in guiding and helping the next generation. Instead they are those who want to devour the young as they might rise up to challenge them. They have failed Africa and have created institutions of nothingness. This is the reason why the first places African leaders go to when they are in need, is the west rather than to African institutions where corruption is upheld too often.
This past week, a doctor from Toronto, Canada, was charged for stealing kidneys from unwilling victims in India. He tricked them by first promising jobs, then secretly sedating them. In a private operating room in the back of his home, he then proceeded to remove one of their kidneys in order to sell it to someone needing one. After the forced donor awakened from the surgery, he was threatened that if he told, he would be killed.
Is this any different from the danger that is lurking in the dark corners on our continent? We have been seduced by the promises of those among us who only talk the words of democracy, justice and freedom, but who have no heart for the people. They get us to go along with them, but then use that power to exploit us—removing our lives, souls, resources and the future of our children.
If we complain, our lives our threatened or ended. As long as we are silent, the evil system continues, preying on new victims. But, the roosters are crowing and waking up Africans to this deception. We must start talking about it and unifying against it as one force and now it is up to all Kenyans to make sure they do not fall for this deception in their own country!
By supporting the outcome of a stolen election, the people of Kenya, from every group, are supporting continued corruption—and giving up far more than they realize. It is not about which leader they supported, it is about protecting the establishment of justice!
As we write this article, we are not choosing Odinga over Kibaki or Kibaki over Odinga—that is for the Kenyan people to decide. That is exactly the major point! Nothing less should be tolerated any longer in Kenya or in any other country in Africa. Africa does not need sham democracies and anyone who pressures Africans to accept such false substitutes is not a friend of Africa and instead is trying to keep us in the darkness while “our organs” are being removed!
Now is the time for this new Africans to connect with each other, putting the entire puzzle together for the first time. Those who are seeing the light in Ethiopia must be connected to those seeing the light in Kenya. Those seeing the light in Zimbabwe must be connected to those seeing the light in Chad, Nigeria, Uganda, Somalia—the list goes on. This cannot be accomplished by organizations consumed and controlled by tribal loyalties which blind them to the humanity of others.
Africa must move away from the politicization of ethnicity. Celebrate the ethnic and cultural mosaic of Africa but at the same time create an `a – ethnic’ or non-ethnic politics. Africans must surrender their ethnic clothes when they move into the political arena and assume positions of power. It is time for a Movement for a New Africa, one shorn of ethnic chauvinism in the world of politics.
Unless this happens then political leaders will play one ethnic group off against another for political advantage parallel to the past colonial practice of `divide and rule’ and the current neo-colonial practice of foreign intervention in ethically-based strife; mounting the war on terror; and, driving for control over valued resources. Africans have been divided for too long and separated from their common heritage by artificial boundaries and the ethnic and regional and religious divides. Africa must re-discover its soul and celebrate its African-ness. The soil of African continues to be stained by the blood of its sons and daughters all in the name of mindless ethnic power struggles. A politics of collaboration and consensus must be re-asserted drawing on African tradition within the local community.
In Ethiopia, we are convinced that what must happen is to create a Movement for a New Ethiopia which includes everyone. The strategic goal of this Movement is to reclaim Ethiopia from its tyrannical rulers and their associates. Our path is about life enhancement for all not matter their ethnic identity for in the end we are all Ethiopians and Africans. We are not pursuing State sovereignty here but rather people sovereignty, to set our people free from oppressive rule.
Those who want to create ethnic conflicts and issues want us to remain backwards so we put our heads down while they rob us of our natural resources as well as our lives. These are the politics of colonization and enslavement. Part of what must be done is to stop the exploitation of not only the natural resources, but of the precious people of Africa. This will only happen when we see ourselves and our neighbors as God’s children, beautifully made and full of purpose and potential.
This is the only way to prevent us from being thrown into cages to fight and kill each other like dogs or roosters, while we hardly utter a complaint. These power-hungry leaders are out to kill the brightest and most compassionate among us so they can continue the economic colonization of the continent.
We Africans must resist by coming together within our countries and within our continent. It should be done in Zimbabwe before the election next month and in Ethiopia and Uganda before their elections. Africans have been divided for too long. We have put up with this political game that is destroying us from within. We can prosper together, knowing that we are a continent with some of the greatest and richest of natural resources, including ourselves, despite having the poorest of opportunities for our people.
We must change the way we think and it will require a spiritual transformation with God at the center! If Europe, who used to fight and kill each other, can live with the same money and can travel between twenty-four countries on that continent without a checkpoint, this can be done in Africa, but only if we begin to think differently. We must refuse to be by-standers while the continent is engulfed in flames!
Africans who see this must start connecting with one another in making this dream of living peacefully with others come true. It can be done! It will not be easy because there will be some who do not want it because they make money off of our lives, but if we believe in God and seek Him and if we respect and love one another, it is more than possible! God can provide a new path through the jungles, savannahs, deserts and over the mountains where none yet exists!
This can be the starting point from where Africans begin connecting with each other, giving life to the continent, constructing a new Africa, through the power of God that will include all people regardless of differences. It is up to us Africans to start the journey with God at every side.
Right now we, as well as these African dictators, know that the sun is setting on them. Their power is like a piece of hanging pottery, held up only by an unraveling cord, but yet holding the heavy offenses they have committed against the people of Africa. Soon the weight of those offenses will become too much for that cord that has been holding their power up for years and it will snap. When the fragile pottery crashes into many, unusable pieces, everybody will see how weak they really are.
This is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern. In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it…. Yet, the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him! (Isaiah 30:12-15, 18).
Change is possible individually and collectively. The Chairman of the Kenyan Election commission Mr. Samuel Kivuitu was part of the deceit that made Kibaki the winner of the election, unleashing violence and chaos in the country; yet, something changed in him overnight and he admitted his wrongdoing.
Mr. Samuel Kivuitu had done his job well in 2002, but had failed this time. Perhaps his God-given conscience convicted him, giving him the courage to correct what he had done the previous day—we do not know, but we do know that as people we can make mistakes and those mistakes can have consequences for others, but that should not stop us from later admitting our failures and changing our ways.
Imagine what would happen if Kibaki or others would admit theirs—like King Nebuchadnezzar was warned in a dream to do? Confused by the dream, the prophet Daniel interpreted it for him, telling him that until he acknowledged that “the Most High God was sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes” that he would literally go crazy. Daniel advised him not to boast of his power and instead to:
“Renounce your sins by doing what is right and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.” (Daniel 4:27)
At first he refused, but later heeded the warning. May our African dictators change their ways for the good of the people and because some day they also will be held accountable before God! However, regardless of what they do, we Africans have such a great resource in a gracious and merciful God, who will show us the way to walk in humility, love, compassion, integrity and morality.
Let us pray that through the “bread of affliction” and through the “water of adversity,” that we Africans have gone through, that we will discover a way out of our legacy of pain, misery and suffering that will change the direction of Africa for future generations to come! May God provide light to the path we must walk together!
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For information, please contact: Mr. Obang Metho, E-mail: [email protected]