It so sad that in the 21st century ICT age, many ordinary Africans, still face unimaginable hardship daily. Many also have to live with the frightening thought, that they could suddenly become victims of the very system - which according to international conventions - is supposed to protect them.
This unfortunate state of affairs, is a painful fact of life for millions of struggling humanity, across the continent. And very often, many do indeed end up becoming victims of their nation's system - either by being brutalised, or when their luck runs out, get murdered by state security agents.
Perhaps the time has come for Africa's young generation, to start demanding that the African Union (AU), ends its shameful existence as an exclusive and wealthy club, which provides a place of refuge and comfort for cruel and despotic leaders: and is a protector of brutish and murderous regimes.
Who heard a whimper from the AU, whiles thousands were being brutalised and hundreds murdered, in the violent death-throes of repressive regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria (still an off-on work in progress, unfortunately)?
It is shameful that in all those instances, the AU failed to utter even a single word in condemnation of the abominable acts of savagery, visited upon citizens, completely fed up with being enslaved by their own governments, and demanding to be allowed an existence as free individuals: in truly democratic nations.
Pretty much the same was the case, when the eccentric tyrant, Muammar Gaddafi, decided to quell the uprising now threatening his regime's hold on power, by resorting to extreme violence - including the use of military aircraft, incredibly, to bomb his own people.
True to form, we are yet to hear from the AU - which had yet again, failed to express its disquiet and indignation, at the monstrous actions of Gaddafi's ruthless and murderous elite forces. It is not surprising that it has taken joint action by the "international community" to halt the Gaddafi regime's dreadful crimes against humanity. Left to the AU alone, the opposition in Libya would have been wiped out by now, no doubt.
The Libyan opposition's salvation has been the UN Security Council's passage of Resolution 1973 - which authorised the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libyan airspace. And so luckily for the vast majority of ordinary Libyans, today, as we speak, military aircraft, ships and submarines from a coalition of willing nations, are busy degrading Gaddafi's military assets - to ensure that he no longer has the means to enable him to continue the massacre of his own people, and hang on to power - when a majority of ordinary Libyans are clearly tired of him, and want to live as free citizens in a proper democracy.
If ordinary Africans throughout the continent want to ensure that they too can live as free men and women in the land of their birth, and the continental home of their ancestors, in systems that do not brutalise and murder them when they criticise their leaders, they must mobilise young people around the world, to influence global public opinion, in their favour.
They can help create a tide of support for that end, by enlisting the help of their peers, particularly young people in the developed nations of the West, in leveraging social media network platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, to fight to bring about a new era of freedom and true democracy in Africa.
Why should scores of ordinary Ivorian citizens, for example, continue to live in fear of their lives, whiles others unfortunate to be in the wrong places at the most inauspicious of moments, are murdered in cold blood with total impunity by their killers - simply because there is no continental organisation with the moral fibre to bring to bring to book, those callous and narrow-minded politicians who must bear ultimate responsibility for the atrocities being committed daily, by their supporters. It is unfortunate that such people dominate the Ivory Coast's ruling elites - for their foolishness is slowly destroying what once used to be an oasis of stability and relative prosperity in West Africa.
Is it not time that the AU stepped in boldly, and took the steps necessary to ensure the protection of all the citizens of that tragic nation? Surely it is not beyond the AU's capacity to take a number of well thought out measures, designed to eventually remove Gbago from power: beginning with the authorisation of a naval and air blockade, to prevent both sides in the conflict, from acquiring yet more arms?
And should the AU not demand that henceforth, all African states must commit themselves to respecting the fundamental human rights of all the people of Africa, guaranteed by the UN Convention on Human Rights? Would it not be able to redeem its honour, if it became that kind of an international organisation? Question is, will they see the pressing need to change for the better? One certainly hopes so - speaking as a pan-Africanist and an Nkrumaist. A word to the wise...
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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