Not long after Africa's the passing on of Africa's luminary Nobel Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai, Africa’s star has not dimmed. Two African women, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and women's rights actvist Leyma Gbowee have won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their contribution to peace. Pedro Verona Pires (Former President of Cape Verde) on the other hand, has bagged this year’s Mo Ibrahim prize for achievement in African leadership.
This recognition is a wake up call to Africa to abandon the victim mentality; learn from others what it takes to succeed and get on its feet. While we congratulate the trio for putting Africa on the international radar, there is growing concern that most Africans who land plum jobs with international institutions; are distinguished academicians and are accorded international accolades, do little in terms of changing the living standards of people in their respective countries. Worse, they are complicit in making their continent parasitic, passive and intellectually bankrupt. The trio ought to guard against this.
We ought to harness the existing international limelight to creatively position Africa globally for our socio-political and economic good. We must also build internal structures that will recognise and reward our true heroes and heroines- those who contribute to productivity and improved living standards in African countries.
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