In a sharp rebuke to the West during his inauguration for a second term, Paul Kagame has affirmed that ‘Africans are capable to forge their own destiny’ and ‘need no lessons from the West.’ The Rwandan strongman who is facing mounting criticism for human rights abuses and dictatorship alleges that the West criticizes the ‘good things that Africans do and hold Africans responsible for the bad things they [the West] do.’

The ‘African solutions to African problems’  mantra is always adopted by African leaders when they fall out of favour with the foreign hand that feeds them. It will however remain a mirage unless respective leaders deliberately identify the continent’s core interests and equip their citizenry with the right skills and environment to creatively respond to their surroundings.

President Kagame ought to come out in the open and expose the wrong things the West have done and are blaming Africans for. This will not only enable the continent to hold the West to account and seek redress for their malpractices, but also make Africa wary of foreign onslaughts. It is also imperative that African leaders learn to be accountable to their own people, instead of being accomplices to Western intrigues against the continent as currently exemplified by Libya president Muammar Gaddaffi's clamour for payment from Europe to stem the Africa-Europe immigration.