By JOACHIM BUWEMBO

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Even before this coronavirus outbreak is concluded one way or another, Africans have certainly learnt a thing or two.

We are now sure that some people on other continents do not hold us in very high regard. This is a very good thing. It could be the rude awakening that we needed.

Before we go hankering for acceptance and approval from the rest of the world, we at least have a clearer idea of our starting point in their eyes.

There were many examples that testified to the low opinions and biases held against the African, which must have jolted some Africans working overseas where they seem to be treated with respect.

Covid-19 came with tension and deep opinions harboured by some people.

The most bemusing reactions for many of us was in China, of all places, to Africans who were regarded as high suspects in harbouring the coronavirus.

Africans should be very happy about this, for now they know their place, or more clearly, the place ascribed to them in many minds out there. That should be enough motivation to refocus our efforts and attitudes in whatever we do, and strive to make our so-called independence a reality.

It is not that people on other continents hate us. No! It is our public officials that have created the impression that we are unserious and unreliable. I recall in 2012 I was coordinating a project sensitising and mentoring journalists from many African countries which led me to cross the length and breadth of our great continent.

I helped a journalist write a project plan to create an information portal for political and economic insights on his country. He approached several foreign missions in his capital with the sample and all senior diplomats he met agreed it was great. But a few sincere ones told him that to subscribe to it would cost more money than they usually spend to buy information from senior government officials. 

It could take two or three generations to change that impression if we start working on it right now. For we know that we are not as daft as what our public officials have led the world to think we are. And it is not for making outsiders think better of us, but for us to better utilise our human and natural resources.

It is not for being brainless that we pay twice or thrice than the rich countries for infrastructure projects; it is because we are hostages of criminally minded officials who routinely collude with contractors to fleece us and stunt our economies.

It is not for being mentally retarded that we borrow for projects whose actual implementation cost equals the counter-fund that our governments put down before the external donor ‘gives’ the loan; it is due to the inattentiveness of officials who ‘negotiate’ (of course they negotiate their commissions) on behalf of the African countries.

It is not for genetic inferiority complex that many in our populations wear second hand garments down to undergarments even as we have the best conditions for growing cotton; it is the unpatriotic officials who pursue policies that kill or stunt African textile and garment industries.

It is not out ignorance that we spend billions in whatever currency on public education as individual parents pay millions to private schools because they see no value for money in the schools where their taxes are spent; it is because of big officials who have recruited smaller officials all the way down to the school into their corruption rackets.

It is not a suicidal streak that makes us spend billions on health sectors but fail to stock and equip public hospitals, then spend billions of dollars taking a few patients abroad, selecting the beneficiaries under extremely untransparent criteria; it is some officials who have constituted themselves into illegal medical referrals committees that make the decisions.

It is not that we hate our children that we have sold off the school playgrounds in most African capitals to investors for setting up fuel stations, garages and car washing bays; it is a few of us whose children study abroad that make such decisions.

As Africans we need to stop and reverse this leadership decay if we are to win basic human dignity for our people. And it is not to win the respect of those who despise us; we need to do it to secure the wellbeing of our next generation.

Joachim Buwembo is a Kampala-based journalist. E-mail:[email protected]