THE SPIN BEHIND ICC DECAMPING BY AFRICAN STATES COULD BE THE NEW FRONTIER IN WEALTH ACCUMULATION

Africa’s account for the past the half-century is an anecdote of political unrest. Coup ‘de ’tat’ in the ‘dark continent’ indicate that in an attempt to ‘resolve political differences’ as claimed by perpetrators thousands of lives have been lost. Similarly, elsewhere in the world, historically coups have been used as means to get to power. Unfortunately, Africa seems to be a club house of such thoughts and actions as recently witnessed in Burkina Faso (September 17, 2015) and Burundi (May 13, 2015), as opposed to the 1936 which took place in China (basically 79 years apart).

Despite decades of agreement (by governments) on implementation of development agenda, including Abuja Declaration to improve health outcomes, the MDGs and now SDGs, African states have reported dismal results on sustainability of set goals. The main culprit is continued infighting among the political elite to the detriment of the citizens. More often, these ‘irreconcilable differences’ culminate to full grown wars, setting grounds for creation of war lords and war zones leading to limited trade within the continent. Arguably, one would front the case of ‘a not very well understood administrative system’ handed over by ‘the colonialists’ to a section of the ‘political elite deemed unfit’ to rule by the populace. Likewise, the other side of the coin would be (and this is what I suspect) a puppet system controlled by colonial and new masters with interest to access the resource base in Africa.

Unabated, the debate about Africa’s development continues. There are many who argue that Africa suffers from weak or lack of institutions. Some contend that the continent is constrained by weak or poor leadership. Some argue that policy is the binding constraint to Africa’s development — there is a clear case of policy failures and policy paralysis, hence the development impasse. There are many other issues that literature and public discourse emphasize as factors constraining Africa’s development – that is external influence.

Notably, and using the figurative language of 'another season to accumulate wealth using clean hands,’ the West (America), Middle (France) and East (China) are taking another deep breath to dive into Dark Continent for resource excavations. While the West presents gifts of military improvement through (AFRICOM), the Middle insinuates administrative prowess, and the East lectures on trade. However, the ‘new diving for resources’ cannot be executed in plain field – naturally interests pull teams apart hence forming, and change of guard possibly means change of interest through highest bidder. As a result, thought leadership, thought liberation and critical consciousness should ensure that we robustly address whatever constraints limit Africa’s progress.

The three “instruments” should be pursued concurrently. Thought leadership without critical consciousness is useless. As Kwame Nkuruma (1967) said, thought leadership without a liberated mind is futile. Higher levels of consciousness, based on comprehensive understanding of phenomena, make for a better thought leader. Thought leaders are individuals who can decipher phenomena needing attention and have the capability to think through possible solutions to advance the human condition. Thought leaders must be mentally liberated and psychologically free if they are to make the needed change, hence thought liberation. South Africa, Burundi, Sudan should not champion for Africa Renaissance through decamping from ICC – for when the divers reach the river beds, they will trigger a ‘tsunami.’

Without a protective platform and an ‘oversight hawk’ like the ICC, we are doomed just like Kwame Nkuruma (1967) said with deep meaning, when he talks about “they are not anchored to a steady ideology,” meaning African states (or Africa as a whole) do not have a position and single platform to advocate for their development agenda in the international arena. It all boils down to (i) transitional issues that affected African socio-economic and cultural philosophies, (ii) misdirected investments through neo-colonialism, (iii) failure of Social and Institutional Movements and (iv) lack of a source to voice.