Introduction
The on-going Ebola outbreak or
containment effort in Sierra Leone and Liberia has presented opportunity to
shed light again on various issues and complex problems in parts of Africa.
While the pain of human loss and abandonment of various families in these
countries are recognised, the governments and elites in these countries have
yet to present convincing case that justifies their colossal failure to oversee
accessible health care systems.
It is the case of this article that one of the
reasons for this failure is rooted in the myopic and deliberate machination of
the current governments/elites in Monrovia and Freetown to abuse their powers/privilege
and blame their failures on external forces. By such failures ordinary people
and the commons are condemned to new levels of victimhood usually associated
with spaces of conflicts which both countries are removed from for nearly 2
decades.
Post War Intellectual Fatigue
It is a fact the Liberia and
Sierra Leone suffered brutal civil wars for over a decade respectively. They
both share a border. These are small countries in geographical spread and
population which would have been incentives for easier governance and effective
administration. Singapore is no bigger. What is evident in the post-war climate
of both countries is that lessons of war are not learnt, the reasons for both
wars are not exploited, the patterns of abuse, maladministration and
malfeasance and injustice that triggered the wars continue on a larger scale. See map below.
 |
| Sierra Leone and Liberia |
Rather what the commons in both
countries are condemned with is a peace as continuation of war by other means.
A peace which deprives citizens of basic needs of life, ensuring low quality
and abysmal standard of living, lack of infrastructure, lack of public service
and lack of expectation. Rather the privileged and the elite simply cling to
power as instrument of accumulation and consolidation of position vis-à-vis the
common people. Apparently the binary division of society along power lines is
sustained. Class struggle devoid of Marx!
The so-called elite, government
officials and elected representatives deploy exhaustive pontification of
shallow reasons for underdevelopment, many harking back to colonialism (and
rightly so) but without credible response to today’s problems. Most of them continue to suffocate in the
colonial mentality of always looking North for solutions when North’s interest
remains unchanged; their subjugation.
You’ll not be surprised that leaders of
Sierra Leone and Liberia are mostly trained in the best universities in United
Kingdom and United States. Leadership is obtained in universities. Of course
they received technical education that only charts the course for making huge income
without questioning the structures perpetuating inequality, injustice and
dehumanisation. Will sleep settle on their dead anti-colonial fighters and
anti-imperialism juggernauts?
Ignorance of Geopolitics
The emergence of new geopolitical
players in the scene provides significant opportunities for Liberian and Sierra
Leonean leaders to reappraise their strategies and opportunities. There are
myopic trends in both capitals that seem to exhibit an existential struggle
between the past and future, between capacity and ability and between the
peoples as constituents and foreign interlocutors as constituents. Such existential struggle is given
nourishment by absence of unity, legitimacy and cohesion in both polities.
It is difficult for Monrovia and
Freetown to justify their strategic policies of dependence on Washington DC and
London and the current Ebola outbreak is a best case example. It is reported that Sierra Leonean President is in London begging for funds on the premise that reduction UK of foreign aid is a significant contributor to the outbreak.
If only it is that simply. Nevertheless it justifies my case that problems and
solutions are attributed to external forces.
Why didn’t Monrovia and Freetown
call an emergency session of ECOWAS meeting in the face of Ebola outbreak? Is
it beyond Monrovia and Freetown to engage with the Global South towards her
economic development instead of depending on the North for hand-outs? Is it beyond these capitals to maximise their
largest resources, their human population, toward a strategic and productive
development? In a largely emerging multipolar global economy, these capitals
continue to engage in business as usual; blinded obsession with the North.
Potential Weaponisation of
Ebola
Instead of the foreign
interlocutors to respond aggressively with appropriate resources in a timely
manner, Washington DC and London have among strategies engaged in grand misinformation on the potential airborne transmission of Ebola. Instead of
providing the so-called vaccine if it exists in real time to Liberian and
Sierra Leonean victims, they selectively extract their infected citizens from
both countries for treatment and leave even indigenous specialists to die.
Evidently these highly trained specialist who died in the services of Liberia
and Sierra Leone were let down by Monrovia and Freetown respectively.
Above all almost all the
geopolitical powers are sending their specialist to both countries to collect
blood samples without regulations and may even use unsuspecting Liberians and
Sierra Leoneans are guinea pigs. Of course the sample collecting geopolitical
powers will not invest in building and equipping hospitals in both countries in
the course of these regressive endeavours neither will the leaders insist as
they have confirmed their lower status in the global elite network. They are
potentially interested in enhancing their biological weapon capacities.
If the heavy-duty misinformation by
London and Washington DC about Ebola’s lethal disposition continues, question now
is how this infection will be transmitted on a massive scale. Will the victims
of these countries and other African citizens be made to undergo large scale
preventive vaccination from which the real vaccine will be produced and
suppressed for the right time? Will the commons in Africa be exposed to large
scale foreign funded health aid to be infected and be made ready for sale of
vaccines by the big pharmaceutical firms of the North? See Map below. One must
recall that HIV/AIDS which emerged few decades ago was initially described as a
sexually transmitted infection. In summary this infection devastated most part
of Africa wreaking havoc to communities.
 |
| Potential Paths of Imposed Ebola Outbreak in Africa |
Is it possible that suggest that
Africa is the most sexualised continent in the world? Why didn’t HIV/AIDS wreak
similar havoc in North America and Europe? Why did HIV/AIDS have most of its
victim outside of North America and Europe? Ebola has every potential of
becoming the new HIV/AIDS targeting Africa in order to weaken her further for resource
exploitation alias recolonisation. Even a new pathetic dispute is hashed in the North on the geographical origin on HIV/AIDS. Distraction incorporated! This is a multi-pronged attack which African
elites including Liberians and Sierra Leoneans will dismiss with wave of hands
as conspiracy theory. The marginal
progress of African countries in the last decade following the end of
ideological conflicts is punctuated by renewed conflicts along ‘war on
terrorism’ dimensions, instrumentation and militarisation of governments and
now potential weaponisation of Ebola.
Conclusion
Monrovia and Freetown should wake
up and immediately reconfigure their strategies of leadership strategic
initiatives, recalibrate their geopolitical priorities and advance provision of
public services in their territories. The accommodation of excuses, the charade
of impression devoid of positive action and waste of public resources should
cease. The leaders and elite should form a united front and cohesive structure
towards kick-starting renewed vigour in the economic development of their
countries. Until such actions are instrumented and implemented, lumbering
across Northern capitals with begging bowls will continue as undignifying and
unjustifiable as it.
No comments:
Post a Comment