Rising Africa: A Narrative of Hope. By Chibu Ndubuisi

                                             
                                        Rising Africa: A Narrative of Hope
                                          07/08/2017 By Chibu Ndubuisi

Peace be with you.

In the year 2000, The Economist magazine called Africa "the hopeless continent" hence I am presenting a  narrative of hope about  "Our Rising Africa". The story of Africa is not about hunger,poverty, famine,war,  corruption,  tyranny, dictatorship,  terrorism,  child marriage,  genitial mutiliation, unfavourable inheritance laws for women, advance fee fraud, kidnapping,  ineffectual bureaucracy,  failure of leadership, workers not paid their salaries, sexual offences against children, genocide,  poor infrastructures,  diseases etc.i want to present a narrative of work in progress in African countries and how hope is been given back to people who once had "paradise lost".

In their book, Execution: the Discipline of Getting Things Done(2002), authors Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan highlights that "at the heart of execution lies three core processes, the people, the strategy and the operation process". Individuals have to be trained to handle the job of tomorrow, the strategy towards building "the Africa We Want"  articulated and the operation process of member states galvanising these policy processes at their Regional and National levels.

I want to thank the young men and women in Kenya, who have made their country centre for innovation especially in mobile phone based financial services such as the M-pesa, M-shwari and M-kesho. I equally want to thank those software specialist in Yaba, Lagos Nigeria that attracted Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook to their ICT hub. It is a narrative of hope.

In Tanzania, they have the"the education and Skills for productive jobs programme(ESP) aimed at empowering their youth productively.  In Kenya,  there is the "Digital Literacy programme"(DLP) in primary schools.  In Zanzibar, the have "the Alternative Learning and Skills Development Project financed by the African Development Fund(ADF ) loan. Eygpt and Morocco have the "Mennonite Economic Development Association"(MEDA) in response to the high youth unemployment rates in the two countries. It offers youth invest which is designed for low income youths by supporting them financially. In Nigeria,  in 2016 the Buhari led administration launched the 10 billion naria Youth Entrepreneurship Support(YES). The N-Power is divided in to N-Power teacher corps, N-Power Knowledge and N-Power build.  The African Union in 2010 launched its internship programme called the African Union Youth Volunteer Corps(AUYVC), which seeks to increase employability of young Africans through one year deployment to organisations including the African Union.

In 2006 The African Youth Charter was adopted and three years later, a decision was taken by African Union Assembly to declare 2009-2018 as the Decade of the Youth.

A continental policy framework also exist like the Continental Educational Strategy for Africa(CESA). It is about enabling Technical Vocational Education Training(TVET) to come to the fore. Not forgetting the Science, Technology, Egineering and Mathematics (STEM) type of education to meet the "New Economic Skills for Africa"(NESAP). The Comprehensive Sexuality Education(CSE) is addressing HIV infections,  tennage pregnancy and unsafe abortions.  Countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa,  Ethiopia and Namibia are leading the pack.

On the social movement front, we have the #bringbackourgirls campaign for the rescue of the kidnapped Chibok school girls.  We have the #feesmustfall campaign in South Africa to bring down tuition fees. We have the #nottooyoungytorun campaign to make room for inclusive politics in Nigeria for youths. We have the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project(SERAP) tackling those in power to be more accountable.

We equally have good online trading platforms like Jumia, OLX and Konga leading the pack. We equally have many online platform connecting Africans through Job search and knowledge exchange.  The Opportunities for African website is one, jobberman, Google Digital Skills for Africans etc.

There is equally the African Internet Exchange Systems Project,  which aims to promote keeping of intra African Internet traffic within the continent by supporting the establishment of National Internet Exchange Points(NIXP)  and Regional Internet Exchange Point(RIXP).

We equally have the Pan African University(PAU) established in 2010 as a tool to catalyse a shift in perspective towards decolonizing the "African University" whose curriculum remains leaned towards Euro- America led Perspective.  On E University,  we have the Massive Open Online Courses(MOOC) and South Africa is taking the lead. In Nigeria, we have the National Open University. (NOUN)

On the political front, we can see how former president Jammeh was prevented from violating his country's constitution after he lost the election by wanting to sit tight.  He failed to emulate the examples from Ghana and Nigeria that when the incumbents lost power, they willingly handed over power to the opposition parties.

When it comes to the diaspora we have many Africans leading on a global scale. Dr Teoros Adhanom from Ethiopia is the first Executive Director General of World Health Organisation(WHO). Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was re appointed as the chair of the board of the GAVI the vaccine alliance. We know of the feats of many medical doctors and scientist in the diaspora.

On economic philosophy we have the "Africapitalism philosophy" anchored on economic prosperity and creating social wealth, guided by the values of peace and harmony, parity and Inclusion, place and belongingness and progress and prosperity.

On the military front, there is now a joint collaboration on intelligence sharing on how to combat terrorism and crimes among the various military bodies on a regional and continental basis.  On the immigration front we are now having seamless movement across borders and a move towards a unified e passport system and no visa regimes. On Road Safety issues we have the West Africa Road Safety Organisation(WARSO).

However in some countries like Burkina Faso, Cote i voire, Eygpt, Lesetho, Mali and Niger there are no legal protection for women against domestic violence, but that cant continue ad infinitum.

We are not a hopeless continent.  We are a work in progress. We are not yet there  but we must not shy away from actions that will lead us in the desired direction of progress and wealth. If their stories dehumanises us, we must humanise and empower ourselves through having shared values to work on. If they keep repeating the "SINGLE STORY" of negatives we must continue to keep tailoring and implementing clear, concrete and consistent policies of positives.

Peace be with you.

  Further Reading.
African Union Echo 2017 edition, issue 1

Chibu Ndubuisi is a Peace Building Agent. A Rising Africa Believer: contact. getwithchibu@hotmail.com   blog chibundubuisi@blogspot.com