April 10, 2007
CONCLUSION
I
personally do not like anyone tell me what to do. When it comes to social
policy making, I want all of us to put our heads together and discuss what we
are going to do, what is good for us. I am a democrat. My preference for
democratic policy making process notwithstanding, I am acutely aware that if
you want law and order that the forms of government are the best means for
attaining them… Whereas democracy and capitalism are, no doubt, the best forms
of government, especially if freedom is our goal, the fact of the matter is
that a continent like Africa where people are making transition from
preliterate to modern society, there are a lot of disruptions in people’s
lives. People are lost and do not know what to do. They live in a state of
anomie and many are attempted to believe that they can do whatever they want to
do and get away with it.
It
is true that one can steal and get away with it. But suppose all people steal
then what happens? Chaos results.
I
want to transform Africans into a law abiding people; I want to modernize
Africa, to bring her economically to where Europe is. I want to do so in a
generation. I believe that benevolent dictatorship is the quickest means of
attaining my goals.
If
you have better ideas please persuade me with them, I am all ears. In fact, I
would that you have persuasive ideas for, clearly, my position shows loss of
faith in my fellow Africans. It is not exactly good for one to lose faith in
ones people’s ability to do the right thing and come to believe that they need
a dictator to make them do the right thing. This is awful perception of one's
people and one certainly would rather not have such a negative view of one's
people. Nor is this negative view merely ones, many Africans are of the same
opinion.
It
is not the case that one lost faith in one's self and project what one sees in one's
self to other Africans and come to believe that they are not good enough and
are not able to govern themselves. I would like to believe that Africans are
capable of governing themselves.
I
want you to show me how Africans can govern themselves, but do not give me
excuses as to why, so far, they have not been able to govern themselves right.
I do not want to read all the rethreaded neocolonial argument; one read those
in graduate school but one is now disabused by actual relationship with
Africans in positions of power. One has seen how easily corruptible Africans
are.
One
has no need to blame others, particularly white persons, for ones problems; one
takes responsibility for ones problems and just wants to learn how to fix them.
If one points two accusatory fingers at other people three point right back at
one. This means that whereas other people do contribute to ones problems that one's
own contribution is greater than others contribution to it. If you have ideas
on how to fix African problems let us hear about them, but please do not blame
others for Africa’s problems, that is now an old tale and One has no need to
blame others, particularly white persons, for ones problems; one takes
responsibility for ones problems and just wants to learn how to fix them. It is
time that Africans grew up; growing up means taking responsibility for ones
fate.
*This
paper is an exercise in political theory, in philosophizing about what type of
government suits a particular people, at a particular point in time. The
reader, hopefully, is acquainted with political philosophy and is able to think
the subject through. The writer’s thesis is academic and is meant for
intellectual discourse; it should not be taken as a dogmatic assertion of what
is good for Africa and Africans.
Dr
Osuji presented this paper to a live audience.
PERSONAL NOTE: My personal opinion is
forthcoming on Dr. Osuji’s paper of benevolent dictatorship as it relates to
“Guided Democracy For African Countries.”
