THE PROBLEM WITH AFRICA 15

The Hare and the Tortoise are our folklore heroes; characters we celebrated growing us. All the stories our grandparents share with us under the tree by moonlights, in our kindergartens and primary schools during story times have the Hare and the Tortoise as heroes. Characters we should grow up to be like.
To our parents and teachers, it was making us feel nice about the night but these stories were deforming us. For Example, the tortoise will always win a race when it can’t run against the cheetah because of it shrewdness or through tricks do the impossible and at the end of the story, the tortoise would get away with its tricks without repercussions.
One of those in the Rebranding Africa group brought this to my notice and it’s absolutely true.
We celebrate trickery and falsehood in our bedtime stories, and we expect our children to grow to be honest and to work with integrity.
How can our bedtime stories heroes be the tortoise or Hare who always wins by trickery be the idol of the African child whom we desire he wins by honesty and hard-work and the fear of God?
We’ve found ways to trick our ways pass exams these days, exam bodies are so ashamed those whom they certify in our Africa today.
The average African child no longer studies, and he isn’t bothered about his exams because like his bedtime story hero, he has a perfect trick to implement to pass his exams.
Likewise, our politicians in Africa, they don’t care whether to serve faithfully or not, and they are confident of having another tenure because they know the exact trick to play on us to be re-elected.
Our civil servants have ways of tricking the service commission. Someone who hasn’t showed up in office for weeks will suddenly have a perfect attendance records during pay day. Those who are due for retirement suddenly become young. The African national teams are filled with aged players who have evidence to show that they are younger than their real age etc.

If we must become great in Africa, we must have new heroes. Our heroes should win through honesty and diligence and patience and selflessness and the tricksters should become the villain.
We should tell our children stories of young men and women who conquered the world through honesty, diligence, selflessness and the fear of God.

We must change those whom we’ve taught our children to aspire to be like because those who are like them are our problem in Africa. We must give them new heroes.
God bless you
Pst Promise Ikpe
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