THE PROBLEM WITH AFRICA 19

The street beggar has become popular; he has virtually begged everyone either for food or money. He is hale and hearty and no one understands why he doesn’t want to take up a decent job. Soon many people start using them for their dirty work.
Those who take drugs would send him to go and pick or drop with their respective clients, some mothers started using him to throw away their dustbin both old and young start using him for their errand; all these for peanuts.
His dignity was abused, his name was no longer respected and those who should respect him made him their errand-boy etc. when any new person in neighborhood sees him for the first time, would accord respect to him until he discovers that he is the street beggar then all those respect would vanish and he/she would join the rest of the neighbors to treat him same way they have been.
One day this street beggar got a friend who noticed this and started encouraging him to stop begging. He gave him money to begin a business which he did and stopped begging for a while then later his business collapsed and he returned to begging.
This beggar represents Africa who thinks he can only survive by begging and has refused to build us her industries. Depending on foreign aid has not helped us in anyway, it has only made us to lose our self-dignity and respect, it has given nations the impetus to deride us and make caricature of us, it has made Africa the dustbin of the world.
Our leaders must stop depending on foreign aid, it will make us lazy and make us not to think critically on how to survive and thrive by ourselves, we’ll be abused and derided for by the nations and countries who dare no speak to us would. Africa has the oldest cities and civilization before other nations who now deride her ever thought of existing
Yes our industries are failing, it’s time we seat back and confront the issues facing us a nation and the only way we’ll do that is to refuse foreign aids.
While we await the government, let’s stop being beggars ourselves. Depending on friends, uncles, parents etc. many in Africa are angry with this person or that person for not helping them. When an Average African meets someone he thinks is richer, the first thing he does is to beg the person even for what he doesn’t need.
Now that average beggar has become the leader of the African state and his is still begging nations even for what he doesn’t need.
If we must grow as African, we must learn to confront our issues and stop begging and depending on foreign aids. It’s time we begin sending aids abroad. That’s how we’ll grow, when we begin to think what to give to the nations, to our friends and to our families and not what we get from them.
Until we start thinking about giving, we won’t grow into the respected nation we desire, we won’t become the race of people the rest of the world would be forced to respect and honor their presence.
God bless you
Pastor Promise Ikpe