adminKudzanai Gerede
THE elevation of President Mugabe as chairman of the African Union has sent shivers down the spines of Western usurpers of power who had over the years enjoyed the manipulation of the mild and passive nature of his predecessors.
With Europe’s economic fortunes slowly waning to its nadir as de-industrialisation is taking its toll largely because of depletion of natural resources and the end of colonialism, this has resulted in shrinking of their erstwhile vibrant economies which has prompted the European Union into crafting austerity measures resulting in drastic job cuts, untold suffering and general discontent across the European community and the US constantly reminded of the emerging economic forte of China as a global giant mostly due to its huge presence in Africa, the global economic future is definitely in the hands of mother Africa who remains abundant in resources despite centuries of oppression and robbery.
The West has since realised the need for re-engagement with Africa to source for raw materials for the revival of its moribund industries as the continent continues to discover new mineral and oil deposits.
It is, however, unfortunate that the West is still hanging on to its imperialistic approach in dealing with a now independent Africa and using the “democracy” mantra in desperate attempts to incite instability so that they may enter as mediators in African affairs, looting like they have done in Libya, thanks to the naivety of some African leaders who have not been alive to their agenda.
They have always set the benchmark of what is right or wrong for us.
As he boldly stated: “Africa should be for Africans”, President Mugabe embodies a typical contrast of what the West would clamour for in an African leader.
From the land reform programme at the turn of the new millennium, the indigenisation programme which was meant to give a stake of wealth to the locals and to his public denouncement of western hegemony over the years, President Mugabe’s consistency and audacity towards the West is a cause for concern for the Western powers now that he can influence decision at the helm of AU.
He is on record bemoaning the new crop of leaders Africa has at the present moment which has seriously compromised the values of the founding fathers of independent Africa such as Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah and Samora Machel.
At the turn of the century, American president George W. Bush and Tony Blair, the British premier, took intrinsic steps in propagating their cause when they cunningly chose the so-called “young crop of democratic” African leaders in Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo and South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki whom they would finance in their sub-plot of neutralising African unity by means of divide and rule.
This gave birth to Mbeki’s African Renaissance dream whose veiled thrust was to redefine the values of the African Union in the name of human abuse in Africa and non-existence of democracy.
It is, however, fortunate that through our sagacious leaders such as President Mugabe, the Peer Review Mechanism under the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) managed to secure just a handful of signatories attached to it hence the Western plan of unjust engagement with Africa hit the brick wall.
President Mugabe has fingered Nigeria, South Africa and Niger as culpable for the turmoil Libya is currently faced with having failed to veto the decision to let NATO ambush the late Muammar Gaddafi and watch the West loot oil till this day, a decision Africa itself had the mandate to decide upon and yet remained mum as one of their own fell to Western rage.
It is against this background that Africa needs to go back to its founding values of uniting against imperialism, reflecting upon their gains and support a leader who can stand up unperturbed against this hypocrisy given that Africa continues to discover resources, with diamond fields having been discovered in Zimbabwe a decade ago and today Equatorial Guinea discovering oil reserves the colonialists never discovered.
Online Reporter