Will Obama bring a new approach?

Barack Obama, he of a Kenyan father, yesterday was in Ghana on his first official visit to Africa- south of the Sahara. We recall that he made his maiden visit to Africa by omission when he went to Egypt and addressed the Muslim/Arab world. Though Egypt is in Africa, it is considered part of the Arab world from the geo-political estimates of the United States. So by coming to Ghana he is making his first real visit to Africa. Why Ghana? Many have opined and talked that Ghana represents stability and is a bastion of democratic governance in Africa and that that is why he has chosen Ghana as his first destination. Those Kenyans who expected him to take his first trip to Kenya, the country of his ancestors have expressed disappointment. And he (Obama) was quoted saying that administrators of Africa should style up or something like that. And he must have had Kenya and other African countries’ administrators in mind when he said that his cousin can not get a job in Kenya without paying a bribe. And about his cousin not getting a job without paying a bribe, he was spot on. Now he must realize that there are many young men-angry young men and women in such a predicament. Many educated young men most with university education have been reduced to worthlessness because they can not get jobs. And this is because they can not buy those jobs and others because they are not known to anyone who matters to pull the strings for them. Even as many talk of being self employed and starting their own businesses, many can not get start-up capital and many government institutions across Africa that would help many to start-up businesses are just non-functional or too corrupt to be of any positive use. The question then is where these somewhat knowledgeable, educated unemployed youths channel their restless energies. But before we find out that-where they channel or are going to channel their energies, one thing we need to first understand is do the rulers (there are a few leaders) of most African countries give a damn whether these angry young men have jobs or not. Well some leaders have clearly demonstrated that they care. But a majority of them seem not to give a damn. Without clear mechanisms for getting jobs for many of the youths in many of our countries, then hope for stability-forget development, will never be realized. This becomes the basis of creation of criminal syndicates. All people need dignity in their lives. Sometimes it is a matter of life and death. Somebody goes through school and becomes a proud university graduate, and a few years down the road sees classmates who were not any better than him in school succeeding beyond their own dreams while he can not even afford a decent meal. All because of corruption and other related stuff, and you expect him to just “chill.” With all that kind of frustration, crime becomes more sophisticated as it becomes the last resort for fairly well educated people. In other cases riots are wont to occur. These young men become the vanguard of destabilization. And the administrations in the west that Obama represents have not been of too much help. In most cases they have served to prop up unhelpful rulers in most of the developing world. Why is it that many of the people who participated in Al Qaedas attacks against the west were well educated young men? Almost all of them had university education. It was because in my view they viewed the US as a destabilizing force by its support of many corrupt and unpopular regimes. Whereas it is Africans who have the key to solving their own problems, they also need the goodwill and cooperation of others like Obama’s administration. This cooperation need to be strengthened by way of extending it to non- state actors. This is by way of dealing more with civil society, rather than governments that may in some cases have priorities that are divergent from the aspirations of the people they purport to lead. It is by working directly with people through civil society organizations, that the Obama administration and other agencies that seek to make a contribution to Africa’s development will be able to make a difference. frank2kagabo@yahoo.com