We need leaders in Africa who are grounded in the Laws of Nature, and who use the principles therein to form all their policies and initiatives. I will give you an example of how the Natural Laws as applied to former heads of state can be used to support further African development.
In Nature, there is never waste. All lifeforms during decay are recycled back into the ecosystem to support new lifeforms. Think about fruits, plants, bodies of animals and insects. The nutrients from their decay are not wasted but recycled into the soil, and reused to strengthen new growths. A continual giving and taking. Such is the Creator’s Will!
Do we follow this Natural Law in Africa for former Heads of State? All the insights of former Heads of State, do we store and recycle them in a structured way so they are used to support new heads of state, governments, and other social forms? Hardly. Once a person is out of office, their insights are hardly used to support new initiatives. In Nature, even poison plants can enrich the soil during decay, so also even the worst heads of state can enrich current African development. But how? To support African development, following the Laws of Nature I would create the following:
Continental Presidential Advisory Council (CPAC).
The CPAC would be a council composed of all former African Heads of State. Their cumulative experiences and insights contain personalized understanding of nuances in their various countries and external influences. The CPAC would be organized and coordinated to provide advisory insights to the policy initiatives of Regional Associations, the AU, Governments, and all other bodies forming legislation and initiatives. The insights from previous experiences strategically used to enrich the soil of new ones. The CPAC would also have branches at the country level.
After a president leaves office, the Secretariat of the CPAC would conduct a comprehensive interview with the former head of state to meticulously document their experiences, challenges, successes, and failures. A thorough analysis for posterity. These analyses, when published, would be championed by the various Ministers of Education and used in academic institutions across the Continent for governance, policy, and leadership education. Comparative analysis would be conducted for the various countries to even see patterns in global geopolitical influences, so that no experience is wasted, but used to support new policies and initiatives for African development.
In Africa, we should seek and follow the Laws of Nature in everything if we wish to nation-build the right way. Everything we form and do must arise from a principle in Nature and be guided by it. In this way, we build a strong foundation to form lasting works that will bring value and continual upliftment to the people.
Do not be distracted by earning degrees, accolades, and prestige here in the West. All these things are merely tools that are meant to serve a higher purpose: Nation-building in Africa. A degree and a profession, no matter how hard-earned, is only a tool, and the value of a tool lies solely in its application to produce lasting value. When you purchase an elaborate tool kit and construction materials with a hammer chiseled from the finest steel, to take pride and classify their acquisition as the achievement is to miss the point.
The decisive question is: What are we using all these materials and tools to build? Destiny presses for an answer.
With all the collective expertise, degrees, and foreign achievements of Africans in the diaspora, I ask: what is the tangible evidence of a corresponding Nation-building back in Africa across all institutions? To be content using all our endowments for a private life abroad so long as we and our personal circle are satisfied, is to narrow the scope of our possibilities and responsibilities. We should set our gaze higher!
We cannot outsource African development to international organizations and governments, no matter how convenient it is. No. Africans must step forward and take the lead in all matters of African development. Must feel personal responsibility in setting the course of the African destiny. Thus, Nation-building is the call of our time.
Will it be easy? No. Will entrenched political interests create severe difficulties? Yes. Will there be failures and setbacks? Yes. But will it be worth it? Yes. Everything worthwhile requires personal sacrifice, and we must be willing to make it. To really make change in Africa, we cannot desire a comfortable life and we must become comfortable with the uncomfortable.
If the specially endowed Africans at home and abroad lack the will, courage, and interest to create a brighter future for the disadvantaged masses, then who will do it? Who is left to struggle for their welfare, to serve their needs, to further their development? Where are the true servants of the people?
To help the African people release their natural abilities, to be productive in indigenous institution and system building, and thereby always be hopeful and happy… is a beautiful goal.
Builders of the African future, refocus your gaze and remember the tools in your hands are not the achievement, but only the means to be applied for a higher purpose. At the crossroads of destiny, the call of our time resounds in one direction: transformative Nation-building in Africa.
May all those who are in earnest come together, pool their expertise and abilities together, work together, and nation-build together.
Today, the word “development” in relation to Africa is so frequently used to justify any endeavor that its essential meaning, and the strict standard of assessment inherit therein, is lost. To obtain clarity about any human activity, we must always first seek to recognize the principles of the Laws of Nature. Only then do we build a firm foundation for conceptual clarity in human activity.
Development in Nature occurs when the basic qualities of a life-form are nourished, unfolded in a continuous growth, and matured to outward form. Inherent characteristics are externally expressed and built-out in logical sequence into a more complex form that manifest the basic essential qualities. When a seed develops into a fruit-bearing tree, the basic qualities of the seed is what is nourished, unfolded into roots, continuously grows into a trunk. In logical sequence branches are built out from the trunk, and fruits are externally expressed as the more complex and final ramification of the seeds qualities.
African development then presupposes that the institutions, systems, programs, endeavors, cultural activities and all facets of human life in Africa…are the products (fruits) of the people’s indigenous characteristics, i.e., the creative expression and continous build-out of the inherent qualities of the people. But this is not so! Most forms in Africa today, whether education, governance, system of justice, etc are adopted. They are not the matured expression of the indigenous qualities of the people.
Thus today, I dare say Africa is window-dressing at best and stagnating at worse. But not really developing in the true concept of the word according to the Natural Law! We are continuing and slight modifying what we inherited, but have not transformed it in our indigenous image. Just like mankind was created in the likeness of the Divine, so also must all social forms and institutions among the different races and peoples on Earth, be created in the image of their inherent qualities!
The transformation of every institution and component of social life into an external image of the indigenous qualities of the African people, is thus the starting point of real development in Africa today.
May the builders of the African future and those who hear and understand this call come together. So that, through harmonious cooperation, we may join hands and lay the foundation stone for real African development.
It is the incubator where the values, mentality, worldview, culture, and self-knowledge of a people are documented, developed and generationally transferred. It is the metallurgic workshop where the base metals of a society’s potential are fashioned into the firmest steel of realized abilities.
Thus, I often reflect and ask myself, “where is the preeminent higher education institution in Africa that is equal in strength to the best in other continents?”
It is my conviction and commitment that a world class higher education institution must arise in the African continent. An institution that pools together the brightest African scholars, academics, researchers, thought-leaders, administrators, officials, philosophers, and practitioners from across the world.
The institution would consolidate, synthesize, develop, and refine original African knowledge across all fields, thereby providing new directions and guidance for the generational progress and development of all societies in the continent. It would produce original thought, research, and developments that would be Africa’s contribution to the world. The cream of the crop in all African societies would go there to receive the educational anointing, thus ensuring that Africa would retain and develop its own talent.
Just like a physical body grows weaker by incessant bleeding, so the body of Africa grows generationally weaker by continually exsanguinating its talent. There is no long-term African development without closing this wound…and this would be one of the objectives of this institution which, appealing to indigenous nostalgia, can be christened “World University of Timbuktu”.
May the builders of the African future assemble to lay the foundation stones for this higher education endeavor, so that it may come to pass.
This is my vision for the future of Africa’s Higher Education.
Those of us aspiring to or already in public service should frequently examine ourselves, to ensure that what drives us is love. A strong burning love for the cause, filled with furthering values. When this burning love comes alive, it will undoubtedly express itself as a strong desire to serve, not take or rule.
Real love for a higher cause begets service to this cause. And to serve is to give one’s whole heart and live in furtherance of that noble cause. In this desire to serve, the welfare of those you wish to advance and support becomes your primary focus, not personal gain.
A person who is cultivating or already lives in this burning love will never be able to hide it, even when they do not use words to express it. Their being, thoughts, and conduct will speak it and bear witness to it. The effect of this on their environment and personal relations will be one of inspiration and strength, because love to serve a higher cause burns in them like an eternal flame.
Such a person cannot regard their work or aspirations as a “profession”, but a calling. A calling to operationalize this higher cause through the service of their duties. To work diligently and earnestly towards its realization, for the benefit of their constituents.
It is against this strict yardstick that we who wish to work or are already in public service in Africa (and beyond), should frequently examine ourselves.
The one who frames the meaning and sets the vision, frames the mind. The one who frames the mind, directs the thoughts. The one who directs the thoughts, guides the actions. And the one who guides the actions, determines the destiny.
For this reason, the first step for Africa’s long-term progress is to redefine everything for itself, and to set its own vision in a way that reflects its own indigenous nature and qualities. Then, through earnest efforts, build out these meanings into processes, policies, institutions, and initiatives…until they become the fabric of society. Only then will Africa be developing, because its societal progress and destiny would be guided by its own indigenous meaning and vision.
Many developmental initiatives today are well-meaning and appear to be bringing progress, but most are simply building out the concepts and ideas imposed on the people during colonialism. They do not encourage the “breaking through” of indigenous intuitions and capabilities, so these become the defining element of initiatives and upbuilding.
Take a simple example: Education. In Africa, have we asked the questions: what is our unique educational philosophy? What values are we trying to cultivate in our people? What type of identity should our education develop? What cultural knowledge should we document, transfer, and develop through our education institutions? And what methods can help us achieve this?
Instead of these questions, you have a plethora of education institutions throughout Africa today. But many were established during or after colonialism, and do not promote genuine indigenous development and progress. Consequently, they do not cultivate a sense of pride, genuine ethnic identity, and indigenous knowledge development. Instead, despite some benefits they give, they mold the mind to idealize foreign people, ideas, and countries. Are we then surprised when people who mature to adulthood in these institutions desire to go abroad? And others who stay in their countries subconsciously regard everything foreign as better.
Is this development or retrogression?
Outward progress should never occur at the expense of self-sufficiency and indigenous development, but should be a marked expression of it. The call for builders of the African future is to help the people bring their unique ethnic qualities and abilities to the fullest blossom in all forms of society. Everything that develops on African soil in the future should express the natural intuitions of the people, and should support the vision and meanings they establish for themselves.
For this reason, all efforts for African development must ensure the fundamental philosophy is African.
The call for pioneers of the new African upbuilding goes forth. May those who are motivated by the desire to truly help and serve the people hear the call and come together. So that, joining hands in humility and fixed determination, we will diligently work to empower and uplift the people. In that way, through a new meaning and vision, a new destiny will develop for the Africa.
It is unquestionable how many highly talented and accomplished African professionals there are today, in all sectors of human activity. However, African collective advancement hinges not on our individual talents, but the ability to organize these individual talents into functioning parts of a collective vision. Hence, I hold that more talented artists (people) are not necessarily Africa’s main need today, but the conductor (core vision) able to organize the artistic play of all individual instruments into a united symphony of long-term structural transformation.
There are many initiatives, programs, and activities happening today which I applaud. However, coherence is often missing. The need is a fundamental vision that embraces, arranges, and consolidates all efforts.
Using a scientific illustration: every life form is a compound; every compound is a collection of elements; every element is a collection of subatomic particles; and within all subatomic particles is invisible magnetic energy holding and forming matter. The warmth, magnetism, and driving power of this fundamental energy is thus what holds and forms material substance together at this subatomic level. Through increased combinations of elements, the energy causes material substance to be further organized into the more complex compounds we can then subsequently see with our physical eyes.
The core magnetic energy within material substance is the equivalent of a “vision” in relation to African progress and development. A fundamental vision should be the driving and guiding force within the subatomic particles of every idea, that combines into the element of every initiative, and finally forms into the complex compounds of collective action!
Therefore, what is the fundamental vision driving and organizing all efforts for African progress and development today?
May those who carry the purpose of visionaries, and all others equally committed to African progress, gather in humility and fixed purpose. For there is much work to be done.
A leader is the plant that grows from the soil of the people. As the composition and condition of the soil determines the nature and quality of the plant, so does the condition of a people determine the quality of the leader that emerges from them. It is a basic principle that, before there is any planting and growth, there must first be tilling of the soil. Consequently, before genuine leadership can emerge, the conditions must first be prepared among the people.
“A leader is the plant that grows from the soil of the people.“
As plants are first within the soil as seeds before they emerge above ground, so are individuals first within the people before they emerge as leaders. And just as the seed extracts nutrients from the ground it uses to grow into a plant, so does a person extract nutrients from the soil of the people that he uses in leadership. Before leaders emerge, they exist within concentric circles of influences within the broader circle of a country. The innermost circle is the nuclear family; the second circle is the community; the third circle is the township within a state; and the outermost circle is the state within a county. The circles are even colored according to the nature of the cultures in question, which express unique concepts and tendencies. These are all layers of influences and characteristics that creates a collective DNA into which a person is deeply embedded, like the soil composition.
However, we must bear in mind the differences in the use of the free will that enables man to overcome any influences, and thus never makes him a victim of circumstances owing to his ability to guide his actions according to his intuitive sensing…if he so desires. Nevertheless, it is the characteristics of this collective DNA to which a person is inwardly connected (and also his free will) that contributes to influence how they grow, and what they eventually express as leaders. Through the leader, the people receive the ripened fruits of their own collective nature. And that is why it holds: a people can only elect their own consciousness. The people fashion the environment that determines the type of leadership they experience, so the leader is a singular reflection of the collective. Thus, if leadership is blamed for all the ills of society without also addressing the heart of the people, you would have more success growing a different species of plant by only cutting the stem, while leaving the root untouched!
Every seasoned teacher has personally experienced how the nature of each class is different, and that the individual qualities of the specific group of students is what mainly determines the collective nature. With a different group of students, the nature of the class also changes! The “nature” of the class, i.e., the group of individuals, creates an “energy-field” the outsider calls “culture” or “class personality”. The culture, being an energy-field of a collective characteristic, fashions an environment in which certain qualities predominate and are reinforced in their expression. The culture here is analogous to the environment the inner qualities of the people creates which enables certain type of leaders and institutions to emerge.
Another example is to consider are a group of people gathered in a restaurant, and who have a marked superficiality. Should an earnest person join their discussion, it follows that the trivial nature of the group will make the presence of the earnest one an irritation or a “bore”, because their energies do not match. The collective nature of the group is the culture their inner qualities create which reinforce and admit others of a similar disposition, but which repels other earnest qualities. The group, now composed of mismatched energies and is no longer “relaxed”, will disband in either two ways: the earnest one leaving, or the others cooling off and finding a reason to depart early. This simple illustration answers the question why certain leaders cannot easily emerge among certain groups of people.
The leader is the crowning reflection of the predominant tendencies within a people; the leader is a mirror into their own collective nature. Even the institutions that come to govern a people through leadership is a physical build-out of their own inner qualities. In Nature, mushrooms are decomposers of the ecosystem that, during spring, sometimes sprout overnight from the ground. So whenever there is decomposing matter in the soil, mushrooms will sprout in that area as a physical reflection of this process. Similarly, the leadership and institutions that “spring up” around a people directly reflect their inner contents, i.e., the qualities in the soil of their souls.
Thus, the leader mirrors the collective qualities of a people, and the people can only elect and be governed by their own consciousness.
As the leader is only a reflection of the collective consciousness, to truly change the trajectory of a country, you must address not just the type of leader but especially the qualities of the people. The root has to be changed that fashions the environment within which the leader germinates as a plant. Each person must look within and start making serious changes there. It is easy to blame one person for all the ills of a society, but this is the convenient action that avoids the personal responsibility of true self-assessment and change. If we look close enough, we will always discover how our collective qualities creates an environment that allows only certain “species” of plants (leaders) to flourish. Seek and ye shall find. Thus, if we seek inwardly enough, we will always find the relationship and see the connections.
Only when individuals become strong enough in their commitment to furthering values will they collectively become a fertilizing agent in their environment. The composition of the soil, thus transformed, will prepare the environment for a new seed to germinate, i.e., for a strong and noble leader to emerge who, as a nourishing plant with rich qualities, will bear fruit and spread blessing among the people. And in the process, the institutions that govern them will also slowly be transformed. Thus, by the people raising the plant of a noble leader on the soil of their own ennobled qualities, the Divine Law is fulfilled: “you reap what you sow”.
The leader is a mirror of the collective qualities of the people.
In the operation of this universal law lies both judgment and fulfillment!
Anyone who has been fortunate to participate in a relay race in track & field will, through personal experience, understand the operation of a great universal principle that applies to nation building in Africa.
Nation Upbuilding 