Africans.

Leadership Challenge

Inferiority Complex

Lack of innovation

External Influence (Colonial Mentality)

and lately, Fanaticism.

i hope south africa is not among the africa u people are talkin about because south africa dey try oo

NIGERIA IS....

pendo89: Uuhm did I read this question on L?

Nway Our biggest problem is OURSELVES.

We hate each other
We fight each other
We are tribal,
We are difficult to change
We are too suspicious
We fear risks
We feel inferior
We just don't believe that anything good can come out Africa.

Well am none of the above but am african.

Mother theresa.

clemmonce: i hope south africa is not among the africa u people are talkin about because south africa dey try oo

Most times when we say Africa, we're referring to black Africans and not south-african whites, egyptians, Tunisians etc.

We hate each other, but who made us to hate each other.

@ niyo_zanl

You beat me to it -its Africans for tolerating such poor leadership and doing nothing to help ourselves.

Everything!

[quote author=chrishenzo]After reading the above post, it became clear to me that some people don't understand political influence while some suffer from inferiority complex.

Anybody that understands world politics will know that 50% of Africa problem is caused by some world political influence while the remaining 50% is caused by our leaders who don't understand the meaning of the words "Leader" or ready to die for the sake of saving their country.

Before you start saying anything, check out Syria,


still same wit bad leadership. Leaders dat cannot rise to the deliever thier followers from dz crazy oyinbos. No wonder Fela call dem 'Animal'

Our biggest problem is no free visa to London and America!
No, the biggest problem is that we ARE NOT in Europe and America!
. . . And not forgetting the 2nd biggest problem; No Latino ash.awos on the continent!

Corrupt leaders with selfish interests while the people live in poverty and the nations lacks cooperation. African leaders are the rule and die there type, inconsiderate, pathetic, shame-filled human beings.

lack of coperation which enable the west to see them as second class human being,benefiting from us & yet claimed we benefited much from them.

Leadership Challenge, Inferiority Complex, Lack of Innovation, and lately, Fanaticism.

We are our own problem,the sooner we realize that the better for us.
I will go for lack of cooperation and also add organisation to it

sweetcocoa: All of the above and more as i can't choose just one.

Best reply so far

This is a multifaceted question that gives me sleepless nights; I'm really sure that if we had a certain answer to this particular question we would all be millionaires by now. I cannot state to a certainty that all African nations share the same problems we have in Nigeria; however, there are some similarities to these problems. Here are my own theories:

1. The culture as you rightly stated above is one of the problems. The particular aspect of culture that I believe to a certain extent is a continuous bane to our development is the unquestionable respect we have for elders. While this is an admirable trait among we Africans, there is no doubt that it has resulted in the continuous plundering of the national treasury by the self-acclaimed elder statesmen. These men have never been challenged or held accountable by the youth of this country partly due to this particular trait.

2. I honestly cannot give a logical explanation for this, but I just can't shake the feeling that there is something inherently amiss with the black man. We as Africans pride ourselves on having a strong sense of community as opposed to the Europeans' individuality, yet we have no sense of commonality. Hence the simmering, and sometimes overt ethnocentrism that permeates our country. We have shown time and time again that we have the propensity to harm ourselves and brothers due to selfishness right for the time of the Atlantic slave trade to this current time(look at the current politicians all over sub-Saharan Africa).

3. The effects of colonialism still reverberates in Nigeria, and all around Africa. As much as I believe that we are our own greatest enemies and cause of most of our problems, the 'invisible' hands of the colonial masters cannot be dismissed lightly. We all know the saying that: "He who pays the piper, call the tune"; in the case of Africa, this is very true. We already know that our continent possesses vast resources and all, but we also know that we are in a very weak position against the West and if I might add, China. This weak position has put us in a situation whereby we cannot easily dismiss or go against their(powers that be) vested or potential interests in the continent, otherwise the results of doing so could be more devastating than they already are.

These are a few among many problems we have.

[size=18pt]Corrupt leaders[/size]

Our biggest problem is the Colonial Influence, maybe i need to take us back to this post: https://www.nairaland.com/73798/legendary-harold-smith-speaks-about.
For those who don't agree that our problem is from colonial influence please read the bold part of the story.

The man Harold Smith is not new in Nigerian history. He is one of the architects of colonial foundation that midwife Nigerian independence in 1960.

I met him in a meeting three weeks ago where he opened up a bit about the lingering problem in Africa especially; Nigeria unbalanced protracted social political situations. We asked if he could make this known to the media. His response was “I am in my 80s now; I have agreed but in the past ‘they’ did not want me to say anything, but now I don’t want to go to my grave without telling the truth about the atrocities perpetrated in Africa by the colonialists.


Brothers and sisters; on Ben TV last Thursday, Harold Smith was on a program to reveal what went behind the scene before the independence. The Oxford University graduate had this to say about his role in Nigeria pre and after independence era.


‘Our agenda was to completely exploit Africa. Nigeria was my duty post. When we assessed Nigeria, this was what we found in the southern region; strength, intelligence, determination to succeed, well established history, complex but focused life style, great hope and aspirations… the East is good in business and technology, the west is good in administration and commerce, law and medicine, but it was a pity we planned our agenda to give power “at all cost” to the northerner. They seemed to be submissive and silly of a kind. Our mission was accomplished by destroying the opposition at all fronts. The west led in the fight for the independence, and was punished for asking for freedom. They will not rule Nigeria!


Harold Smith confessed that the Census results were announced before they were counted. Despite seeing vast land with no human but cattle in the north, we still gave the north 55 million instead of 32 Million. This was to be used to maintain their majority votes and future power bid. He stated that the West without Lagos was the most populous in Nigeria at that time but we ignored that. The north was seriously encouraged to go into the military. According to him, they believe that the south may attend western education, but future leaders will always come from military background. Their traditional rulers were to be made influential and super human. The northerners were given accelerated promotions both in the military and civil service to justify their superiority over the south. Everything was to work against the south. We truncated their good plan for their future. “I was very sorry for the A.G; it was a great party too much for African standard. We planned to destroy Awolowo and Azikwe well, the west and the east and sowed a seed of discord among them”. We tricked Azikwe into accepting to be president having known that Balewa will be the main man with power. Awolowo has to go to jail to cripple his genius plans for a greater Nigeria.

However, Harold Smith justified the British agenda of colonialism in Nigeria, which he believed was originally to help build Africa after the ruins of slave trade, but lamented that the British only looked after themselves and not after Nigerian interest. The British really let Nigeria down. When I see Nigerian been accused of fraud and from what I saw on the streets of Lagos; the British were worst fraudsters.

Looking at the northern leaders now he said, “If they have any agenda in Nigeria at all, sadly it is only for the north, and nothing for Nigeria. He stated that the British look after the British people and this is so all over the world. He said the time has come now to see people of intelligent minds with an open and inclusive agenda for all Nigerians in power…people who will really look after Nigerians large population…but ”I still curiously and sorrowfully see now that the British has not let go of Nigeria…her wealth,. her potentials, her future. He opined that the Caucasian people now assert themselves as the keeper of the “New Age” keys. He therefore said that it is only logical for Europeans to maintain their position of power, scientific superiority, economic exploitation, they must continue to perpetuate their lies and falsehoods and this is the most unkindest cut of all in relation to Nigeria situation!

According to him, Nigeria, a great nation was crippled not because of military juntas or corrupt leaders alone but by the British and American fear of Nigeria great future. He confessed, “The fear of the place that will be our ‘dumping ground’ really occupied our minds”.


Some of the things he said were not new to Nigerians or to the whole world but hearing it from the horse’s mouth is quite revealing and established more reality zones. He finally submitted that the colonial masters have caused havoc while they were in Africa, and planted timed bombs when they finally left. What we see since independence, the administration of new internal colonial masters by fellow Nigerians holding sway in power is doing more damage to Nigeria. Instead of detonating the time bombs planted by the British, the north is planting mines.


He added that ‘It was my duty to carry out all of the above and I was loyal to my country. Nigerians should try to be loyal to their country leaders and followers alike. Love your country. You have got the potentials to be great again and the whole world knows this’.

My question is, where do we go from here ? How can we fight against the colonial influence ?

i have seen everyone's post and i can say that u are all correct in your own way,
but ask yourselves, what is the root of the problem,

its just like seeing an AIDS patient whose immuno system is destroyed and a little sickness like cough or malaria is taking him down to look so emanciated, for the basic mind[layman], if u are to ask him/her what the problem is, he might tell you its cough or malaria and that is true in a way because the present ailment is what will deliver the final blow to the person

but for the educated and enlightened mind, u shld know that the genesis and revelation of that person's problem is the destruction of his/her immune system by the HIV virus

this analogy is similar to africa's problem, the biggest visible ailments plaguing the african country are corruption and tribalism

but in reality the true underlying problem is the destruction of africa's age old political and social system which ensured equal representation for every soul no matter your age or class

in summary, a man[africa] was going about his normal business when another bandit[ europe] came and robbed him with his superior weapons, lied to his infant children about their father to make them feel inferior and destroyed the order in his home and till today that man is still recovering naturally

Okija_juju: Being filled with BLACKS. . . No offence.

Your mother is a LovePeddler.... No offence.

Okija_juju: Being filled with BLACKS. . . No offence.

Hw can u say no offence wen u hv auterior motive towards black race. I pray u aint "BLACK" else u'r a disgrace to this race. If u hv nothn 2 offr remain calm wit ur peace.

...4 one to conclude on any of d above listd optn by d OP, one need to weigh d effects of others. To me all of d above contributed to d problems of AFRICA.

A frica's problem is LACK OF GOOD LEADERSHIP! nothing more.

tchaik:

Nice one, but CORRUPTION is still 80 percent of our problems.

I'm sorry but we have to go the CAUSES of the corruption. It's not as if Africans are born corrupt, uniquely from everyone else. There must be a CAUSE of THAT. If you bother to study African pre-colonial history, YOU will find that AFRICANS were known to be the most HONEST and UPRIGHT people in the world. The ancient Greeks called them ''beloved of the gods'', ''the blameless Ethiopians''. Ancient Benin, Ancient Mali - these were states ruled with accountability and probity, which became world renowned states during their time. In 16th century Benin, according to one Dutch account, safety was the order of the day, and if a foreigner lost his belongings, such items were carefully kept with the local chief, until the foreigner or his 'brothers' duly informed, came to claim the goods. In Mali, the kings personally went around on horseback, dispensing justice, or observing same by their lieutenants.

Even today, in traditional settings like villages, you rarely see people stealing. Goats and chicken roam around freely. No one thinks to go and steal them to sell or eat.. It's unheard of. It would bring shame to the family of the thief. In Achebe's Things Fall Apart, After Okonkwo killed (by accident) his neighbour, he was given 24 hours to leave town on 7 year exile, with his family. He was not able to (and did not think to) BRIBE the elders with cowries, cows or yams. He did not say ''I am a big boy. It was an accident. I'm rich. I'm going nowhere''.

NO. Instead, the next day he did EXACTLY as was decreed by the community - EXILE.

So Africans LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES are honest, noble people with high standards of civilization and morality.

What we need to do is SHED THE FOREIGN INFLUENCES ON OUR THOUGHT PROCESSES which render us corrupt when faced with manouvering the world of such influences. Our political system today is IMPORTED. Our religions, IMPORTED, our social mores, IMPORTED. ALL DUE TO THE COLONIAL INFLUENCE.

Until we begin to ABANDON that influence and RETURN to WHO WE ARE, by recognising, valuing and then UPDATING our pre-colonial administrative and ethical systems, we shall continue to flounder, and beat up ourselves for failing to master ANOTHER MAN'S WAY.

Selfishness/greed is our main problem.
That's the root of all these social disorders.

its self gloating, lack of confidence, ignorant, sellout population... and the few who get into government.

Corrupt leaders

Yorubas.

Rossikk:

I'm sorry but we have to go the CAUSES of the corruption. It's not as if Africans are born corrupt, uniquely from everyone else. There must be a CAUSE of THAT. If you bother to study African pre-colonial history, YOU will find that AFRICANS were known to be the most HONEST and UPRIGHT people in the world. The ancient Greeks called them ''beloved of the gods'', ''the blameless Ethiopians''. Ancient Benin, Ancient Mali - these were states ruled with accountability and probity, which became world renowned states during their time. In 16th century Benin, according to one Dutch account, safety was the order of the day, and if a foreigner lost his belongings, such items were carefully kept with the local chief, until the foreigner or his 'brothers' duly informed, came to claim the goods. In Mali, the kings personally went around on horseback, dispensing justice, or observing same by their lieutenants.

Even today, in traditional settings like villages, you rarely see people stealing. Goats and chicken roam around freely. No one thinks to go and steal them to sell or eat.. It's unheard of. It would bring shame to the family of the thief. In Achebe's Things Fall Apart, After Okonkwo killed (by accident) his neighbour, he was given 24 hours to leave town on 7 year exile, with his family. He was not able to (and did not think to) BRIBE the elders with cowries, cows or yams. He did not say ''I am a big boy. It was an accident. I'm rich. I'm going nowhere''.

NO. Instead, the next day he did EXACTLY as was decreed by the community - EXILE.

So Africans LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES are honest, noble people with high standards of civilization and morality.

What we need to do is SHED THE FOREIGN INFLUENCES ON OUR THOUGHT PROCESSES which render us corrupt when faced with manouvering the world of such influences. Our political system today is IMPORTED. Our religions, IMPORTED, our social mores, IMPORTED. ALL DUE TO THE COLONIAL INFLUENCE.

Until we begin to ABANDON that influence and RETURN to WHO WE ARE, by recognising, valuing and then UPDATING our pre-colonial administrative and ethical systems, we shall continue to flounder, and beat up ourselves for failing to master ANOTHER MAN'S WAY.

What you said is the TRUTH but careful analysis and observation has shown me that indoctrinated minds can not be liberated without a form of SHOCK THERAPY. How to go about it becomes entirely another debate.
If you ever raise any objection against western styled democracy you will called names like communist,dictator or outright tyrant.
If you raise any objection on how foreign influence and religions is wiping away our culture hence social order;you will be told your ancestors are primitives,walks around naked and lives in caves so therfore not worthy of emulating.
If you raise objections on Western economic practices they will tell you that the west is richer than your african friends therefore whatever they present(or impose) should be better.
If you raise objections about Foreign interventions in African affairs they wilk start listing how african can't wipe their own ass and would always need the all knowing whiteman to guide her.
Infact majority of african has it programmed into them that nothing africa is good while all that is white is innocent. A nigerian would believe a white guy over his brother any day no matter how bizzare the white dudes point is.
When you try to explain neo-colonialism to them they will just blurt out the "you always blame the whiteman for your problems" cliché.