Introduction: During a celebration of Africa’s favorite son, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, I was a member of a panel at the Uniq FM in Accra assembled to discuss his relevance to contemporary African issues. A professor from the University of Ghana’s Political Science Department was among the panelists. The scholar blamed the current crops of politicians for the continent’s woes. I was of a different opinion. My argument, which I elaborated here, was that our educational system bears more responsibility than any other segment of our society.
Please read, and let us have your comments.
It has become an article of faith in Africa that when things go wrong – they always do – the blame must be laid squarely at politicians’ feet. If hospitals collapse, blame the president. If roads become cratered death traps, blame the governor. If a nation’s economy is in shambles, blame the finance minister. If a country descends into mindless violence, blame the ruling party.
It is as though politicians exist in a vacuum, detached from the very society that produces them. Why do we think our politicians descended from the cosmos and were not part of the society? For the past four decades or so, most of Africa has been practicing what we fancifully call democracy; why, then, do we refuse to blame ourselves for electing thieving reprobates into power?
I know that spending efforts or energy on deep thinking is not our forte, but what if we try to scratch even the surface so that we can see that the problem is far deeper than mere political misrule? What if the rot goes beyond government corridors and extends to the foundation of African society as we have it today?
What if, instead of focusing on political leaders alone, we looked at the other so-called “leaders” in our midst—our spiritual leaders, traditional rulers, educators, and especially our scholars and intellectuals?
What if the root cause of our perpetual dysfunction is an educational system so profoundly broken that it mass-produces citizens incapable of independent thought, asking hard questions, and making sound, rational decisions?
What if, as the Father of Pan-Africanism, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, opined, “We have poisoned ourselves by imbibing too much of what we considered civilization. What if, as Garter G. Woodson dissected, we suffered from “The Miseducation of the Negro?”
Ask yourself: How do people expect their politicians to behave differently from the society that produced them? Is the political class an alien entity that suddenly descended upon Africa, or are they simply the most visible products of an educational system that mass-produces functionally illiterate citizens with every manner of degrees oozing from every orifice of their bodies but yet cannot expend any effort on critical thinking?
My submission is brutal but simple: Africa does not suffer from a political crisis. It suffers from an intellectual one.
The African educational system, built on a colonial foundation designed to train and award certificates to obedient clerks and houseboys, remains unchanged after seven decades of our ostensible independence. It does not produce thinkers, nurture inventors, or encourage innovators. Instead, it breeds human parrots – memorization machines trained to regurgitate outdated theories without comprehension.
We call it “chew and pour” in Ghana.
Unfortunately, our colonial-minded political elite never saw fit to change the curriculum.
• A recent World Bank report found that nearly 90% of schoolchildren in sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and understand a simple sentence by age ten. What future can a continent expect when the majority of its young cannot grasp the written word?
• UNESCO data reveals that over 40% of African university graduates are functionally illiterate—meaning they possess degrees but struggle with critical reading and logical reasoning.
• In Ghana, a study by the National Accreditation Board found that many university graduates lack basic problem-solving skills, forcing employers to retrain them from scratch.
• In Nigeria, despite having the most out-of-school children in the world (over 20 million), the ones inside classrooms fare a little better. Teachers themselves often struggle with basic literacy. University lecturers are on strike for most of the time.
How can we expect political leaders, who are products of this intellectual wasteland, to miraculously become enlightened, competent, and visionary upon taking office?
This is a serious question we have never bothered to ask in Africa.
The problem is not just in the schools; it extends to the intellectual class – the scholars, writers, and opinion leaders who should guide society toward enlightenment.
It is a sad tragedy of Africa that many of her scholars consider the asking of questions tantamount to committing high treason.
• Try questioning the effectiveness of a government policy, and watch as intellectuals either shrink in fear or hurl insults instead of engaging in debate. With their eyes on a juicy appointment by the political leaders, they will engage you in the most headache-inducing academic rigmaroles and turn a simple question into high-philosophy intellectual gymnastics.
• Try challenging the absurdity of certain cultural practices, and be prepared to be excommunicated as a “sellout” or as a “too-know.”
• Try asking religious leaders why their prayers, fasting, and supplications have failed to end poverty or generate sufficient electricity, and see how quickly they brand you a blasphemer and the progenitor of Mr Satan.
The question I asked my co-panelist, which he failed to answer, was: Where can we find serious debates on geopolitics, geoeconomics, or philosophy in Ghana? Where are the intellectuals dissecting China’s rise, the West’s decline, the multipolar world order, BRICS, or the impact of artificial intelligence on Africa’s future?
We cannot find them anywhere; what we get instead are:
• Gutter-snipish pseudo-debates, where so-called educated men and women hurl insults at one another, mistaking verbal abuse for intellectual discourse.
• Superstitious nonsense, where self-proclaimed prophets, pastors, and imams hold more sway than scientists.
• Blind conformity, where any attempt at independent thought is met with ridicule.
See my article, “Academic Debate – Ghana Style,” https://femiakogun.substack.com/p/academic-debate-ghana-style?r=3wwyw
The scholar countered that I cannot blame the academics and scholars when the governments fail to provide them with the tools to do their work correctly. My counterargument was that the original idea for setting up universities was to solve specific society’s problems.
What is the point of having universities with business administration, agriculture, finance, laws, engineering, etc. departments that cannot generate income from their research or consultancy?
I gave the example of the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, which earns top money from its consultancy services to NASA and others.
How can we fail to see that this unwillingness to think outside of the box is why African society remains stagnant? That is why presidential candidates talk thrash and make ridiculous promises, with one of them openly urging “Boot for Boot” mayhem, knowing full well that their audiences cannot engage in critical discourse.
Who is going to rescue Africa when intellectuals think like the hoi poloi?
The crisis extends beyond education and intellectuals; it permeates every facet of our societies in Africa.
Let us talk about the other so-called leaders in our society.
In Africa, most of the Religious Leaders have become irritating, shameless peddlers of delusions. Let’s forget for the moment that, unlike the Chinese, most Africans have abandoned their traditional religions and now pay homage to the gods of their conquerors.
These religious leaders are some of the most influential figures in Africa. They have easy access to the presidents (Let’s not bring Voltaire in here), the governors, the ministers, the senators, etc., but what do they do with this power? Instead of guiding their followers toward enlightenment, they keep them ignorant by promoting insane and utterly stupid doctrines and pretending to perform stupid miracles that would induce vomit in anyone with an IQ higher than amoeba. The shameless charlatans prey on the ignorance of their congregants to make ridiculous pronouncements, which the members take as gospel truths.
• Instead of teaching economic empowerment, they preach “sow a seed” prosperity gospel scams.
• Instead of questioning corrupt governments, they hobnob with politicians, collecting brown envelopes in exchange for silence. Many shamelessly turned into political analysts, often making wrong election predictions.
• Instead of encouraging scientific inquiry, they claim that witchcraft is responsible for economic failure and that the pouring of olive oil on bodies will guarantee commercial or electoral success.
Is it any wonder that nothing works in a land where miracles are seen as substitutes for planning, or why a continent that celebrates charlatans in priestly cassocks more than engineers and scientists fail to register progress?
Africa’s traditional leaders, once bastions of wisdom, have been reduced to mere ceremonial appendages of the state. Instead of standing as moral beacons, many now serve as errand boys for politicians. The once-hallowed institution has been bastardized beyond recognition.
When did a paramount chief or king last take a stand against corruption? When was the last time a traditional ruler led a community in scientific or economic advancement? With many of these traditional leaders now adherents of foreign religions and worshippers of foreign deities, what African tradition do they still purport to be custodians of?
The question we should ask these “traditional” leaders is what goes on in their minds as they wear their expensive togas, weigh themselves down with crowns, beads, amulets, and whatnots, and sit atop their palanquins to receive homage: do their consciences not get pricked as they watch their citizens or subjects wallow in Dickensian poverty?
I know that this will distress a good number of my colleagues, but the sad truth is that the Media in much of Africa has become a marketplace of mediocrity
The media are often referred to as the “watchdogs of democracy,” but today, most practitioners watch nothing but their bank accounts. They have become glorified stenographers who, after collecting their envelopes, become parrots for whoever pays their pipers.
One of the questions I posed on the panel was: If you were made the president of Ghana today, where would you find pungent analyses on global geopolitical or geoeconomic issues in the Ghanaian media landscape?
• Where are the newspapers dissecting how Africa can position itself in the emerging multipolar world?
• Where are the radio stations educating the public on economic policies and their long-term effects?
• Where are the TV programs breaking down the intricacies of international trade, energy policy, or artificial intelligence?
Nowhere! Instead, what does the media in Africa today offer?
• Celebrity gossip, as though the continent’s fate depends on which musician is dating whom.
• Petty political quarrels, where discussions rarely rise above who insulted whom. The press in Nigeria continues to salivate over the saga between the country’s senate president and one of the lady senators.
• Sensationalism because clickbait sells better than substance.
How can an electorate raised in such intellectual poverty be expected to choose wise leaders? How can a society that refuses to ask hard questions expect governance to improve?
Africa’s struggle is not against corrupt politicians alone. It is against intellectual stagnation, spiritual fraudulence, traditional complacency, and media mediocrity.
Why is the simple fact that people who cannot think critically cannot elect wise leaders eluding us? Is it rocket science to know that a society that glorifies ignorance cannot build prosperity? Why is it beyond our comprehension that a continent that confuses shouting and insults for debating cannot move forward?
Our crisis in Africa is more profound than politics. It is a crisis of the mind. We do not set out to absolve our politicians, but we cannot blame politicians for Africa’s woes without asking: What about the educators who failed to teach? What about the intellectuals who were unable to question? What about the religious leaders who were unable to inspire? What about the media that was unable to inform?
And until Africa wakes up to this reality, we shall continue running in circles, blaming the same politicians we produce.
PS: While editing this piece, I read the latest article by one of my GoTo Chinese bloggers, Han Bin. I strongly recommend that you read the latest scientific breakthrough from Chinese engineers: https://open.substack.com/pub/huabinoliver/p/what-is-really-going-to-change-the?r=3wwyw&utm_medium=ios
©️ Fẹ̀mi Akọ̀mọ̀làfẹ̀
(Farmer, Writer, Published Author, Essayist, Polemicist, Satirist, and Social Commentator.)
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