The Dumber You Are; The More We Support You!

by Eze Eluchie

A close study of the relationship between the characters that have been opportune to rule over sub-Sahara Africa States and some non-African powers will reveal a startling reality: the less intellectually endowed rulers have clearly received more support from the 'international community' than rulers perceived to be intellectually savvy or patriotic to their countries of origin.

Until the ‘misstep’ of the threatened mass deportation of persons of Indian ancestry from Uganda, one of the most vicious, dumbass, ignorant and senile rulers who any country has ever had the misfortune to be governed by, who also happened to be an acclaimed cannibal, ‘field marshall’ Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, had a most cordial, near fraternal relationship with the erstwhile colonial masters of his country, the United Kingdom, and by extension, the ‘international community’.

In a similar vein, a kleptocrat-per-excellence, butcher of his population and sadistic despot who stole so much from his richly endowed country that he once had the effrontery to loan money to his country, Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was a much ‘loved’ and ‘respected’ African ‘leader’ in the corridors of power in Paris. This ‘love’ and ‘respect’ for Mr.  Mobutu by the erstwhile colonial overlords of the DRC, France, and by extension the ‘international community’, continued until the very last days of the brute’s regime.

Similar support for despots whose hands are soiled with the bloods of their countrymen and whose pockets are lined with loot from their country’s treasury, by the ‘international community’, permeates the entire African continent across history and into the present. It really takes spectacular intellectual depravity for anyone to deliberately set out to hurt his own country, deplete its resources only to enrich foreign domains.

Nigeria has been particularly afflicted with this syndrome with some of ours receiving the most support from the 'international community' both whilst in office and after being forced out/leaving office (such as the old despot, Olusegun Obasanjo) and perhaps the most patriotic {and devious, if you factor in his role in the Asaba massacre of 1968} been cut short the moment they begin to display some common sense (such as Murtala Mohammed).

The relationship between the ‘international community’ and leaders in the African continent who have shown a remarkable disposition towards the wellbeing of their populations and a willingness to assert an independent and patriotic disposition is, on the other hand, hardly cordial, mostly fraught with suspicion and certainly no mutual ‘love’ and ‘respect’.

Such leaders are systematically isolated, portrayed as pariah and evil and efforts made to effect ‘regime change’ either via direct coups or energetic support for stooges propped up as ‘opposition’ elements, elements that will be effectively backed by a deluge of ‘civil society activists’, ‘international election observers’ and international right organizations. The late leader of Burkina Faso, Captain Thomas Sankara, is a clear example of what happens to leaders in sub-Sahara Africa who try to exhibit any semblance of intellectual sagacity.

It is perhaps, thus, no surprise whatsoever that the most vilified, head of any African country, also happens to be the one that is by far most educated amongst the lot – Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Picture: Two dumbass African rulers: Uganda's Idi Amin Dada and Zaires (DRC) Mobbbutu Sese Seko; Two intellectually sound African leaders: Burkina Faso's Capt. Thomas Sankara and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.