Why Do "Modern" Africans Die Younger?

My sympathy to the bereaved family

By Honourable  Saka

For those of you who work in the health sector, maybe you might have realized the unusual manner in which many of us Africans have been dying younger in recent times. Others who have been following many funeral announcements in the various media would appreciate what I am talking about. Apart from the fact that modern Africans now die younger, perhaps the other scary development we face is that there are currently too many kinds of ‘incurable’ diseases which have come to stay with us today than it used to be more than 50 years ago, despite the so-called ‘advancement’ in medical research.

Why do so many children below age 10, wear glasses due to poor eye sight, when as a matter of fact our grandmothers and our forefathers could see perfectly well without wearing glasses? So I keep asking myself: what exactly is wrong with us in this modern world? Why do we keep living with such illusions that our ‘healthcare’ systems are getting better in our modern times, when the opposite is rather the case?

Meanwhile a couple of years back, Africans were living in good health. People were living much longer than today. In many cases, dying below the age of 80years in Africa was considered to be “abomination” (unnatural) and many would usually express a shock upon receiving such news.

My sympathy to the bereaved family

But today, about 70% of all deaths and funeral announcements here in Africa have been dominated by people in their 30s and 40s or at best, very few in their 50s. Shockingly, nobody seems to be concerned about this dangerous development.  From the streets of Lagos, through Accra, Lusaka to Cairo, it is business as usual as if to say, seeing many of us die below age 50 is a normal thing. After all, we are always too busy, chasing more money that none of us has time to take a second look at this dangerous trend we’re currently living with.

Well, for me, this has been one of the major issues that has been bothering my mind almost every day and night for the past few years as l continue to wonder why many African in our modern times are seriously dying younger than our forefathers did.

Fortunately, I have been able to discover some of the reasons which I am willing to share with the African people. I believe that if these issues are taken serious, we could do something to change this unfortunate trend. So I made the effort to ask a grandmother some questions, hoping to get answers for our current generation.

Why did our ‘illiterate’ forefathers live longer? 

The image is intended for educational purpose. My sympathy to the bereaved family

In order for us to understand why we the modern ones are dying younger, it is imperative that we take a look back and ask ourselves the reasons why our forefathers lived longer. If this understanding could be established, then we could find a way out for modern African.

A Short Conversation With Grandmother

Saka chats with Grandma, she is in her 80s yet she's strong and very healthy

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of chatting with an old woman in her late 80s. I took the opportunity to ask some 'funny' questions in my determination to identify the root causes of the problem. As patient as she was, grandma was able to help me out, bearing in mind she was dealing with a young man who wanted answers to save his generation especially the youth from dying younger.

So my first question to grandma was: ‘Why did you as a person and many in your generation live longer’?

She replied: “my son, it was because of the eating habit we had during those times when we were young. Most importantly, the quality of food we ate was far better than what you people eat these days”.

So I asked again: why then are we dying younger now?

She replied: “My son, the problem is still because of your eating habit today. You people of today don’t eat well at all! Besides, the quality of food you eat today is very, very dangerous! What you call food today are in fact chemicals! That is why everyone is dying much younger”.

At this point, l missed a heartbeat. So l leaned back and asked again: “Grandma, what did you mean when you said my generation eats chemicals? I thought we’ve been eating ‘balance diet’ all these while”.

“Well, you see my son, let me tell you a short story, she said. Many years ago, there were no fertilizers. In fact every food we ate was naturally well cultivated and well-prepared. Food stuffs on the farms were allowed to grow naturally. For instance, our yam was as sweet as the sugarcane. But today, the yam you eat has no taste, she continued. We did not spray our foodstuffs with those dangerous chemicals which you modern people have been pouring on your crops every now and then. 

At that time, any fruit or food you on the market or at home had a real natural taste”, she paused.

Moments later, she continued: “Our pineapples, pawpaw, and all the fruits we had at that time were naturally ripped on the farm before they were harvest for consumption. In fact, one could sense the smell of pineapple from a distance of 100 meters and beyond”.

Then in our neighbourhood, she narrated: when a woman was preparing chicken soup for instance, everybody in the neighbourhood could smell the aroma of that soup from a far distance. We could all sense that yes, indeed that woman in that house was preparing chicken soup. Most importantly, the taste of the soup was as wonderful as the aroma, she added. We ate local dishes such as ‘ebunabunu’, ‘mportomportor’, we ate our yams and cocoyam with palm oil (red oil) and avocado. I am told palm oil is very good for the eyes. In short, there were many kinds of food we ate during our time but your generation don’t like to eat these kinds of food. Your people want ‘ready-made’ food, she explained.

Grandma says modern Ghanaians are missing real food like this

But today you people don’t eat avocado, you don’t cook with red oil anymore. In fact your generation don’t know how red oil is even prepared. You only like the type of oil imported from abroad which has too much cholesterol in it. But those type are not good for you, she lamented.

“Your stew is no longer green like our time. Even the kenkey your mothers cook today, they wrap it with polythene bags, so the food doesn’t absorb the nutrients from the leaves which we used to wrap the kenkey. Meanwhile l know the polythene itself is dangerous especially when heated together with the food. But your people still do it every day and they don’t see anything wrong with it. To be honest, I feel very worried about this”, she decried.

Nowadays when they boil rice, instead of them to cover the pot with a silver lid, they choose to use black polythene to cover the food. They claim the polythene bag absorbs the steam. But they don’t realize that the heat in the bag also releases some dangerous chemicals from the polythene into the rice”, she added.

“Also nowadays, your pineapples are all green even though you claim it is ripped. Today’s pawpaw, when they are ready for harvest, they are still green. Your pineapple has never been yellow before like we used to have during our time. Yours is always green.  Worst of all, they have no flavour and not taste. You cannot sense a ripped pineapple from a distance any longer”, she concluded.

“So my son, a lot of things have changed overnight and this explains the reasons why there are currently too many diseases around. Your generation need to change the nature of food you eat. The chemicals in the food is simply too much but you can’t see it with your eyes”, she explained.

“In fact, the most dangerous aspect of your food is that, apart from the fact that the food itself is of poor quality, you people don’t eat early at all. You go to work and come back at 9pm. So even at 10pm you’re still eating ‘fried rice’ and chicken. Oh, it’s a pity. It is dangerous my son”! She lamented.

“But before I forget, my son, you know during our time, we did a lot of exercise as well. Remember we walked every day to the farm. We climbed the mountains. The good thing was that this was some form of exercise. Believe me; we did a lot of body exercise out of this. Our men were riding bicycles to work every day. But today you modern ones are lazy. You don’t walk any distance. You don’t climb any mountains like we did every day when we walked to the farms. All you do today is jump on the cars and before you blink twice you have hopped down at your destination. You don’t want to use your bodies any longer. But this is not too good. That is why many of you often collapse just like that. It is something your people must examine carefully”, she concluded.

What Can We Learn From Grandma's Line of Thought?

The funeral ceremonies of young Africans are too many

After listening to the old woman in her 80s, explaining the logic and the mystery behind why the modern African die younger, I began to wonder the irony of life. But seriously, if our ‘colonial’ and ‘illiterate’ grandmothers knew all these things, why is it that our modern, over-educated young ones don’t seem to have any clue about why our people are dying younger in such large numbers?

It is high time the African people begun to take a second look at our eating habits and most importantly the quality of food we eat today. As far as our health is concerned, I think Africans must rather invest in quality of food rather than relying on chemicals to merely produce plenty of ‘deadly’ food which come with long-term health implications. It is time we go back to the colonial era where Africans ate natural and high quality food. 

This is the only way we can live longer as our forefathers did. These so-called modern foods and our current bad eating hobbits are only helping us to dig our own graves. A word to the wise they say is enough.

Long live 'modern' Africans.

Honourable Saka

The writer is the project coordinator for the Project Pan-Africa (PPA), available at: www.projectpanafrica.org. PPA is grateful to Itech Plus and all media partners who supports his vision for the African youth. E-mail: honourablesaka@yahoo.co.uk.

How The Modern African Churches Have Lost Focus

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome; Ayo Oritsejafor; Enoch Adeboye; David Oyedepo and Mike Okonkwo

By Honourable Saka

It is an established fact that Jesus did not own any material thing throughout the years he spent on earth. It was said that even the donkey he rode to Jerusalem was for somebody. Men of God must learn to live like Christ; not to compete with ordinary mortals for the riches of the earth. Today, wealthy Nigerian pastors spend over $225million on private jets. Over 130 new private jets have been acquired since 2007 at an average cost of $60milion per private jet. Many young ones are therefore seeing the pastors calling to be a very lucrative business. Perhaps, this explains the reason why there are currently so many false prophets around.

In the Holy Bible (Matthew 6:19-20, Luke 12:33), Jesus said: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Is this not what the Bible teaches? Do our modern men of God really remember this biblical advice?

I feel so ashamed to see pastors riding in limousines, range rovers, owning a fleet of flashy cars and private jets while the congregants always stand in the scorching sun waiting for the government to provide them with bus. I feel worried to see pastors spending as much as $200 million on private jets that flies only once in a year on a holiday trip, while majority of their congregants who cannot even afford a one-square-meal a day, continue to pray day and night for a miracle, so that they will be able to send their children to school.

According to Mathew 19:21, Jesus said: If you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.  Therefore why don't Christians, especially the men of God, sell their possessions and give the money to the poor like Jesus said? Why are they rather buying private jets, mansions and living all sort of flamboyant lifestyle?

With the current “men of God's” attitude of spending over $85million per private jet (year after year), while they live in African communities where the vast majority of the youths survive on less than $1 a day, it leaves one to wonder whether the modern African churches have the welfare of society at heart.

Can anybody imagine how many lives in Nigeria a whopping $85 million can transform overnight? Imagine how many hospitals or clinics this amount can build. Imagine how many academic scholarships, this amount can provide to the many of the youth who have been praying for years, all because they want opportunity to go to school? Are these men of God truly following the teachings of the Holy Bible? Why are we not seeing them do exactly what Lord expects of His preachers?

In many communities across the African continent, majority of our people continue to live in total darkness (without electricity), we are still grappling with poor healthcare infrastructure, dangerous road networks, lack of educational infrastructure, among others. Most of all, the vast majority of the youth are still grappling with mass unemployment. Of course one would say that it isn’t the duty of the church to be creating jobs. But instead of acquiring these luxurious lifestyles and the countless number of private jets, would it be a bad idea if the church were to invest these amounts of money in the lives of ordinary people, especially the poor?

I know many preachers in Ghana who would never have been where they are today if not for the fact that there were many orthodox churches which built more schools that gave them quality education. Above all, these churches had scholarship packages in place whereby many brilliant but needy students were often sponsored to study both home and abroad.

If you were to ask majority of the young ones who are often spotted at the various prayer camps what their problems were, many would tell you they’re praying for jobs, praying for a miracle (financial sponsorship) to further their education. Many others continue to count on God to heal them of various diseases because they do not have money to foot their medical bills if they were to go to the hospitals.

Yet, in spite of all these, our men of God and our religious leaders who have the power of spiritual discernments, and who can envision the nature of our woes, pretend they have no clue whatsoever as to how best the church can contribute to relieve the youth of their burden. The churches continually pay a blind eye to the needs of the poor within the church itself. It is usually the rich men who seem to receive the attention of the church. In fact, many rich men are usually given some positions in the church all because of the financial contributions they can make at any given time.

But it is easy to understand because the Holy Bible says in Proverbs 14:20 that “The poor are disliked even by their neighbours, but the rich have many friends”.

For the past few years, I have been wondering and wondering: Wasn’t it the missionary and the orthodox churches that built many universities, training colleges, secondary schools and basic schools, community libraries etc, across Africa that gave quality education to many of today's pastors?

In Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa among others, one can list a countless number of schools: basic schools, secondary schools, training colleges, and even universities  all of which were built by the orthodox churches such as the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church, the Roman Catholic Church, just to mention a few.

Typical examples in Ghana are: Presbyterian University College, Catholic University College, Ghana Baptist University College, Methodist University, Pentecost University, Christ Apostolic University College and many more.

These universities have been offering quality education and all the support to the poor and the needy in Ghana.

At the same time, some of the best secondary schools in Ghana have usually been the ones built by the orthodox churches in the likes of Pope John’s Secondary School (Roman Catholic), Saint Rose’s Secondary School (Roman Catholic), Presbyterian Boys Secondary School (Presby), Saint Peter’s Secondary School (Roman Catholic), just to mention a few.

Thanks to the orthodox churches. Today, Ghana can boast of many best schools that have contributed to producing quality engineers, medical doctors, architects, lawyers, professors and all sorts of wonderful professionals most of whom received their education in one or two of the schools build by the orthodox churches without paying a penny.

But today, it hurts me so much to ask: What happened to the modern charismatic churches and their pastors? Why are many of them only interested in acquiring mansions abroad, buying a fleet of luxurious cars, throwing up expensive parties, and most recently competing among themselves to own the latest fleet of cars or which one has the most sophisticated number of private jets.   

Why must the media bother us with questions such as: “who is the richest pastor”, “which pastor has the highest number of private jets”, “how many pastors are richer than the most corrupt politicians” and so on?

Instead of competing among themselves with feeding the poor and the hungry, providing their communities with basic infrastructure,  creating institutions that will empower the youth in areas of science and technology, building libraries with ICT facilities that will serve to cater for the dearth of knowledge in society;  rather, it saddens my heart to see today’s men of God competing to live an affluent life style while majority of the young ones continue to pray for angels to and save them.

Recently, it is becoming increasingly clear that the ‘modern’ African churches have lost focus. This is because, thought they know exactly what the Bible teaches, many of the leadership are rather interested in enjoying the worldly pleasures. Our modern religion is becoming the most profitable industries/businesses. The modern church business is a multi-million dollar businesses which rival that of oil tycoons. 

Mfonobong Nsehe, a Nigerian blogger who blogs for Forbes business magazine, says pastors own businesses from hotels to fast-food chains.

“Preaching is big business. It’s almost as profitable as the oil business,” he said.
The joint wealth of five pastors was at least $300m (£200m). These pastors are flamboyant. You see them with private jets and expensive cars”

Consequently, many of the youth are forcing themselves into becoming men of God at all cost. They see the church business to be lucrative. Thus, they establish churches not as instruments for the transformation of lives in society but as a means to acquire wealth and luxury without any hard work. No wonder about 90% of today’s sermons are all about prosperity and the quest to become rich. Nobody preaches salvation any longer and there is no more love - a clear indication that the end time is here.

Honourable Saka is the project coordinator for the Project Pan-Africa, available at: www.projectpanafrica.org. He can be contacted on Email: honourablesaka@yahoo.co.uk. He is grateful to all the  media partners which support his vision for the African youth.

The Crisis of Educated Africans

Africa has plenty scholars, yet where are their solutions to our problems? Photo: a graduation ceremony at Nairobi, Kenya

By Honourable Saka
Our beloved continent, is currently dominated by a generation of noise makers: a people who can talk almost all the time, but don’t act. It is very annoying to hear some “experts” giving speeches over the radio, while reserving the real action.Africa has many scholars with PhDs and Master’s degrees in agricultural science, yet many of them will never set foot on the farm. Many of our scientists are probably very good at teaching, but never good at inventions and innovations.

I have always wondered where our mechanical engineers have been hiding, as we continue to import motorbikes and even bicycles. The taxpayer is often told: “Plans are far-advanced for the implementation of this project”, the other project is “in the pipeline,” the implementation phase comes “in 4 years,” and so on.

Our scientific researchers, religious leaders, acade­micians, scholars and politicians can perfectly demon­strate exactly what ought to be done in any given cir­cumstance, yet once in power, such ideas always remain either on paper or at best be held “in the pipeline.”
 

Instead of taking action and making things happen in a swift and decisive manner for the benefit of our people, it is rather very sad that even those tasked with such responsibilities are good at making speeches, while pushing the actual action onto the future genera­tions.
 

So far, it appears a few of those in the built environ­ment are physically making impact, while the majority of the other professions especially those in the manu­facturing fields remain to be seen. The media, which ought to bring such topics for discussion, has always been focusing on politicians and their frustrations while ignoring the lack of action.

Years back, there were only a few “scholars” in Africa. At that time, the majority of the people had not received “formal education” as we often call it. Many had neither been to engineering schools, polytechnics nor the university. There were only a few tens of people who had the benefit of receiving “formal education”.

In spite of this, Africans were producing soap, shoes, body cream, different kinds of cooking oil and their very effective and powerful local African medicines. They cured almost every major disease by relying on their local medication and eating organic food, which was very rich in vitamins and nutrients.

As a result, many of them lived long, averagely beyond the age of 90 years. It was common to see many of our parents living beyond the age of 120 years with good eyesight. Most importantly, many of our grandparents never wore glasses.
 

Ironically, today we call ourselves “intellectu­als”. We live in “hygienic environments,” eat “balanced diet” and use “modern medication”. Yet, many of us are dying below the age of 40 years! Today, millions of chil­dren at age 10 are wearing glasses! As if that is not enough, several hundreds of incurable diseases are cur­rently threatening our very survival.

How many of our forefathers died of malaria? How many of our grandmothers were infertile? In fact, there are many reproductive health-related diseases in modern Africa than there were in the pre-colonial era despite the so-called advancement in medical research.
 

Isn’t it time we took a critical look at the quality of our food today? But of course, many will consider this to be some “conspiracy theory”. After all, once you success­fully discredit legitimate concerns such as the above, it becomes easy to ignore the need to take action.

Even though Africa boasts of millions of scholars and other professionals, one wonders the whereabouts of these experts as almost everything we use in Africa is imported from elsewhere, despite having all the raw materials here at home.

Forty years ago, Africa was importing a sizeable amount of matches, sugar, cooking oil, roofing sheets, steel, cars, bicycles, shoes, wristwatches, typewriters and others. Africa did not have the expertise to mass-produce some of these items. Unfortu­nately, after 40 years, nothing has changed despite the fact that mother Africa has millions of intellectuals who currently hold the relevant qualifications.

After many years of importing mobile phones, com­puters, electric generators, sound systems, radio and television sets, fluorescent lamps, electric cables and many other electronic gadgets, there is no indication that this trend will change any time soon, though there are millions of African experts who have studied the production of these things.

Elsewhere in the Middle East and Asia, ordinary stu­dents are sending satellites into space. University researchers are actively engaging with their students in the production of mobile phones, digital tablets, com­puters and cars.
 

Their physical results can be seen everywhere. Unfortunately in Africa, our studies are charac­terised by reading theories, looking at diagrams and observing images with little or no practical demonstra­tions. The educational system, instead of teaching our people “how to think” and solve problems, is teaching young ones “what to think”.

Today, one can write over a thousand pages of research, yet this research may not have a single practi­cal input. One can perfectly describe how to move a car,  but it takes continuous practice to be able to practically drive the car. Is it a wonder that many of our mechani­cal engineers therefore cannot even fix a car?

Our universities are overpopulated with politi­cal and social science courses. The technical schools and polytechnics are still reserved for students with poor academic backgrounds. Many of our electrical engineers, mechanics and technicians out there did not learn their profession from schools. Many of them were school drop-outs who learnt their profession as a “trade” and by the “road-side technicians”. When the scholar’s car suffers a mechanical breakdown, the individual will rather look for a road-side mechanic to fix the problem.

Many of these local technicians do not have any academic qualifications at all, yet they’re better at solving real-life problems than many of our so-called professionals who have acquired a number of degrees. Isn’t this a shame?

Our tertiary institutions are increasingly producing intellec­tuals who talk too much, but lack the skills to personally contribute to problem-solving. Many of our intellectu­als only make noise, but push their real responsibilities to the man on the street.

Such acts of negligence must stop if Africa is determined to make any progress. African intellectuals must live up to their responsibili­ties. They must be part of the solution to our many challenges. It is time to be proactive.

Real leadership is demonstrated, not lectured. We’re tired of talks, seminars and workshops, which have become the hallmark of our current batch of intellectuals who ought to bear the responsibility of taking the action. As long as our intellectuals continue to look up to the layman to take up their responsibilities, Africa will never make any meaningful progress.

Our destinies must be in our own hands. Long live the African intellectual! Long live Mama Africa!

Honourable Saka

The writer is a Ghana-based political analyst on African affairs and a social commentator on Africa. He is the founder of the Project Pan-Africa (www.projectpanafrica.org), an organization established with the sole purpose to help liberate the minds of the African people from colonial bondage. He can be reached on Email: honourablesaka@yahoo.co.uk

Rebel Groups In Africa, How Are They Funded?

Rebels in the Central African Republic captures more towns as government forces surrender

By Honourable Saka

Over the years, many militants and rebel groups have propped up across Africa: the Al-Shabbab, the Tuareg Rebels (Mali), the Lord’s Resistance Army (Uganda), the National Liberation Forces (Burundi), The West Side Boys (Sierra Leon), Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FLR), the Congolese Revolutionary Movement (DR Congo)  the Somali Pirates, Boko Haram (Nigeria), The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Nigeria) and many more. Shockingly, many of them have often been spotted carrying very sophisticated weapons RPG-7, ZPU, and many weapons that can take down planes (anti-aircraft missiles). These are not weapons that could be manufactured in Nigeria, Somalia nor Uganda. Therefore how do these militants receive the weapons? Some of the answers are not far-fetched.

During NATO’s war in Libya (2011), France and Qatar under the UN’s watch delivered weapons in large quantities to the rebels whom the Western press often referred to as “activists” and “revolutionaries”. In addition to the weapons, the rebels also received communication equipment which facilitated and coordinated their movements across the continent smoothly. Since many of the rebels consider themselves to be “allies”, who are working for a common purpose, it wasn’t difficult for some of the weapons that were delivered to rebels in Libya to be quickly mobilized and smuggled to other rebel groups in the West African region. It was recently reported that large amount of weapons from Libya have been found in Nigeria.

Al-Shabaab rebels with large quantities of RPG missiles

In fact, the nature of weapons that are currently in the rebel’s hands are too sophisticated and expensive that the cost may run into hundreds of millions of US dollars. Is it a wonder that these rebels were able to recently capture many towns and cities in the Central African Republic, where they ordered many government forces to surrender? Rebels in the Central African Republic, with a population of about five million, is notorious for unrest including coups, army mutinies and rebellions.  But how could the rebel fighters, many of whom are often wanted for prosecution get the ability to buy those expensive weapons in such large quantities with impunity? No matter how rich the rebel leaders might be at any point, their continues ability to afford the weapons in large quantities for such a very long period of time would be impossible to imagine, if they have no form of foreign sponsorship and the corporation of a few puppet politicians here in Africa.

Libya: The Looting Continues Amid Crises

For the past one year, Libya, one of the most economically viable countries in Africa has been thrown into chaos and civil war: a war which was supposed to have brought about so-called democracy.

Instead, the chaos has spread far and wide, resulting in loss of many more lives that go unreported. But for the recent incident at the US Embassy Benghazi, the state of Libya had always remained a mystery to those in the western world as the media continues to spread lies rather that the truth. We had been made to believe that the people now dwell in peace and harmony, enjoying democracy whiles weapons flow on the streets like the river.

Our Brother Leader is dead and we are still trying to obtain justice for his murder.

Under normal circumstance, one would expect that the parties to the conflict would have run out of weapons and prompt an immediate ceasefire. However, since war is a big business that often profits the arms industries, weapons will never run short in the troubled country. There will always be those that will ensure the conflict is prolonged for as long as profitable.

In spite of this, the corporate media will never want the world to know the reality on the ground.

Foreign-Funded NGOs and The Spread of Terrorism In Africa

Recently, the Nigerian Tribune had it that Boko Haram receives funding from different groups from Saudi Arabia and the UK, specifically from the Al-Muntada Trust Fund, headquartered in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia’s Islamic World Society. Under normal circumstance, African leaders should have been treated this news as a very serious issue and given a critical attention by the Federal Government of Nigeria. But of course the Western mainstream media is not interested in this revelation. After all, whose interest does it serve in the West for their media to highlight that many of their so-called NGOs are indeed sponsors of terrorism in Africa?

In another instance, a Nigerian military task force stormed a militant hideout in the city and recovered six assembled bombs and another one under construction, Lieutenant Iweha Ikedichi told reporters. The bombs were made with drink cans and a drum of around 50 litres. This is an indication that the terrorists in Nigeria currently have experts who know how to assemble bombs. The fact that the militants can now manufacture bombs right in Nigeria in itself is a clear indication that outside forces are at work in the troubled country.

But the question still remains: who supplies them with intelligence? Who provide these rebels with funding and logistics? Do the rebels have the freedom to place such order for large quantities of weapons without any help from those in authority? The answer is not far fetched. After all it is well known that rebel leaders such as Chalse Taylor was secretly funded and supported by certain Western countries, this rebel leader unleashed serious chaos Across the West African region for many years.

Therefore one should ask, why does the western intelligence always have prior knowledge before such bombs explode in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa? Is there anybody in the rebel groups that coordinates programs with foreign intelligence agencies? If that is the case, why can’t such information rather lead to the successful arrest of these militants instead of merely specifying targets they often select for such attacks? It is high time Africans begun finding answers to some of these questions. Until then, let us pretend we have no idea and continue to stay unconcerned and watch while these rebel groups gradually take over our once peaceful continent, and spread the chaos, instability, wars and many more wars across Africa.

Honourable Saka is the project coordinator for Project Pan-Africa (PPA). Visit PPA at: www.projectpanafrica.org and make your voice heard on the most pressing issues in Africa. You may E-mail him at: honourablesaka@yahoo.co.uk.