African Leaders and the Hyena’s Prayer
By Malith Alier, Juba, South Sudan
February 8, 2016 (SSB) —- The African continent is full of animal tales, proverbs and narratives signifying the rich fauna the creator presented to us. I often times hear people talking of the big five, lion, leopard, elephant, giraffe and rhino. I actually don’t know whether I got them correct – somebody can help.
Tales, proverbs and narratives are not only concentrated on the big five above but also on other smaller animals down the chain like hyena, fox, squirrel, tortoise, or porcupines. Certain qualities of particular animals such as cunningness, greed, cleverness, swiftness are related to a situation or human beings and a line drawn to connect them together.
The hyena is an African animal which is fond of breaking in to homes but before doing so, he is believed to pray first to God to help him in the task at hand. The prayer goes like this; “God, help me break into this home……..but getting out is mine”
Many African leaders pray to God to help them to become rulers and on the other hand, request the same God to leave them alone to get out on their own and at their own time.
Once God had left them on their own they begin to manipulate certain documents known as constitutions to over stay in power. Any resistance to alter rulers is met with deadly force like in Egypt, Libya, and DR Congo just to mention a few.
Paul Kagame has done that in December, Yoweri is standing for a fourth term in February, Paul Biya of Cameroon and Ali Bong of Gabon are presidents for life. Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire and Charles Tailor of Liberia are in the International Criminal Court (ICC) custody. El-Bashir of Sudan is a man on run from the ICC.
The African leaders have rallied against the ICC and all of them cry foul and claim victimhood.
At the AU summit in Addis Ababa in January, some disgruntled leaders are calling for mass withdrawal so that they can commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and or genocide without being held to account by anybody. Leading the pact is Kenya of Uhuru Kenyatta.
Ordinary people of Africa see salvation in the ICC. There is no other mechanism that can hold African dictators accountable than the ICC. The African court on Humans and People’s Right ACHPR is even more dysfunctional than the club of dictators who formed it long ago. One thing the ACHPR does not and will not do is to target Africans like the ICC.
The African leaders seemed to be targeted by the ICC because they targeted their own people in the first place.
Do you think a criminal who commits war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide should never be targeted here on earth or in haven?
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