By Peter Adamu
Just
a few days after Zambia celebrated her 50th independence anniversary last
month, their president, Michael Sata, died in a London hospital, where he had
been admitted with an unspecified illness.
A
lot of attention has been paid to the man who has succeeded him, Guy Scott, a
white man, because of his skin. Few people have noted the embarrassing irony of
leaders of 'independent' African countries dying in the lands of former
colonial masters, 50 years since independence.
Eleven
African leaders have died in office since 2008 and majority of them it was in a
hospital abroad or soon after arriving home. Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa (France)
and now Michael Sata (UK), Ethiopia's Meles Zenawi (Belgium), Omar Bongo
(Spain), Ghana's John Atta Mills and Nigeria's Umaru Yar'Adua all fit in that
category.
Ideally,
the poor health infrastructure in most African countries is the reason African
leaders, who are ironically charged with improving these facilities, can't use
them. But it's also true that African leaders are very secretive about their
health; and so, being hospitalised abroad helps them to keep their illness
secret and thus their power intact.
It's
a shame that a leader can be in charge of a country for 20 years and still fail
to create conditions that would enable him or her to get medical attention at
home.
Perhaps it's because their own health is never really at stake as they
have taxpayers' money at their disposal in case they need even the simplest
treatment abroad, while their poor citizens are left to their own devices.
Throwing
mega parties to celebrate independence under such circumstances is the worst
form of self-deception. African leaders who are still living need to restore
some pride to this dear continent by establishing or facilitating the
establishment of medical facilities that are capable of not only handling their
health needs but also that of all their people.
That
way, even an Ebola outbreak would not be as devastating as it has been in West
Africa as there would be a fairly robust health system in place to manage every
health challenge.
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