Famous Names

Did you know that one country alone accounts for 67% of all the electricity generated in Sub-Saharan Africa? Did you know that country has a population of 50 million, and is facing a crisis because it does not generate sufficient electricity for its people and its economy?

Think about that. Two-thirds of the electricity produced in Africa is not enough for a country of 50 million people to achieve its full economic potential.

Doesn't it make you wonder how we in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa manage with the 33% share we generate, doesn't it? Makes you think of those night-time pictures taken from space where Africa is the only continent that is totally dark (aside from a bright strip along the Mediterranean coast, and a few dots in South Africa, the 67% country).

Now, you are probably wondering why I am dragging up these old, boring statistics.

Simple reason.

An acquaintance of mine, who happens to be a big fan and supporter of the existing political order in Nigeria, decided to let me know that the world approved of our political system by listing the foreign leaders who attended the recent presidential inauguration.

He was quite proud of this list he sent me, even though 86% of his mostly African dignitaries list was made up of some of Africa's brutal dictators, thieving kleptocrats and the administratively clueless.

The man sent me a list of the sort of leaders that keep Sub-Saharan African in the dark -- literally, figuratively and metaphorically -- and he was so proud that their presence legitimized our inauguration!

There is a fear I have sometimes that things are a certain way in Africa because we the people actively support the things (and people) that guarantee that things will be that way.

Not an eloquent statement of my fear, but you get the point.