Tue, 07 Nov 2017 11:41:13 +0000
Dear Editor,
IN the Daily Nation of October, 28th, 2017- page 16 was a story which under the headline: EQUATORIAL GUINEA VEEP SENTENCED IN FRANCE.
Reading through the story, it brought more questions than answers.
The first question that came into my head was, in which continent is Equatorial Guinea found?
The question came up because I wanted to know and understand why a crime committed in Africa grow wings and finds itself in a French court, in France.
Equatorial Guinea is a sovereign state, so why a crime committed in a sovereign state should be tabled in another country?
In my view, it’s only fair that if a crime has been committed by an African, in Africa, its best that crime be tabled by Africans, in Africa and in African courts.
When are we going to have confidence in our systems if all we do is take our problems in someone’s backyard?
I am not supporting the crimes of corruption, embezzlement etc, I am just against the idea of having some Western powers taking over what can also be solved here.
It’s high time we stood up, put our foot down and start having confidence in our very own systems.
Let us move away from that colonial mentality of “he who feeds you, controls you.”
We need to stand up for our own systems by calling a spade, a spade and a spoon, a spoon not where we call a spade, a spoon just to please Western powers.
We say we are free and independent and yet we cannot stand up and solve our own problems in our own backyard.
We also have the International Criminal Court (ICC) where most of the suspects are all African.
American President George Bush with evidence that could not hold water, went and bombed Iraq where innocent women and children died in numbers but he was not taken to the ICC.
Libya is another sad story all at the hands of Western powers. Syria also has western powers involved in its war with rebels but ICC is not involved.
It’s time for us Africans to stand up and say NO to Western interference and start having confidence in our own systems. Let African issues be tabled in Africa by Africans.
How would they feel if the BREXIT issue was brought to Africa and tabled by African judges in our African courts? America tables its own problems in America.
Same with China, France and other Western countries, so why should African issues be tabled in the Western world by Westerners? Just a thought.
