Injustice

Watching this week a minute appeal run on a national television to save men, women and children who are heavily affected by famine in Africa, something hit me in the face; I could not believe my eyes. It’s just appalling and unbelievable that even today in the 21^st century, some people somewhere in the world cannot have access to their basic familial requirements.

Why is this happening and why should people be subjected to such suffering, children in particular, whose fault is that? I was born and raised in Africa in a small house with a number of brothers and sisters; therefore I am aware of how bad things can be sometimes. I remember, we never used to ask for breakfast or lunch but we expected that at some point there will be something to get us go by. We did this because our both parents had no meaningful income and unemployed therefore bread winning was almost everybody’s responsibility including us children.

Now this situation in Africa brings memories back, to seeing those children dying before their mothers is something that reminds me that these parents are indeed helpless and cannot be  blamed for not trying because they have nothing left to save both their lives and the children.

When I was a kid, this kind of suffering seemed temporal and I spent day and night dreaming of having to wake up one day with a good life that’s enjoyed by our fellow kids elsewhere in the world. But I realise now that this was just a fantasy and seeing Children dying from starvation and malnutrition in Africa today tells me the same story that the problem is still there 30 years on.

The question is who should take a blame for all these untimely deaths? I reckon the culprit is an injustice that has rocked most African countries, the rich gets richer and the poor get poorer?

Injustice generally refers to misuse, abuse, neglect, or misfeasance that is uncorrected or else sanctioned by a legal system. It is gross unfairness suffered by the electorates who put these people to power and contribute to the well being of the country through their income tax.

In Africa, Political injustice is the most contributing factor of all the suffering that we have witnessed in this century. People are denied and deprived of their social and economic rights because of their mere choice of belonging to a certain group or having a different political ideology to that of the state.

Most people are impoverished not as a result of famine or anything but because of oppression and injustice by dominant groups.

No wonder, Somali militias played down the reports that the country is facing the worst in terms of food shortage. They deny that this is not true and maintaining that Western countries are exaggerating the extent of the problem and shouldn’t be believed. In Ethiopia, allegation of aid diversion and misuse levelled against the Ethiopian Government, instead of putting those funds where they are needed most and alleviate human suffering, they use international aid in cramping down political opponents and highly disregard the rule of law.

There are no food stocks, no good hospitals and personnel, no better schools and poverty is beyond belief.

It is injustice if people cannot be provided with their basic needs in any state or country while their leaders are massively enjoying the same. Innocent children are left to die with no fault of their own just because the country is so corrupt to an extent of even selling their own food stocks.

 It is injustice if the state fails to provide better education system in the country while their children and relatives are enlisted in overseas institutions just because they can afford it.

It is injustice when hospitals are turned into mortuaries where people just go to die because of lack of medical personnel and medicine.

Citizens fighting to get on the bus, while the president and his family is riding a convoy of the most expensive automobiles in the world.

Until injustice is stamped out entirely in Africa, African people shall remain in repression and suffering. Development will be the word they would live to hear every five years when a political leader is renewing his term in power.