•As far back as 1975 Fidel Catsro declared “We are a Latin-African nation….African blood flows through our veins” The late Nelson Mandela observed rightly that. “The Cuban people (under Fidel leadership) hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom, and justice unparalleled for its principled and selfless character.”

•When President Ronald Regan the 40th President of the United States died in 1989, African leaders out smarted each other to mourn the man who was not only Africa blind but ‘visited’ the continent through the bombing of Tripoli and together with Thatcher fueled apartheid declared as a crime against humanity by UN, through the notorious policy of constructive engagement.

•When Barack Obama of United States turned 50 in office, African leaders understandably (but still embarrassingly) in Washington out smarted each other with birthday wishes to the American President.

AFRICA LEADERS MUST KNOW THEIR HISTORY

•African leaders must know their history like the late Nelson Mandela. They must appreciate that beyond, blood affinity the point cannot be overstated that the real and original first “African-American President” was Fidel Castro and NOT President Barack Obama. Fidel Castro once said of Cubans; “We are a Latin-African nation….African blood flows through our veins”-

•Che Guevara, Fidel’s comrade in revolution was in the Congo fighting with Patrice Lumumba for the liberation of Congo. In the same year (paradoxically the year Obama was born!), Cubans sent troops to back Algerian freedom fighters led by Ahmed Ben Bella.

•Cuba sent as many as 30,000 Cuban volunteer troops to repel racist South African soldiers who were bent on undermining Angolan independence in 1976.

•In January 1975, the dying Portuguese colonial power was compelled to sign an agreement granting independence in November of that year following the struggle of People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Desperate to stem the tide of change, given that Mozambique under Frelimo also got independence same year, the racist South Africa invaded Angola from Namibia.

•No independent African state was in the position to come to the rescue of Angola. Fidel’s Cuba rose to the challenge and South African troops were beaten to a retreat. That singular historic Cuban resistance against South African aggression paved the way for Angolan independence in 1976.

•Cuba was the only frontline non-African country in the league of Tanzania, Zambia and Nigeria that felt the heat and sacrifices of liberation struggle. Cuba after Nigeria led by dynamic late General Murtala Muhammed, was among the first countries to recognize MPLA led government and was the country that pushed for its UN membership which was ironically vetoed by United States of Africa. Africans would also recall the historic battle of Ciuto Cuanavale in South eastern Angola in 1987 with Cuban involvement. That historic battle against racist troops led to series of events that eventually led to Namibian independence.

•The value-chain of Cuban solidarity goes beyond the military. During a visit to Angola in 1977, the then Cuban defence minister, Raul Castro now Cuban president invited Angola to send 2,000 children to attend schools and universities in Cuba. Cuban doctors and nurses have served and are serving in virtually all African countries as part of comprehensive development cooperation. Today Cuba is a medical super power, which stood shoulder to shoulders with Africans to confront the scourge of Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone at a time America deployed soldiers as if bullets would halt Ebola virus.

•In Nigeria former President Shehu Shagari administration proudly hailed the Cuban doctors for their courage and sacrifices to serve in rural Nigeria scorned by Nigeria’s doctors. In 2000, as many as 10,000 Cuban doctors, one third of its total doctors were serving in Africa. The same solidarity applied to education. When late Julius Nyerere of Tanzania visited the famous Isle of Youth in Cuba, an internationalist school where African youths were undergoing schooling free of charge, he reportedly said “There is no more beautiful place under the sun”.

•A conference sponsored by the UN Special Committee against Apartheid held in Havana in May 1976, a Cuban leader Armando Hart called racism the “ideology of the exploiters”. That was at a time Britain and America were bursting sanctions against the outlaw regime and were even in bed with the hated apartheid regime through the notorious “constructive engagement” with the racists. Indeed the death of Fidel is a loss to Africans as much as the Cubans.

BUHARI SHOULD LEARN FROM CUBA AND AVOID THE PITFALLS OF INDEBTEDNESS

•President Buhari must heed Fidel’s advice on the danger of indiscriminate loans and credits. Fidel Castro had long promoted in his decade-long battle of developmental ideas made a case for self reliance. He had compared the debt burden “to that torment in Greek mythology in which a man is doomed to push a large stone uphill for all eternity, a stone that always rolls down again before reaching the top.” Debtors, he maintained “don’t need new loans”. Fidel has since been proven right that most debts were “unpayable and uncollectible”.

•We must credit the series of debt cancellation of the two decades to audacious alternative views of Fidel Castro, not the astuteness of “negotiators” and so called altruism of creditors.

•The world has wisely shifted to Cuban development paradigm after the scandalous market collapse of 2007 without acknowledging Fidel and Cubans who promoted the role the sate and governance in development. Cuba has the lowest HIV prevalent rate, thanks to education and non-commercialization of the battle against the scourge. Cuba ranks high on UN development index, much to its nurtured human capital through quality literacy and good health. In fact Cuba shows that the real “resource control” should start with human capital.

OUR LEADERS SHOULD EMULATE FIDEL’s SELFLESSNESS

LIFE PENSION BENEFITS FOR FORMER GOVERNORS; COMRADE OSHIOMHOLE SHOULD NOT JOIN THE FORMER GOVERNORS ON UNJUST PENSION

•Following the trend in other States, the Edo Assembly recently approved a pension benefit for a residential building worth N200million for immediate past governor of the state, while N100 million was approved for his Deputy among other benefits.

•We appeal to former Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to make a positive difference by not collecting the life pension benefit as approved by the State Assembly.

•Comrade Oshiomhole had beaten the governors to good governance as evidenced by his globally acknowledged record of achievements as governor of Edo State. He should therefore not join the former governors on unjust pension that is unnecessary and unsustainable in a recession.

•Edo’s governance-report since 2008 points to Nigeria’s renewed optimism. Indeed we have witnessed a renaissance which defeats the old pessimism according to which nothing would work. Edo state within a short time became one huge reconstruction site in governance! Many things went on simultaneously; from massive rural and urban reconstructions to public schools reinventions, from innovated sporting facilities (remaking of Ogbemudia Stadium) to new public transportation (comrade Buses), from maternal and child care to record mass public employment in record time, from multiple assault on insecurity to mass beautification of the ancient city of Benin, to massive water project, from mass job creation through public works to prompt payment of salaries, including 25per cent increase in minimum wage above the statutory N18,000.

•These remarkable achievements in infrastructural development; Education; Health; Water and Electrification; Security; Administration of Justice; Agriculture and Economic Empowerment; Employment and Welfare, Democracy and Governance definitely made APC candidate, Godwin Obaseki, (who interestingly had been a part of the development team brigade in the past eight years) a worthy successor to Oshiomhole. Comrade Governor has certainly put development agenda on the table in Edo state. And true to the progressive disposition of the good people of Edo, comrade governor and his party got second term mandate in an unprecedented mass victories in all the 18 local governments! This development agenda can only be further deepened and should not be supplanted with the corruption agenda of the hitherto previous eight years of PDP in the state. Its time for sustainable development.