As the world continues to advance, humanity declines, sadly. People become increasingly inhuman, uncaring, and insensitive. Nations spend hundreds of millions of dollars in building arms and acquiring ammunition every year. But food, security, and health are in very short supply. People are starving, millions are malnourished, children are out of school, parents are poorer.
In Africa, the story is quite heartbreaking. The primitive type of feudalism in which great wealth exists side by side abject poverty is the cause of many instances of inhuman squalor our people are holed up in. Across Africa, we have the same tale of deprivation, destitution, and degradation. Leaders see themselves as lords over their people.
Africa is engulfed inhumanly manufactured under-development-related issues such as religious and ethnic cleavages, the irrational appointment of square pegs into round holes, abysmal economic policies, outdated and underfunded education, among other issues.
The most embarrassing issue to every informed and patriotic African is the mystery of having much and still lacking much. Nigeria, for instance, exports hundreds of millions of barrels of oil daily, earning trillions of petrodollars that have not been reflected in the lives of the majority of its citizens. The country cannot even fix anything. In Nigeria alone, there are about 100 million poor people who are in desperate need of basic amenities. In the 21st century, there are communities in Nigeria that do not have roads, potable water, primary healthcare, basic schools, and so on.
DR Congo, which sits on hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of mineral resources is neck-deep in long callous, and savage wars that have left many of its citizens maimed, broken, poor, and at the extreme, dead.
In all of these, there Is still a portion of the blame to be shared by the private sector in these countries. The private sector has continued to see itself as an appendage of the government. Government policies form, largely, the determining factor in the decision-making of most corporations in Africa.
The private sector has not developed a concrete action plan for development. It is still being bit by the bug of incompetence in the public sector. This is rather strange. Our private sector cannot generate its own funds that would make it independent of the government. And you will agree that this is a heavy disappointment.
At PMDAfrica, we are determined to change that paradigm. Our model is based on auto-generated funds for charity and investment. We have a strategy for recognizing those who have affected humanity positively.
This award is not akin to music awards, movies awards, and others. It is in a league of the well-crafted awards of excellence and contribution to the efforts to better the conditions of the people of Africa. Our awardees are going to be selected based on merit by a group of eminent people whose pedigree can be verified.
Such awards can be likened to a vitamin dose meant to energize the consumer and help him do more. In Africa, only two of such awards are available which are based on excellent humanitarian works. They include the Mo Ibrahim Leadership Award, established in 2007. It awards the sum of $5million to an African leader who meets the criteria of good governance, democratic election, and respect of terms limits.
Eligible leaders must have met the following conditions which the Mo Ibrahim Foundation considers as critical for consideration;
- Leaders must have developed their countries, lifted people out of poverty, and paved the way for sustainable and equitable prosperity
- His conduct must highlight that he is an exceptional role model for the continent
- He must ensure that Africa continues to benefit from the experience and expertise of exceptional leaders when they leave national office, by enabling them to continue in other public roles on the continent
The Mo Ibrahim award of $5million is still the world’s largest.
The second one is the APCN Humanitarian Award, sponsored by the Aid People Change Nigeria Charity and Orphanage Organisation. It awards plaques and certificates, signed with authentic orthographies of African music legends and icons to recognize people for their immense contributions to the growth of humanity, with their various acts.
The PMDAfrica Humanitarianism award would be larger than that. It would reward people who have met the following conditions;
- The awardee may be a single person, group of persons or a corporate organization.
- The awardee may or may not be an African.
- He must have contributed to a visible project which impacts the lives of the suffering rural people in Africa.
- Contributions may be in kind or cash.
- Awardees are recognized for their contributions to developing the following areas critical to the emancipation of the African people;
- Education
- Research and Development
- Medicine
- Charity
- Agriculture
- Information and Communication Technology
- Community development
- Social reengineering
- Science and technology
- Others, as may be determined by the board of the PMDAFRICA AWARDS in a periodic review.
This would help us bring the private sector players together in the same boat for just one goal. That is to kill poverty finally in Africa.
