Prof. Chinua Achebe has said in his literary masterpiece, Things Fall Apart – that ‘a chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches’
This applies in content to a certain male child that was born on June 28, 1971, somewhere in Pretoria, in then apartheid South Africa. This child at the tender age of 12 had made incursions into interconnected digital technology by creating a video game, one that entertain his peers!
As a child of 12, young Elon directed his exceptional creative bent at developing a space shooter game called ‘Blastar’ that will benefit his peers not only by promoting relaxation but reducing anxiety and in the long run arousing their interest in technology.
In today’s world no child his age, especially in Africa, rare if nonexistent, would think of coming up with such a creation to profit his peers. That was just the beginning of greater things to come during the period under review.
Genius, it is said, is born and not made. As one, he made further incursions into digital technology that would benefit humanity.
This qualifies for a tacit war, if you ask me, against the bourgeoisie, decadents and aristocrats who are controllers of the space industry branded as selfish, exploitative and capitalists to better the lots of men on the planet Earth.
Worried about the exploitative tendencies of the abovenamed, whose inventions are solely designed to exploit humanity, Mr Musk, propelled, doubtless, by a benevolent force took the bold step to save humanity from exploitation and extinction by designing rockets to make space exploration affordable through the agency of his coveted Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
This giant leap has one way or another impacted positively on the life of man on earth and without a doubt he deserves a pat on the back.
However, how many Elon Musks are here on Earth today? None but one for all I know who is genuinely concerned about the survival of humanity.
To Africa this genius’ place of nativity we must now turn. The continent abounds in so many problems ranging from individual complexity to frustration factors and this is often attributed to bad leadership, greed and personal aggrandizement. That African governments have failed their people is not in dispute and the resultant effect have been none other than underdevelopment, poverty, hunger, tears, sorrow, conflicts and deaths. From Cape to Cairo and from Dakar to Mogadishu much as we often conduct a search for another Elon Musk who feels concerned for the survival of humanity, we keep failing at every turn.
Like I just did just point out ours is a continent that is plagued by problems of varying degrees. Today, we are up against hard times in Africa and this has forced many of our young men and women out of their homelands in search of greener pastures overseas. Many of these fortune seekers have no option but to navigate their way perilously through the fiery Sahara desert to the coast of North Africa. So many of them have died in this needless adventure while crossing the Mediterranean in rickety boats which are unable to withstand the strong ocean currents to the shores of Europe. Poor souls! They often run away from the harsh and intolerable conditions in their homelands among which is hunger. Ironically, we are on a continent that is blessed with vast agricultural potential!
I took an interest in social activism many years ago on national and global issues; in fact, this dates back to my university days. In my numerous adventures across Africa, life is the same everywhere, brutish, nasty and poor according to John Locke. Hunger has done an irreparable damage to us in Africa. While one of our own works tirelessly on space exploration programs to benefit humanity, many of us here on the dark continent often crave Elon Musk’s solution to where our respective governments have failed us.
Musk’s business acumen and influence today cut across continents. Only today May 30, 2023, the Chinese government played host to him; that is to say, there is something unique about this man that was born somewhere in Africa some 52 years ago. That the world’s second-largest economy invited him apparently for business and direction makes him a cut above others. He could not have been invited with anything in view. His visit to China on invitation by the Chinese government certainly has something to offer the Chinese people and by extension the rest of the world. If China the world’s manufacturing hub with a population of over 1 billion people could be seeking Elon Musk’s solution Africa as a matter of necessity and urgency must toe this line. This genius has so much to offer Africa in terms of service infrastructures of which we urgently stand in need.
We need well-developed service infrastructures to put us on par with the rest of the world and this I dare say also calls for Elon Musk’s intervention and solution. His space exploration programme has doubtless benefited humanity. Coming further to invest in service infrastructures across Africa and doing it the Elon Musk’s way will give everything an impressive turnaround and it is my unshaken conviction that he always will succeed where others have failed in terms of social services delivery.
Like I did say a while ago there is no denying the fact today that ours is a continent ravaged by hunger. Food remains one of life’s basic necessities. If one does not eat, for instance, for two weeks one will grow thin and eventually die. This is as sure as fate. Ours is a continent that has over 60% of vast uncultivated arable land. Today Africa with its teeming population cannot feed itself. Its people particularly here in sub-Saharan Africa still engage in peasant farming and grow barely enough to eat. A man that has revolutionized the space exploration program could do much more to turn Africa from a net importer of food to a food exporting continent considering our vast agricultural potentials whose labour her leaders are unable to positively mobilize. More than anything, we need to stay alive and we sincerely crave his attention in this regard.
Iyoha John Darlington(Ph. D), former, SSA to the Governor of Edo State, social activist and public commentator on national and global issues wrote from Lagos, Nigeria. Email: [email protected]
