Africa would be far ahead in giving our children a great place to grow up.

Last weekend I was driving through a neighborhood in Accra, with BIG new houses, with expensive cars to match. However, the roads were so bad that my friend kept saying, don’t use this one, use the other many times, saying government has disappointed on the roads and drainage! I found myself telling him something I’d heard weeks back. “If only each home owner paved their half of the street.”

Weeks back, I had the pleasure of having breakfast with one of the passionate people I’ve encountered, who always challenges me at each encounter. He has the most interesting stories, which I’m not sure he knows, but always leave me thinking , don’t sit around waiting for others Lucy, you DO IT. And do it, he has on many occasions stepping up to leadership because someone has to. I use every opportunity I get to spend time with him and always leave inspired to stop complaining and continue the fight to BE the solution.

You see, years back his young son asked him about the “boreholes” on the street he encountered on his way from school. Perplexed, he realized his young son meant pot holes, which on rainy days appeared as though a borehole sent up some water, imagine that! He decided to DO something about it. That evening, he typed up and delivered a notice to all houses on the neighborhood asking them to each fill up the potholes outside around their cars with gravel stones. The following day, he was first to deliver and at the end of day, all houses had done just that. It took him by surprise, and inspired him to go a step further. He then went to the council chairman to request that he provide tar (which only government could provide) to smooth out the road. Council man didn’t mind him (like they say in these parts ☺️). What he did next was the exactly those who say, I didn’t choose to be in leadership, I needed to.

He went home and wrote to his neighbors asking them to spare an hour that week to go see the council man and boy did they turn out BIG. When they arrived at the council man’s office, his secretary tried to fend them off saying council man was busy and could not see them. As you can imagine my mentor couldn’t let that happen. He went in to call the council man and told him look outside the window to his constituents, and that they’d not leave without seeing him. Needless to say, they had tar delivered and properly leveled. The boreholes became a tarmac road in a matter of days, thanks to a CAN DO leadership mindset to mobilize and show the POWER of the people! The councilman went on to win re-election, later becoming a senator and my mentor is to thank for that.

Years later, he found himself in a similar situation, now in a new neighborhood and once again stepped up. Realizing how horrible the condition of his street was, moreover the houses had beautiful paved parking big enough to fit 10 or so cars, with the expensive cars to match, he knew exactly what to do. With the help of his son, delivered a notice to the neighborhood, asking them to pave half the road along their fence. The following day, pavers were on the road doing just that. In no time, the entire street was fully paved and soon other streets around did the same, now Lekki has the most paved streets in Lagos! Talk about inspiring leadership.

Reminded me of our Umuganda, which brings communities together once a month to tackle issues such as homes for the most vulnerable among us, neighborhood watch equipped with pick-trucks/uniforms/flashlights; street cleaners equipped bicycles to help them get around; roads; schools; malnutrition and so much more, which have been a cornerstone of Rwanda’s transformation.

Now imagine how great our Africa can be if we banded together to pave our part of the street so to speak! Our communities would have healthy children NOT suffering with malnutrition; living in under proper roofs NOT grass thatch; enjoy quality education in good schools; have great healthcare; live in safe neighborhoods and most importantly self reliant, NEVER waiting for “rescue” hand-outs in foreign aid!

There’s nothing stopping us from living our best lives! WE THE PEOPLE, not government or any authority can fix our issues or give anything until we step up to do the needful to better our lives. We have, WITHIN US, what it takes.

Will you be the one to mobilize your community to pave their part of the road? I challenge you to BE THE CHANGE, LEAD!