Does anyone know the answer? Perhaps the government does. Perhaps this is why it has initiated a crackdown in the NGO sector. Perhaps the government is suspicious of NGOs.
But why is this. Every day I open the paper and I read about the good works executed by various NGOs.
I read that they are providing us with clean water, malaria nets, tips on how to avoid illness. They hand out condoms by the truck load and tell us that cigarette smoking and excess alcohol is not the way forward.
They host workshops all over the country, indeed across the region and many of my colleagues, myself included, have availed themselves of the hospitality of the NGO sector.
So they are doing more than a good job. Indeed without NGOs where would this country be? According to them, we would be chain-smoking alcoholics, aids ridden, illiterate and a malaria and dysentery sick society.
Oh dear! It all sounds like hell on earth but can it be true?
Who is telling us that they are indispensable? Where do we find this information?
In the media, of course, in those same articles that I have referred to, the ones on the news pages and feature pages that I read every day.
So who is writing these pieces? Are they researched properly? Are they written objectively?
I can tell you that they are not. On the contrary, they are presented to news editors in a neat and attractive package, usually fluently written, persuasive, and ready to be published. Just like an instant fix of fast food.
A lazy news or features executive loves them. For them they are the equivalent of a free lunch. A pile of them in a desk drawer means that there is no need to panic when a sudden hole appears in the page and it need to be filled before that day’s deadline. There is, always, a worthy piece from an NGO to publish.
And these pieces are, without fail, instructive. They tell a now familiar story, centred around the dramatic change in fortunes of a poor boy or girl or of a family that is suddenly saved from starvation/illness/money troubles/farming woes/ school problems.
These rags to riches, disaster to triumph formula always shows the NGO in good light. The message is simple: without the help, resources and wisdom offered by the timely intervention of the NGO, the wretched of a world (i.e. you and me) would be in serious trouble. We would have nothing, no food, water, access to health care. We would simply fade away.
Now is this a true picture? Of course it isn’t. There are thousands, no millions, of us who have managed to find food and a job and who live a healthy life style without the involvement of an NGO.
The NGOs are, I am afraid to say, guilty of disseminating a lie about themselves and the part they play in our lives. And if they are lying about us, then they are lying about Africa.
They have, little by little, over the years constructed a tapestry of horror and wretchedness about our beloved continent. They have created a portrait of Africa that shows a hopeless continent, ridden by death and disease, famine and war; a pernicious image which though a blatant lie, the world now believes to be true.
And they have done it, not for our benefit, but for themselves.
Because without war and disease and famine where would the NGOs be?
An NGO survives on funding, often donated by the public in an emergency. To obtain funding, to persuade foreign governments that there is a problem and a need to solve it, the NGO must first demonstrate to the world at large that it alone has the professional know-how, the experience and the resources to make things better.
So what can we do about it? Well, the government is taking a step in the right direction by insisting that the activities of NGOs should be accountable and transparent.
Governments, however, are lazy. Rather than tackle the problems of health and education and transport themselves, governments often rely on outside expert advice, enter the NGO.
Governments think this is cheaper and more efficient. But who is to say that the advice it gives is expert? One man’s expert is, as we are all aware, another man’s fool.
Experts, whether they are genuine or not, do not come cheap. They earn astronomical salaries while local NGO staff are paid peanuts.
Is this fair? Does this salary gap reflect the so called ideals of the NGO world which is, in its own words, designed to bring a better quality of life to us less fortunate creatures?
Of course it isn’t fair but when was the world ever a level playing field?
So what if there were no NGOs? What if we were to have the courage to send them all packing? Who would, or could, fill the gap?
I think that we would manage. I think also that a skills crisis would bring out the best in our society. Too long have we been content to sit back (or more likely queue up) and wait for someone to help us.
A world without NGOs would make us, at a stroke, more self reliant and this can be no bad thing. On the contrary, it would help create an elite class of can-doers in our country.
So I suggest that our esteemed President grasp the NGO nettle and though it might be painful at first touch, order them to leave the country and let us take care of our own destiny.
It would mean, of course, that there would be a few holes to fill in the pages of this newspaper, a few less workshop lunches to attend, but that is indeed a cheap price to pay for freedom and dignity.
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