Can First Ladies of African Countries Make Themselves Relevant?

Photo Credit: Reuters

First Ladies of African countries are associated with immense luxury and shopping sprees while being surrounded by body guards. The First Ladies have left a sore taste in the minds of many because they are not seen to have achieved much in their respective countries despite the numerous and elaborate conferences, workshops, transatlantic meetings, charity “photo-ops”, and so on.

Africa progress report of 2014 stated that “the ultimate measure of progress in Africa is the wellbeing of people”. One wonders if the First Ladies of respective African countries have read this report; and are they really sincerely interested in achieving anything for their countries?

At 7th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights (ACSHR) in Accra, Ghana African First Ladies declared the following: commitment to make Africa a continent free of HIV, commitment to fighting the challenges facing grass root people in the areas of early marriages -unwanted pregnancies, sexual health and rights, commitment to provide equal access to information and credit; but nothing concrete yet besides many more commitments and encouraging words which are constantly being echoed by the First Ladies of African countries, but nothing concrete has been achieved. (Africa progress report),

“Countdown to 2030” in 2015, after rigorous research, called on governments and development partners to be accountable, after a decade of tracking progress for maternal, new born and child survival in 75 countries (including African countries) which account for 95% of all maternal and child deaths. Very little progress has been seen on ground so far in Africa.

According to current statistics, HIV/AIDS situation in Africa is this: HIV/AIDS is a major public health concern and cause of death in many parts of Africa. Although the continent is home to about 15.2 percent of the world's population, Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for an estimated 69 percent of all people living with HIV and 70 percent of all AIDS deaths in 2011 (Wikipedia.org).

UNICEF HIV/AIDS Report states that: “AIDS is the leading cause of death among adolescents (10-19) in Africa and the second leading cause of death among adolescents globally. AIDS-related deaths among adolescents have tripled since 2000 while decreasing among all other age groups, which can be largely attributed to a generation of children infected with HIV perinatally who are growing into adolescence without access to life-saving interventions. About half of adolescents (15-19) living with HIV are in just six countries: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Mozambique and Tanzania. Every hour, 26 adolescents (15-19) were newly infected with HIV in 2014 (220,000 total).”

Are the First Ladies of African countries aware of these dismal statistics, and if they are, are they really committed and contributing to changing these figures? Indeed, it is time for them to drop their Gucci purses and sun glasses, Cartier watches, Hermes bags and other ridiculously expensive designer cravings and begin to inspire youth in their respective countries to change their lifestyles in the positive direction.

References:

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/11445235/African-first-lady-Presidents-wives-dont-have-a-life-of-luxury.html

• http://www.president.go.ke/2016/02/10/first-ladies-from-africa-commended-for-their-transformative-grassroots-programs/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_Africa

• http://www.countdown2015mnch.org/

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Blog Post Author: Maryanne Aniagolu-Oke is a bi-lingual freelance human resource generalist and community development expert who speaks English and German. Maryanne writes for SitiTalkBlog.

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SitiTalkBlog is focused primarily on Africa's socio-economic and political issues, scientific and medical topics, as well as global current issues and news. SitiTalkBlog also highlights positive entertainment as long as it has the potential to cause us to think and take positive actions. The blog is geared towards sensitizing people to take constructive actions and engineer practical solutions

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