By Owei Lakemfa
AS Africans, we face  lots of challenges in the new year. But the womb of 2011 also carries what the scan shows as the continent’s newest baby: the independent Republic of Southern Sudan. A January 9, 2011 referendum is expected to give birth to the new baby which would be weaned as  a separate country six months later.

The referendum is part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Plan for Sudan intended to end a 55-year rebellion against the North’s use of military muscle and the twin policies of Arabicisation and Islam. The referendum promises peace between the south and the north but not  the north and the west.  The on-going  rebellion in Western Sudan, the Darfur area  has already consumed 400,000 lives and displaced 2.5 million people.

However, the birth of the new child is not without its dangers; the border  between both sides, especially where  the oil-rich Abyei will fall, has not been decided and skirmishes are likely to occur. But I do not see the likelihood of a full scale  war because both sides are aware that they cannot subjugate each other.

Also, the north will be preoccupied  with the war in Darfur and the fact that President Omar Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court. Another problem is that  in the aftermath of the referendum, a furious north  is likely to expel southerners in their midst.

The new country will also face serious challenges such as mass unemployment and the building of basic infrastructure. Africa should be prepared for all these.

The challenge in Sudan is  a much more straight forward one compared to that in Somalia: That country   has no functional government, no serious parties that can negotiate peace, no infrastructure  that can sustain a people and no hope that anarchy can be defeated in that part of the continent in 2011.

The most pressing challenge however is Cote d’Ivoire where dictatorship and military relic, Laurent Gbagbo  is shedding blood in order to hold on to power after 10 years of directionless leadership and after losing elections. It is a dicey issue for Nigeria which leads the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The main dilemma we have is that  over two  million  Nigerians are said to reside  in that country.

It is not enough to shut down our embassy as government has done, the most important issue is the safety of our people in what is looking more like a war situation. Everything must be done to avoid a repeat of the Liberian tragedy when defenceless Nigerians were massacred. Whatever the case, Gbagbo must be kicked out.

There are, however, some success stories such as the sweet hymns from Guinea – Conakry. The country had been seized by a band of cowboys in military uniform. An intra-gang fight had removed Captain Dadis Camara from the scene, allowing the sane General Sekouba Konate to organise elections which were won by Alpha Conde.  The latter has been sworn in as president, and the Guinea of Sekou Toure is set once again  to take its place amongst the progressive countries of our continent.

Violence-driven Guinea-Bissau has been stable for some months. This promising nation  nurtured by the legendary Amilcar Cabral  has been tortured by an unstable military whose level of impunity is unprecedented on the continent. There is another joyful song; Ghana!

This country with its foundations built by Kwame Nkrumah has shaken off years of military rule, rebuilt its economy and has put in place a model of political transition unmatched in contemporary Africa. Now it has discovered oil. Given its origins, the political consciousness of the people, and the rejection of the Nigeria style do-or-die politics, this new found wealth is likely to be a blessing, rather than the curse it has been for some countries.

So Nigeria, the giant of the continent has a model to emulate; its elites can no longer make the criminal  argument that liberal democracy is Western and cannot work. I agree there are severe limitations to liberal democracy, but the minimum expected of us is to make the votes count as they did in Ghana, and ensure that the type of madness that  seized Cote d’Ivoire is not allowed here.

We hold it a duty to ensure that the apostles of violence and backwardness who want to seize power by any means necessary,  fail. Nigerians  with their votes must push the desperate into irrelevance, and sing the Nunc Dimittis on this last day of 2010 to the orphans of ethnocentric and do-or-die politics.

Africa also faces the challenge  of revisionist politics like the veteran 84-year-old Abdoulaye Wade is doing in beautiful Senegal. He should be encouraged to wrap up his 10-year old presidency rather than try to impose leaders like his son on the people. In the past, he was associated with the spirit  of African independence, his recent act of   playing  out the script of the United States do not do justice to him.

If Iran illegally imported arms into Nigeria, how  does that become an excuse for Senegal  to review its diplomatic relations with that country? It is understandable for Gambia’s unstable dictator, Yahya Jammeh to do that, but not Wade.

Generally, the continent faces serious challenges in the Democratic Republic of Congo where armed bandits from within and a number of African countries, hold sway in the rural areas. There is the menace of Joseph Kony’s Lord Resistance Army (LRA)which pillages  a number of African countries.

Perhaps the most potent challenge Africa faces is poverty; poverty amongst the people, poverty of governance and poverty of ideas amongst the ruling elites. This is why the continent, like a standard FIFA ball, is kicked across the world.

This is the reason for the desperation of many Africans, and widespread, poverty-related diseases like cholera that ravaged the continent, including its beautiful cities like Abuja in the dying year. May 2011 be the Year of Africa when the continent would review its past and begin to build   the Africa Nkrumah fought so hard to build.