Ras Tafari...the same thoughts do trouble I. But I know having stayed in the midst of scuptors earning a living from recreating life through art that Africans are hard working, basic and simple. The many people you read about in Zimbabwes townships are very hard working...many run their own small businesses.

So Africans are not lazy...Zimbabweans are not lazy...Nigerians are not lazy. The only problem is the economic model...Nigerians are not prepared to work for a long time in the fields and then look for loans to fund their offtake, when they know that trading can give them three times better in a much shorter time. Farming is truly not a priority to the farming man in Nigeria.Everyone seems to be going for the gold in the city.

An almost similar case is in Zimbabwe...having done research on social issues in Zimbabwe...land was not their priority. They are concerned about formal jobs in the cities and they want to run small busineses in the cities and are tired of farming after they have seen the many long years their fathers struggled with farming...and yet they never really made it because they were not as machine and capital intensive as the 'commercial farmers. It is not just about the farmers being white...it is about them having cpaital, commercial farming skills and internatinal marketing connections and skills.

This then brings in the question of governement effort to advance the people. Taking land alone is not a solution. South Africas approach is more likely to yield results. Potential farmers need to be identified developed and then empowered through capital, skills and marketing development. This was the advice we constantly gave to our colleagues in Zim but we did not agree. As someone who was constantly in touch with the needs of the people - through systematic opinion and social research I knew my leaders were getting the equation wrong.

Taking land is a great achievement, but guiding the development of your people is an even greater achievement.

So it is not that we are lazy...but our leaders seem to get it wrong...they do not listen. They think they know what is good for us. At least Obasanjo is trying to advance agriculture and those willing to participoate in it...but Nigeria is a totally different country. Probably amongst the hardest countries to govern.