During the colonial period, Africa’s nation-building agenda was violently disrupted by colonialism. In the post-colonial era, it is being disrupted and contorted by, among other factors, ruinous polarisation, poor and corrupt leadership, loss or lack of consciousness, the inability to define a meaningful national agenda and resolutely converge on it, diabolical foreign interference in the affairs of Africa, and the new scramble for Africa. Africans need to understand that nation-building is not about individuals, political parties, or ethnic groups. It is not about electoral promises and cycles. It is about valiantly and expertly competing with the future and with other civilisations across the world. It is about building and bequeathing a solid future to present and succeeding generations. One of the most devastating effects of political polarisation in Africa is that it has planted and watered the misleading belief that political parties are the vehicles and agents of nation-building. This exaltation of political parties has created an atmosphere that is characterised by the belief that it is mainly, if not only, through affiliation to political parties, particularly the ruling party, that citizens can meaningfully participate in the nation-building project.

It is tragic that the responsibility of nation-building has been taken away ​from citizens and given to political parties. This has created a political atmosphere of uttermost haughtiness and disdain, with each political party believing that it is exclusively endowed with the ability and responsibility to build the nation. This has eroded or exterminated the incentive for political parties to work with each other. Political parties are not vehicles for nation-building, but for acquiring and retaining power. Citizens are the vehicle and agents of nation-building because it takes citizens across the length and breadth of a given country, including those who are based in the diaspora, to build a nation, not any political party or ethnic group. While it is important for citizens to belong to political parties of their choice, it is exceedingly important for them to rise above and beyond partisan politics and make nation-building a collective responsibility, not a partisan one. There is no society that can prosper without its citizens having to converge on a “big myth” regardless of their political and other differences.

African countries are also heavily polarised along ethnic lines. This polari​s​ation is often a result of the tendency of one or more ethnic group(s) to dominate the political and economic space. This tendency comes from the belief that (only) a particular ethnic group(s) has the credentials or entitlement to lead the nation. It also emanates from the stereotyping and othering of other ethnic groups. The belief in political parties and ethnic groups has moved Africans from a panoramic, non-partisan, and inclusive view of nation-building to a parochial, partisan, and exclusive one. This is a tragic development that needs to be urgently cured. Citizens must believe in each other as a collectivity, not in political parties, political leaders, or ethnic groups.