III SHAKE OFF THE FETTERS AND BREATHE FREEDOM
1. Men have the right to choose the form of Government under which they desire to live. The question is sometimes asked whether good government is not preferable to self-government. To this two eminent leaders have given an unequivocal answer. One was Manuel L. Quezon, the Filipino politician, who once said that he preferred a government 'run like hell by Filipinos to a government run like heaven by Americans'. And Dr. Nkrumah has said that he "prefers self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility".
Therefore, it is plain that men prefer a government of their own choice, however inadequate it may be to a government imposed from outside. All men long for freedom, freedom to manage their own affairs. You can manage your affairs better than anybody, because you know your needs.
2. COLONIALISM Colonialism is the system by which Agents of imperial countries demand certain extraterritorial rights, or request permission to build forts, or seek privileges of some kind or another; by which they persuade or compel the rulers of the foreign country to accept protection from external attack or security from internal disorder on certain conditions; or by which they subdue and annex the foreign country. Whatever colonialism is, it involves some loss by the inhabitants of the colonial teritory of their freedom of action.
Most of the colonies were acquired during the general "grab for Africa" with the sole intention of benefiting the imperial powers, by supplying them with raw materials.
The system is fraught with many evils.
(i) Because it is based on authoritarian rule and a concentration of power it obsructs real, social and individual progress.
(ii) Under it the governed cannot achieve what they can call their way of life as they are subjected to a government led by people who differ from them in their language, their culture, their desires from life and in their personal, financial and political thinking, some of whom regarding themselves as super species.
