By Olakunle Agboola – Africa’s economic malaise is not the result of a lack of opportunities or resources. Rather, the continent suffers from the affliction of dishonest leadership, and this is not to demean the efforts of a few exceptional leaders who have shown commitment to duty.
Poor leadership has created the impression that Africans are incapable of finding solutions to the problems affecting the continent, and this is not exactly a product of racialism or the supremacist attitude of the former colonizers. This is a widely shared view of the continent by many other people in this world, including a lot of Africans.
Prof John Aluko, a political analyst and lecturer at America University expressed his dissatisfaction with African political leadership, which over the years has not been sustainable to keep up with Africa’s development. He made mention of a few leaders with good intentions but incapacitated and dwarfed living among the political wolves.
“Our leadership has for long been defined by indecisiveness and inaction, and this is why we are eminently known as illustrious back-seaters in international affairs, leaving the driving to all others, especially to the Western world. It does not make much of a difference for us if the matter of concern is of immediate concern to Africans: we always want to look up to superior beings from elsewhere to rescue our situation. Why should it be difficult to solve problems, if we have intentional leaders who are not concerned about the national treasury, and living on taxpayers’ money without consequence?
When a country as well-endowed agriculturally as Zimbabwe becomes a recipient of food aid or has its name missing on the global mineral traders list, despite the rich mineral content under its surface, there must be something fundamentally wrong. Nigeria also ought to be the gateway of civilization in the 21st century with the massive natural and human resources she possesses, but I must say it the way it is, Nigeria is flapping and scouting with the chickens due to poor bargain of political leadership.
We can agree that the so-called leaders are rulers smitten by the demon of individualism, poisoned by selfish interest, and submerged by wickedness. In the long run, they have killed every beautiful dream and hope of a community of children yet unborn. Western countries will continue to take advantage of Africa, and this is obvious with how much Africa in recent years has lost to Western Universities.
The UK Universities recently increased the school fees, while the home office increased Visa fees and NHS. This was an economic plan for the UK to raise money through immigration. They have Africa on their mind, as they know Africans will keep coming to their universities and accessing the NHS. This is the paradox of Africa’s poor leadership, and I won’t blame the UK which has now made tough legislation to disrupt the family system.
How will African states harness the potential of the youth population, who do not see their dreams coming to reality in Africa, until they travel abroad? This could have been a general
concern for the government, but so sad it is a passive apprehension, and what matters is the seat of power to cut their tits. We have effectively legalized a short-term mentality within the political space and that has stalled development for the continent’’.
John Ige is a lawyer and a team lead of Africa Rise. He joined the conversation, as he expressed his concern about leadership that can set Africa free and reorder or orderly arrange the private world of the citizens to see beyond the parochial arrangement and turn-by-turn system of government. John Ige believes many African states are running a system that will make Africa dependent on the West.
“Since independence, many of our countries, unfortunately, have been under people who style themselves as strong men, who didn’t respect the dignity of us Africa. The first challenge is to find the people, the leaders. When we look at our continent it’s taken a bit longer for us to come by the leaders who will take us to the promised land. We have the majority of those who want a bite of the National cake, as they care less about the welfare of the citizens.
We have had a very sad history over the past 600 years, a history that sucked our service to humanity and instilled some real demon of wickedness in us. I hope we can deal with our demons of selfishness to see the sunny view of humanity. This won’t come easy until we have more intentional and revolutionary leaders. The likes of Martin Luther King Jr. of America, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria, and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania easily come to mind’.
The Continent has been characterized by diverse social and economic challenges that have brought many countries in Africa to a standstill economically, despite the abundance of natural, human, and social resources. Leadership without greed or selfishness is the key for the continent to witness a paradigm shift and take its rightful place in the global economy.
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