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The Leadership Question in Africa

February 23, 2009

Africa is unique in our principal respect, of the five continents of the world, it is the only continent where poverty is soaring instead of reducing. There is malgovernance, failed projects, social strife and a beggar-thy-neighbor attitude to the countries of the North.  What is the problem with Africa? Many said that Africa's problem is not lack of manpower, ideology or policy. Most people have blamed the African crisis on poor leadership. The leadership question has five dimensions. First, there is authoritarian leadership in Africa, whether it is of military or civilian type. Second, the leadership is corrupt, third, leadership in Africa is not accountable neither is it called to account and fourth leadership has no vision, and lastly the leadership in Africa does not believe in the youth and women. Let me elaborate my propositions.


Although Africa has witnessed a spate of political transitions since the late 1980s, however, such transitions had led not to democracy but merely to civil rule or at best, what Professor Adigun Agbaje calls democratism. By democratism, Agbaje implies a situation where democratization has led not to the deepening or expansion of the democratic space but to the consolidation of authoritarian rule. The first attack line on democracy has to do with election. In many parts of Africa, elections have not been free and fair, and as such they have created more disaffection that joy and happiness in the electorate. Political office holders therefore do not have legitimacy and moral authority. Sensing their alienation from the people and lack of mandate they decided to rule with a culture of impunity.


One Party dictatorship and prolonged military rule had done incalculable harm and damage to democracy in Africa. Both forms of dictatorship simply refused democracy to grow and prevented a culture of debate and tolerance to take root in Africa. Opposition is seen as an anathema, and politicians who are critical of the system are seen as people to be eliminated by any means necessary.  All this was carried out in the perception of the politics as a zero-sum game. This has made politics to become over-priced and over valued. The spirit of sportsmanship waned and politics became warfare. In most cases, those who won elections ought to have been losers and those who lost where the true winners.  This is the irony of the story of elections in Africa. In victory, winners were arrogant and boastful, and in defeat losers sought revenge. In this context, it is apparent that those who govern in most part of Africa do not have the mandate of the people. As such, it is a tall order to expect them to be accountable to the people.

Even the legislature that is to serve as check or restrain on arbitrary use of power, is nothing but an extension of the executive arm of the government-extremely compromised and compliant. As a result of all this, government became insensitive to the yearnings and needs of the people. They are concerned not about the social security of the people, but about regime security. They saw in the people, a sack of potatoes-people to be manipulated and instrumentalised at elections. Because their power was not derived from the people, such leaders became afraid of the people and insulated themselves from the people. Elections became routinised ritual meant to ensure that such leaders were returned to power by fraud and use of force.

Many of such leaders became arbitrary and corrupt. They were not accountable to anybody except themselves. They had no conscience and felt no cause to serve the public good. They stole in the name of their grand children and starched the money away in vaults and banks in remote countries in Latin America and central Europe. Clientelism and patronage are the basis and hallmark of governance in many parts of Africa. Every thing is done on the basis of personal loyalty to the ruler, His majesty and Father of the Nation, what Julius Ihonvbere once called "the African Bigman". News about him and the First family made the top story in the electronic media and in most cases, His majesty is engaged in hedonistic practices which no media dire reported. Such information was always passed from ear to ear in form of gossip. People whisper in low tones to each other about the new mistress of the President, head of state and Commander in Chief. People whispered about the new wine, new car, new house the President bought for himself, his children or his mistress. In such cases,  governance is then reduced to the personal dictates and conduct or activities of the president in his leisure time.

Such leadership is not accountable to anybody, except, perhaps to leaders in the North. It is not accountable because it has no mandate. His Majesty,  the Head of state is unable to separate his personal money from the finances of the state, indeed he sees no difference between his money and that of the state; after all he is the state! In certain cases, as we saw with Zaire under Mobutu Seseseko, the President could be richer than the state and even loan the state money, as bailout from crisis. Records of accounts are never kept because they are incriminating; they are either falsified or destroyed. Those who seek to ask questions are brutally annihilated or silenced. Falsehood and political chicanery rule in such countries. In addition, such leaders enjoy praise-songs and deceit.

Visionary leadership is in huge deficit in Africa. People set out to contest election in Africa simply because they want raw power and raw wealth. People do not make a sober reflection, introspection and a soul search. They do not ask themselves the question: do I have what it takes to govern the people? Most times, many people believe that all it takes to rule is to organise a group of thugs and snatch ballot boxes at gunpoint and bulldoze oneself  to power, or bribe the electorate with money in order to cajole them to vote for you. Many people get to power only to realise that they do not have what it takes to be a leader. However they find it difficult to admit that they cannot offer anything to the people. What is worse, having tested the perquisites and paraphernalia of public office, they find it difficult to leave power. They become desperate about retaining power and they make sure that, at any cost and through whatever means, they retained power.

Many of our leaders in Africa came to power unprepared; they have no clue about the problems of their countries, no vision about where they want their country to be. Hence they take a day to day approach to problem-solving, rather than a strategic approach with a clearly laid out plan stretched over say four years, ten years etc. What Africa needs are visionary leaders, people who have ideas and who think far ahead of their societies and who can project into the future. Africa needs confident leaders who can standup to the International Financial institutions (IFIs) and to leaders of the North and tell them the truth. What Africa needs are leaders who will say enough of the bluff, enough of the deceit and enough of the hardship wrought on our people. Such leadership cannot emerge except Africa returns to the basics-free and fair elections, accountable leadership; leadership driven by ideas and manifestoes, leadership that has mandate of the people and leadership that allows the people determine their own future. Above all, Africa need leaders with unimpeachable integrity and high perspicacity.

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In most part of Africa, the youth are simply excluded from governance. They are not allowed political and social spaces. As a result they have become miscreants, urchins and urban misfits. Yet the youth constitute 67% of the population of Africa. This suggests that the population of Africa is a youthful one. It further suggests that there is need for an urgent policy that focuses on the youth. The first manifestation of  the youth crisis is one of political inclusion. How can the youth be incorporated into the political processes and structures of governance in Africa? This will take the form of affirmative action, just like was done with the women question in Beijing. This is to ensure  equity and fairness. The youth have potentials for all sorts of things, both positive and negative. They are better positively cultivated than allowed to wallow and gravitate towards negative deeds. We have also paid lip service to the women question. Apart from Rwanda and South Africa where the women question has been tackled politically, women are marginalized economically and politically in moist parts of Africa. There is need for a fundamental redress.

Africa needs a leadership that has the people's mandate; that is sensitive to the yearnings and aspirations of the people. A leadership that is accountable and abide by due process. A leadership that is visionary, inspired and driven by ideas. A leadership that renews itself on such social categories as workers, youth, and women. Unless Africa begins to rethink the leadership question we may not be able to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. Our competitors are mostly in South East Asia- mainly Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea.  Our leaders owe it a duty to regularly compare notes with those countries to gauge how far we have fared. How do we compare to them in terms of social and economic indicators?

Our leaders need to constantly remember that to make Africa globally competitive we must put in place structures and infrastructure that will salvage the current generation. If they are unable to salvage the present generation of youth, there is no way they can secure the future of the coming generation. The greatest challenge facing our leaders today is that of generational liability in the context of neglect of youth and women, lack of accountability and political mandate. Its never too late to begin to properly focus on these challenges. After all, politics is about the people and democracy is about how the people are empowered.

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