African leadership: After the Challenge, what next?

By Kayode Oladele

As soon as the struggle for decolonization was over, and the new nationalists took over the helms of leadership, a new set of problems arose in Africa-dictatorship , ethnicity, corruption and mal-governance. On the economic side, there was underdevelopment. The people started complaining. Some even went to the extreme by urging the colonial masters to return and take over the reins of power. Civilian administrators were replaced by military administrators, it was the same story-nothing changed. The military blamed the civilians; the civilians blamed ex-colonial masters; and the ex-colonial masters were having a field day mocking and laughing at us. Till date, they are still laughing at the ridiculous ways our leaders patronize and kowtow to them over pittance. The people feel humiliated by all this.

Basic amenities and infrastructure are declining, access to basic social services have also shrunk. Yet, the people keep hoping that tomorrow would be better. They are fed by politicians and modernizing soldiers that they have come to transform their reality and they will bring the promise Eldorado. The people are asked not to complain, that they should just be content and indeed grateful with whatever they get. Complain is seen as lack of patriotism and disloyalty to the father of the nation. The constitution does not matter, personal loyalty is a sine qua none. Patronage became big business. All institutions of government converged around the leader, the father and the owner of the nation.

All kinds of excuses are given by leaders why they could not govern well: opposition politics, foreign intervention, donor fatigue… The people asked, why did you run for political power when you have no ideas, no vision about how to govern? The leaders said, you do not require expertise to govern. All you need are a few propagandists who will oil the wheel of governance and make you tick through all sort of moribund welfare packages. The media keep on praise-singing the leaders when there is nothing substantive on ground to show for it. Meanwhile, people keep wallowed in poverty, disease and unemployment. Purchasing power depreciated, more children dropped out of schools, health institutions could not provide quality services. There is general insecurity and total lack of political ownership. Yet the people keep hoping that tomorrow will be better.

They are told not to ask questions about the corrupt nature of their leaders, over inflated contracts and the insensitivity of leaders. They are urged to be preoccupied with what they can get from government. The people keep quiet, and they get nothing in return, hence, they decide to ask questions even if that will result in their being persecuted. So welcome to the second struggle for liberation in Africa- the social liberation struggle.

The people of Africa are now saying that they have been deceived enough. Students, farmers, workers and middle class elements have all been on the streets struggling for improved social conditions and against material hardship. The leaders said that those struggles were disruptive and they should be stopped. They were told, that it was uncivil to engage in protests and struggles against injustice and hardship. Yet, improvement did not come. Yet, nearly all parts of Africa was militarized.

Again and again, Africa looks up to western countries and donors and humanitarian groups and the UN, and EU - more Aids, more loans, more subsidies and in a word, more assistance and subservience to western interests. All social and economic indicators showed that Africa is today standing in the negative. In Industries, there is negative growth rates symbolized by de-industrialization, in Agriculture, drought, famine, civil wars and displacements have affected growth, withdrawal of subsidy to farmers have also affected agricultural production, as have WTO rules. In Education and Health, World Bank rules have held sway. Every where in Africa the language is one: the market.

There is a spirited call for marketization and competition. We are told “let the market rule”, and the state must go to bed to sleep-hence the cliché, "rolling back of the state". In this way we were told growth and development will come to bear. Africa has seen very limited growth and no development. Poverty keeps soaring in spite of the numerous economic policies in place. The private sector is only able to thrive in the context of the public sector. Every business man and woman is interested in doing business with government; everybody is dependent on the “big African government” they seek to shed. No company starts a physical year without waiting for Budget announcement. Economic reforms have not separated the private sector from government; if anything, it has further consolidated their ties. This is the irony and the tragedy of the African economic profile. The private sector in Africa has simply refused to grow. It remains the most underdeveloped part of the social formation. Interest rates are scandalous, and as such people take short term loans to finance commerce-buying and selling. These commercial o and entrepreneurial class have no interest in manufacturing sector or the overall health of the economy. They are either pirates or speculators or keen on quick returns on investment, hence short circuiting the system. As a result, there is no organic link between town and country, industry and agriculture. Yet the chant song has remained on the lips of many for as so long as independence celebration in most African countries.

What next? The people are told: “don’t ask questions; don’t take the wrong step; be mute and show contentment with what is on offer”. The people are told not to rely on any leader, don’t entrust your faith in any body, simply resign to faith and be more faithful because God will solve our problems. Belief is said to be the real test of piety. Governance has been turned on its head and our political leaders by embracing religousity and pulling the people along, they have also inadvertently shifted attention away from their misdemeanour and misconduct. This mindset has led in some quarters to over-religousity and the will to pass the buck and divert attentions’ away from the real culprits or agents of Africa’s underdevelopment. Who gains? There are few people at home and abroad who benefit form this. Who loses? Majority of the people of the continent, whose children and their future are compromised. This makes us less competitive on the international forum; indeed it makes Africa a laughing stock. This is because African leaders are only seen at For a where they go cap in hand to beg for money, beg for assistance and even beg for a share of looted funds to be repatriated to those countries, so that it could be re-looted. We have generally become beggars. Governance has been reduced to begging. We now beg for debt reduction/cancelation; beg for loans and Aids, beg for technical assistance and even beg for food. All this diminish and impinge on Africa's pride and kills the potentials of our people. It is a bruise on our shared values and integrity.

But we have talked about all this for so long. For how much longer we will stop lamenting? For how much loners will we talk rather than take the bull by the horn. When will African leaders learn to face governance, talk less or even shut? When will they stop blame-shifting and blame others less for our problems. For how less long are we going to chart a genuine path of development for your people, a path that is inclusive and that carries them along and benefits them? Unless we begin to reconceptualise governance in the sense of participation, unless we begin to conceive politics in utilitarian manner, we will not make much progress on the continent relative to other continents. . We will find the ship of development elusive to Africa. There is no trick, no miracle to development. Every society will develop at its own pace, on its own terms, and on account of what it defines or understands as development. There is no one model of development, hence we must reject Eurocentric definition of what amounts to or constitutes development.

There has to be consensus around what constitutes development; this should not be an elite privilege because in the end, it is the people that drive development. Development is about the people and it is focused on the people; it must therefore be driven by the people. Development comes from the shared experiences and potentials of the people and how they deploy their capabilities and skills to overcome them. Defining or understanding development does not require a Ph.D. in Development Economics or in Political Science.

What our leaders must know is that government begins to make meaning when the people are included, when the people understand it and when it begins to have impact in their material lives. It becomes meaningful only when leaders are sensitive, and when the people can participate in processes of decision-making, policy and their outcomes. Hence the next challenge for African leaders is how they can leave their Olympian heights and palaces and step down to have conversation with the people. That is what democracy is all about. This will be the preliminary basis for setting an agenda and roadmap for confronting Africa's myriad of crises. Africans are very optimistic people with strong faith and belief. That is why suicide rates and fatalities are very low on the continent.

The African people want to help themselves, thy have the will to survive and to do just any thing to survive. But they have consistently been failed by state actors. It is strange and indeed regrettable that poverty levels and infant mortality, illiteracy and unemployment are soaring on the continent, not to talk of malaria and HIV/AIDS; then roads and social infrastructure. The challenges are quite daunting. Since independence, successive administrations in various parts of the continent have promised the people that those problems will be solved. After four decades the problems have reached a crisis point and the people are still being fed on promises. After promises, what next?

Robot  # 1 | 23.06.2009 22:50

African leadership: After the Challenge, what next? ByKayode Oladele As soon as the struggle for decolonization was over, and the new nationalists took over the helms of leadership,a new set of problems arose in Africa-dictatorship , ethnicity, corruption and mal-governance. On the economic side, there was underdevelopment. The people started complaining. Some even went to the extreme by urging the colonial masters to return and take over the reins of power. Civilian administrators were replaced by military administrators, it was the same story-nothing changed. The military blamed the civilians; the civilians blamed ex-colonial masters; and the ex-colonial masters were having a field day mocking and laughing at us. Till date, they are still laughing at the ridiculous ways our leaders patronize and kowtow to them over pittance. The people feel humiliated by all this. Basic amenities and infrastructure are declining, access to b...Read the full article.

eire  # 2 | 24.06.2009 08:19

No Government in the world will survive if the citizens resist it continuously, These bad leaders you talk about know it. They also know African citizens are not into seriously challenging bad leaderships that is why many of them spend their entire adulthood and old age in Government, with a good number of them actually retiring, getting their pensions and dying on the thrones. If anyone is to blame it is your average African citizen who do not resist bad leaderships. These articles do not concentrate on these and as such are no different from the mentality of the average primitive and stupid African.

Eace  # 3 | 24.06.2009 08:27

Sir, I beg to differ with you on your comments on development. You write that 'there is no trick, no miracle to development...Every society will develop at its own pace, on its own terms, and on account of what it defines or understands as development.' For this reason, you are not keen on a 'Eurocentric definition' of development. If development is arbitrary, why the complaint about Africa then? One may argue that Africa is to borrow your words, developing ‘at its own pace, on its own terms, and on account of what it defines or understands as development.’ You go on to call for 'a consensus around what constitutes development'? Whose consensus? Having discarded the ‘Eurocentric definition’ and any other academic based definition since you argue that 'defining or understanding development does not require a PhD in Development Economics or Political Science', how do we arrive at a consensus around what constitutes development? You do not offer a definition but you point to how Africa may acquire development. You suggest that, 'development comes from the shared experiences and potentials of the people and how they deploy their capabilities and skills to overcome them.' Sir, surely you can see that is too vague. Which experiences? What potentials? Development is about people yes, but development is not about experiences and the deployment of capabilities. Development is about progress; socio-economic progress. Development is a transition from a basic stage of survival to a stage of freedoms, individual opportunities and access to better living standards in the community. Defining or understanding development is concretised by study and appraisal of human societies, something PhD holders in development and related studies spend years trying to do. At its end, your article presents the dilemma your contradictions have raised. You mentioned that ‘Africans have the will to survive and to do just any thing to survive’. But you also noted with regret that the challenges facing the continent are daunting and that the promises of its leaders are no longer enough. You know why this is so? Because Africa lacks development experts. The will to survive is not enough to propel a society to development. Africa needs persons with the knowledge and/or skill in development and development-related fields, and who understand the needs of the under-developed African society. African countries need development-oriented plans and development-oriented minds to move the continent forward. If we are lucky to have PhDs in these fields, we should be courting them not cutting off our noses to spite our faces by suggesting they are not necessary. They are fundamental to Africa’s progress. We don’t need development experts and Eurocentric ideas but we want the kind of lives and societies development experts and Eurocentric ideas have brought to the developed world. That’s more than a little contradiction, don’t you think?

Firma  # 4 | 24.06.2009 17:48

Hi Eace! I respect your view but I will not want to enter into the relativity of the term development and the co-factors when we refer to the improvement in lives of people... However I disagree with you about your suggestion of a systematic approach based on experts views. You mean we need to clean the spider-webs in the house with sophisticate gadgets while shying away from the Spider. To my mind Africans need practical solution, that maybe complex and multi-focussed, approaches that will not over look a thorough scrutiny of the problems and their roots. I mean we need a solution beyond a one-way approach that recluses the root of the problem, and ironed out by teacher in the field, I rest my view.