Africa needs a new lease in politics

Publisher,korir, africanpress@getmail,no

<Story by Harrison Mwigi Ikunda

WHEN one critically looks at Africa, there is a lot and vast potential. Africa has everything. It is a continent with so much and diverse resources, very intelligent and very strong people and has favourable weather for everything among others. But one aspect which is infamous with Africa is the never ending trail of disappointment to her sparsely and some densely populated countries. Pre colonialism was bad in Africa, colonialism was horrible and post independence has a fairy tail of mess all over Africa with never ending feuds, hunger, poor economies, confused politics and Africans ever willing to entertain any soothing mouth even those of conmen from other continents. Africans dalliance with China is likely to be a worse experience than what it has had with USA, Europeans, Indians, Arabs, and Persians of prior periods. In a nutshell Africa looks to be still on the road to nowhere!

 

The poor state of Africa is neither lack of brilliant people in the continent nor that of natural resources. Indeed Africa stands out as a very highly endowed continent in terms of everything. The problem lies with other factors which among them include culture, confused politics, poor engagement with the rest of powerful continents and countries, unfair trade practices, racism among others.

 

The big questing is this, why is it that Africa has the highest number of failed states? Why is it that Africa has the highest number of failing states? Why is it that Africa has the highest number of states with propensity to fail? Just look at Zimbabwe, it was once a promising country under the same leader and a well read man for that matter Bob Robert Mugabe. A war veteran and an independence hero has bled this southern country to a brink of disaster! Yet in the familiar fashion African leaders just want to pretend all is well.

 

How many dictators do we have in Africa? How many potential dictators do we have in leadership in Africa today? How many likely dictators is Africa busy breeding in leadership roles currently? So what is wrong with Africa? Is  it the colour,  genes, or does it have anything to do with colonialism, tribalism, sun, desert, resources, poor literacy and education levels, oceans, skewed trade covenants  or what is it? Something is wrong in Africa. But if anything Africa has everything. It is well endowed, but its leadership is one of the greatest failures. Actually it is largely to blame for failure which is evident across Africa.

 

Who will tell the many myopic leaders found in the African continent that their leadership like elsewhere experiences diminishing returns with time? Who will whisper some wisdom to the ears of most of them that they got past their useful leadership life time, long time ago? Who will even inform the many African aspiring leaders and others in leadership that they lack the with- withal to grow beyond what they have already which is even  beyond the wildest dreams for most of them , due to their myopia, tribalism, nepotism, traditions, confusion and hubris? Who will advise young people that most of the African leaders are not examples worth listening to, leave alone following or copying?

 

Africa is still at crossroads. The energy and fuel crises affecting the global economy vests so much advantage to many African economies who have the  propensity to feed the globe. Yet it won’t be surprising that Africa unlikely to exploit her potential to gain from the silver lining provided by the presently existing global challenges which favour her in a big way. Instead it is likely to be another chapter of Africa’s failure, hunger, war, dictatorial misguided policies and despotism!

 

Is all lost for Africa? Definitely not. The level of awareness of global opportunities across Africa is very high. The standards of education are improving tremendously. The exploitation of knowledge and science is catching up in Africa. However Africa is still very challenged. And the culprit? Africa’s leadership of course! It is still confused, dictatorial, and exploitative; full of con artists, stone age styles and of course very myopic! But there is still hope,

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