Africa, a continent abundantly gifted with natural resources
and astronomical value of human capital is yet to find its rightful place among
the comity of nations. A key cause that has been to blame for her lack of
socioeconomic development is the trend of bad leadership and corruption.
The essence of the paper rest in the fact that political
leadership as well as corruption was entwined and it is alongside this backdrop
that it explored the fraudulent trend of the political ruling class in Africa.
The article concludes that for Africa to experience sustainable socio-economic
development, reliable and trustworthy leaders must materialize to embed the act
of good and selfless governance in the country.
INTRODUCTION
Africa in recent times is bombarded by an inherent
predicament in comparison with other Latin American countries and Asia. In
illustration from the practice of other developed Countries, one needs to be
cautious in order to escape easy oversimplifications in regard to contemporary
determinants for African economic and social makeover. Every significant
thought of African development plan must take notice to the crucial matter of
good leadership as well as eradication of corruption at all stages.
The ruling class in Africa many a times plead ignorance of
the fact that they are in power in order to be of service to the citizens and
not vice versa ; they exploit their positions to put as much public money as
they can in their pockets and even get away with it!
Unfortunately most African leaders have come to acknowledge
corruption as a normal occurrence and often see it as a means to an end.
However on the other hand leaders of the developed world, are often placed
under a 24 hour watchful scrutiny, their past is vigilantly investigated before
ascending to any public office.
Transparency International approximates that corruption in
Africa robs us 25 to 35 percent of financial support from essential service
provision, in addition many research studies and newspapers have proven that
African leaders extract billions every year from their economically weak
countries.
Over the years, it has become increasingly clear that the
former colonial masters cleverly gave up on political power while at the same
time retaining economic power. African leaders were ill equipped and began
leadership to a false start.
Unprepared for the economic ambush that the neocolonialism
would unleash consequently our greedy leaders became easy victims for
manipulation by the west. The high ideals of being a servant to the citizens
remained largely a big part focus for theory and speech-making.
In harmony with the aim for political dominance as an ending
in itself, African leaders were unable convert freedom from colonial power to
the popular beliefs of democracy and liberty. They are unsuccessful in building
capacities for the people to engage in meaningful economic and social
development.
Power is always handed over to a specific individual rather
than to the political party, and the leader was/is seen as a renowned wealthy
family as opposed to being a representative of the country. Hence religious,
cultural and ethnic walls are not synchronized via basis of equitability and
fair balance of interests.
Discrepancies that
ordinarily should have been eliminated after independence were infact made
worse by it. Grumbles of unfairness and ill-treatment by the marginalized
parties inside these territories were utterly overlooked.
As a result defiance
to inequality and preeminence of power by influential groups or families or
authoritarian leaders was restrained by bigger abuses of power. Consequently,
breaches of human rights and suppression of the manpower that could have
otherwise been used for nation building and development.
In Nigeria for instance, during the reign of President
Olesegun Obasanjo, who was entirely in control of petroleum in Nigeria, it was
investigated and reported that over 500 million dollars meant for upkeep and
renovations of the oil industry had not been put to any use and infact ghost
contactors had been tendered the contracts.
Further it revealed that the petroleum industry, Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was one of the biggest corrupt bodies in
Nigeria. Undoubtedly nations in endure effects of poor administration,
inadequate judicial infrastructure and insufficient numbers of expertise.
But these short-comings cannot explain the abuse and misuse
of state power in the continent. For instance, Kenya has a big figure of
highly-trained professionals, as well as accountants and constitutional lawyers
put down budgetary procedures, with inclusion of provisions for checks and
balances. But the fact remains that Kenyan rulers have ignored the provisions
of the constitution and put down administrative procedures as irrelevant to the
actual workings of government.
Omar Al-Bashir, the former President of Sudan, grabbed power
in 1989 in a bloodless military coup de ta in opposition to the government of
Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi- a government which had been independently
elected by the citizens of the country. Shortly after grabbing power, Al-Bashir
disintegrated all political parties Sudan, dispersed the country’s parliament
and cut out all privately-owned media firms.
His time in power has been distinguished by civil conflicts
wherein more than one million people have lost their lives not to mention
numbers of those who have been rendered refugees by the war and at the same
time several millions have lost their livelihoods.
Not to mention that Al-Bashir was recently over thrown and arrested besides
he has a warrant of arrest on his head and has been sought after by the
International Criminal Court for prompting crimes against humanity, especially
with reference to heading and financing acts of carnage against the people of
Southern Sudan. Distinctively corrupt, a diplomatic wikileaks cable discovered
that Al-Bashir had likely siphoned several $10 billion of his Sudan’s finances
into his personal bank accounts in the United Kingdom.
Very disconcerting is how corruption leaves the poverty
stricken to be perpetually poor at the same time impedes the growth of
democracy and societal construction. And
by deflecting away from the original purpose of funds or services, corruption
is assumed to be the sole most significant factor to blame for the catastrophe
of leadership and the lack of socio economic development in Africa.
Africa’s corruption is a manifestation of its leadership and
institutional failure after gaining it freedom from colonialists essentially
because of misuse of power mediocre management of economies, corruption, and
absence of democracy, personal wealth are what our leaders today embrace. There
are also those who worship the Europeans. Where they invest their ill-gotten
gains and wealth stolen from their motherland.
Africa continues to be poor because politics is considered
an easy ticket to prosperity, to add to that the leadership has no continuity
agenda and opt for dying in office, being some of the richest people in the
world amidst the most poverty-stricken citizens in the world.
In open public speeches African leaders criticize control by
the west but in reprehensible booked appointments behind closed doors they are
otherwise occupied appealing to Europe and China to carry on where they left
off pre-independence. Captivatingly, modern china is gradually becoming a
colony of Africa given all the contracts they have taken over in Africa.
Meanwhile regional Organizations like the African Union (AU)
who one would presume have their work cut out for them, have regrettably done nothing
to endorse good governance in Africa. I’m quite that the difficulties are known
but, the answers for them continue to be hypothetical and set aside on computer
memory someplace in Addis Ababa. What we possess are heads that split us up
instead unifying.
Drawing from the example of the late Muammar El Qaddafi,
these divisions turn against them and in the end the outcome is a very
overpowering catastrophe that is often difficult to deal with. A renowned
journalist Aguako Basaid in his address to Nigerians during a leadership
conference said that, “an African leader finds it difficult to renounce power
and in an attempt to perpetuate himself in power, he gets so many people
involved in corrupt practices”.
Most dictatorial leaders in Africa have had tenures
spreading for over 30 decades for example are former Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe,
Cameroon’s Paul Biya, Angola’s Jose dos Santos, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo,
of Equatorial Guinea and like many of their predecessors these leader spent
their whole careers enriching themselves, bullying opponents, circumventing all
but the simple ensnares of democracy aggressively frustrating movements gunning
for constitutional rule.
They were or are successful because they control the major
arms of government; civil service, electoral bodies, security forces including
the military, the press, media and the central banks in their countries. This
trend started with the first generation of African nationalist leaders because
they enjoyed great honor and prestige making them feel godly and of course
absolute power does infact corrupts absolutely.
They also came off successful in eliminating or disregarding
checks and balances. Instead of they exercised vast systems of patronage and in
the process sported enormous power and authority allowing them to subjugate all
relevant institutions consequently they helped lay a bad foundation for
governance in Africa and corruption rampant in their economies. Institutions
today are unable to control excesses of their dictators.
Also observed in present times are the ever present cases of
electoral fraud, contested elections, presidents with too much power at their
disposal and political upheaval not to mention economic policies introduced by
government to sustain their domination and exploitation.
Conclusion
The misfortune in Africa is not that its countries are poor,
that is a condition that is a product of history. The misfortune is that it
does not have ruling classes dedicated to prevailing over the state of
underdevelopment. Bad governance is not a principal predicament of lack of
knowledge or infrastructural competence or even of individual dictators.
African countries are wakened by instruments of development
because of the rulers, not to mention people within and out of government, are
aggravated by goals that do not have the slightest to do with the general good.
Until this situation changes there is little hope for Africa.
Policies aimed at controlling or reducing corruption in
African countries must begin with laying the foundation for a strong
institution- economic, political and social- in all sectors of the economy. Citizens must also be encouraged to speak out
against corrupt practices without fear of reprisal, and whistle-blowers must be
protected.
While there is legislation to protect whistle-blowers in
most African countries, the reality on the ground is that intimidation and
influence is used to maintain silence and secrecy. #EndCorruption #ResourceManagement
#Accountability #Leadership #BetterGovernance #Equity #Africa
No comments:
Post a Comment