Current Status of African Leadership: A Historical View of An African Leadership

Pan Africanism,  African Leadership, African Leaders, African Union

Our forefathers had a long history of migration in search of peace, security, and hope for their generation to come. As they migrated along with their most cherished of all extended families and some food crops. Some said, “at certain times, it was due to maltreatment from a dominant society, a territorial war or famine and finally it was slavery”. The above is the summarized version of oral history that ran across Africa. Oral histories had proven how the continent of Africa has been serving as a haven for the black race. For a community to survive this far, it needed leadership and fellowship with vision powered by unity and peace. The foundation of ancient Africa had leaders that determined what was right and wrong, what should be done and how it should be done. This type of leadership was generally accepted as autocratic in today’s modern world. Even though a visible portion of this type of leadership still exist in Africa, it has no sufficient power because it was suppressed by modern-day governance by the people (democracy) which also gives priority to few in decision making.

Colonization was what actually brought self-governance to Africa just like other parts of the globe. The United Nations (UN) formation as the world largest administrative arbiter paved way for African countries which were detached from the world due to the scars of slavery and colonization to join the UN. The self- government later accepted as independence all happened in 1944 as documented in the UN charter. The Organization of Africa Union was established to end colonial rule in order to ensure peace and security. The organization has successfully helped many African countries to attain independent before the year 1993. Unfortunately, the peace was ruined by the genocide in Rwanda, widespread political crisis and civil wars recorded after the year 1993. The economic and socio-developmental challenges of the continent were further compounded by the impacts of globalization. In areas of the continent affected by conflicts, many civil societies stop functioning, critical health and education systems breakdown, fiscal infrastructure was destroyed, agricultural activities were interrupted, food supply became scarce, commence and trade shrunk, poverty increased, population growth was diminished and disease epidemics spread unchecked. These aforementioned problems are still existing in most parts of the continent with or without conflict. African countries mostly face poverty fueled conflicts that affect the peace, security, and development. The recent widely known Boko Haram, Al Shabab, and the Al Qaeda crisis which was powered by religious extremism is an example. The admiration of the luxurious lifestyle of some of the prominent Arab states and the desire to establish such states in Africa by force is the paramount desire of the extremists. It was clear that the anger which drove this crisis was poor development. The grand promises of political leaders to win the mandate of the masses which was never accomplished could also be held accountable. What the current generation of Africans needed to do as good leaders to arrest conflict to ensure peace, security and development in Africa are to:

1.    Strengthen public education on matters concerning peace and security, state of the economy and other state decision to keep the citizens aware of the state of their nation.

2.   Focus on rural development through education and training, investments and to provide social amenities targeted towards bridging the wide gap between the rich and the poor (poverty alleviation programs).

3.    Be ready to employ new but viable ideas/knowledge, technologies to speed up development.

4. Encourage, promote, support promising individuals that engage in voluntary community development activities to take national leadership positions.

5. Promote local businesses.

6. Industrialize our agricultural and natural resources to create jobs for the citizens.

7. Form partnership with other nations to support and eliminate barriers on trades, employment and more.

8. Develop social care services to support the needs of human resources.

9. Take advantage of social media to publish wonderful images of our culture, human resources, natural resources in order to attract tourist and investors.

10 Negotiate multilateral relationships that would create more jobs for the citizens.

The continent of Africa is endowed with a lot of resources which received international interest from time immemorial. Our natural resources which we solely depend on for development is now a treat to our environment and society due to the conflicts and land degradation it includes. Minerals such as diamond, gold, uranium are some economy boosters for countries such as South Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, Ghana to name a few and so far, they are the course of some of the major conflicts. The indigenous peoples of these countries live their arable land to the state in the hope of a better future of great development which was not realized. In Ghana, I witnessed the conflict of illegal mining which involved locals and foreigners from China. The government of the day tried every means to get rid of this problem but the poor citizens proclaimed that they are unemployment, poor and lack social amenities because they lose their farmlands to degradation without any assistant from the state. They vowed not to stop until they recover their losses. It is probably known that such a problem can aggravate into war when not properly manage. About a decade now, unemployment, poverty, drought, and conflicts had increased migration. Most of the unemployed skilled laborers who find their way out of the continent are mostly not well protected in other countries, considering the maltreatment of Africans migrant workers in the middle eastern countries some recorded by the Human Right Watch, International Labour Organization (ILO) to name a few. Most at times, poor migrants who risk their lives traveling across the Sahara desert to Europe are either attack by raiders, die from hunger on the desert or are drowned in the Mediterranean sea; the most successful of the migrants are being held in detention camps. These are some major problems affecting peace and security across Africa and must be a call for unity among all Africans to provide solution on time.

African leaders are pressured into making hard choices to stabilize the economy by over-exploiting natural resources as a means to solve the economic crisis that further aggravates our tendency to go in for more international loan and aid. The debt crisis of African countries is abysmal considering the factsheet of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which state about 30 African countries that wished to receive HIPC Initiative Assistant as of February 2017. The debt crisis of Africa is not only attributed to poor governance, corrupt leadership, protracted civil wars, insufficient democratic checks and balances on governmental borrowing and spending, population growth and inadequate economic policies. The good land of Africa battles with national problems such as the impacts of globalization which encompasses volatile exchange rates, protectionism in the world markets for agricultural products and low technology manufactures which makes it particularly difficult for African countries to diversify and increase exports to hard currency markets. Upon the discovery of crude oil across the vast continent, so far only a few portions have been industrialized, most portion of the fuel is sold to developed countries which are used for about 6000 items which are then exported to the continent. Multilateral and bilateral relationships have a great impact on the national economy; considering free trade, foreign direct investment, free movement of people, exchange of ideas and more. However, it seems disastrous to the economy which has limited development in terms of industrialization and organization. The instability of our economies discourages foreign investors.

What if we start seeing fellow African countries like states? What if we regulate our political, security, educational, trade and industrial sectors to the benefit of the entire continent? What if we unite to regulate and properly manage the natural resources of Africa?  These are the question we need to answer with the unity of all leaders across Africa who want to create sustainable Africa. African Union must be empowered to serve as a general administrative body. Our priority as African united countries should be aimed at facilitating strong relationships in order to rely on ourselves for support and aid. As leaders across the continent, we must aim at developing our science and technology sectors. As a continent, industrialization should be our paramount focus on building our economy by utilizing our human and natural resources effectively. With development compared to that of the core countries, the perception of Africa will be changed and our economy can attract better foreign investments. I believed peace and security can be sustained in Africa if all leaders and citizens embrace the spirit of pan Africanism.