African leaders must urgently change trajectory

Africa is in a sorry mess. Whichever way you look at it, the state of the continent is dire. Poverty continues to dominate the continent’s population. From South Africa to Nigeria to Egypt, the deprivations of poverty are wreaking havoc on Africans. The largest number of people in Africa live in slums, where they live a completely dehumanised existence drinking dirty water, wallowing in their own waste and sheltering in hovels. This even as countries spend billions on legacy projects with little or no effect on lifting the living standards of the people. Yet, a small fraction of the money expended on these massive projects would transform slums and livelihoods of the poorest. Crunching poverty The continent is currently aflame. Conflicts have sprung up all over the continent. Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mozambique all have active deadly conflicts. In other countries like Tanzania and Uganda, the citizenry has been terrorised by their governments, with opposition supporters beaten and shot. In some countries like Rwanda, speaking out is in all probability-a death sentence. Africa’s youth bulge has brought out the continent’s inequality divide in stark relief. Millions of young people, many well educated, have no jobs, and they are wasting away their lives doing menial jobs. Leaders continue plundering their countries, further marginalising young people. The future of Africa is very bleak- with a horde of angry, desperate, young people who have no jobs and no purchasing power that forms the bulwark of the consumer class; that is the engine of the economies of the developed world. Africa is probably the only continent where its best and brightest, and its future, the youth, perennially navigate extremely dangerous trips to migrate to Western countries during peacetime in search of economic opportunities. Many others are stuck in Gulf countries leading harrowing lives, having gone there because of the promise of well-paying jobs that will help them escape crunching poverty back home. Corruption is so endemic in African leadership that one almost despairs that the continent can every rid itself of this scourge. Almost universally in the continent, leaders and public servants from top to bottom extort money from citizens and rip off the public purse as a matter of entitlement. Indeed, any public servant who deigns so much as to try and run a “clean” office is looked at with disdain. There is not a single African country that has an overarching vision of its development trajectory. For the foreseeable future, most African countries are doomed to remain mired in poverty, with worsening human conditions, decreasing opportunities for their people to make an economic breakthrough, most condemned to a life of destitution and death from preventable causes. Drivers of conflict It really need not be this way. Though it looks improbable, African leaders can determine to turn a new leaf for their countries and change the doomsday scenarios they face. However, they will have to face up to some critical challenges. Is there any one, any single African leader, ready to take up the challenge and lead the way as a model for others? Silence the guns. No meaningful development or progress will take place in Africa until all conflicts are stopped. Focus on the average citizen. It is time African leaders stopped grandiose projects with limited value in uplifting the African condition, and poured resources into offering basic amenities to their citizens, and uplifting their education, skills and capacity to engage meaningfully with the economy. There are no sectors more sick in African countries than health and education. These are the most crucial sectors in uplifting the human condition of the average African. African leaders need to trust their people, and support them to undertake those tasks that they routinely export to foreign experts and producers. They also need to put to a stop pilferage and wastage of public resources. And they must stop rigging elections. One of the biggest drivers of conflict in the continent is badly managed elections that result in contested results, and violent protest. Is it too much to ask African leaders that they put their countries on a new path in 2021 surely? Or are they completely incorrigible? —gathukara@gmail.com

African leaders must urgently change trajectory

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