{UAH} Standard Digital News - Why African leaders must put the interests of their citizens first

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Why African leaders must put the interests of their citizens first

By Anyang' Nyong'o

Updated Saturday, October 11th 2014 at 22:22 GMT +3

The world does not owe Africa a living. We seem at times to be deluding ourselves that since we have vast mineral wealth etc the world will be knocking at our door looking for favours. Wrong. This is a very cruel and mean world where those who have gone ahead will keep on going ahead.

 They will only drag you along if accompanying them in the journey makes them reach the destination faster. China has learnt this and is doing all she can, conventional and unconventional, to bring Africa to her side. And, like willing brides, every African leader—not necessarily nation—is responding very positively.

 China has a policy towards Africa developed by the Chinese Communist Party for close to half a century. Africa has no policy towards China because what may be regarded as policies are interest-driven by specific leaders not necessarily in national interest.And please don't blame China: the essential enemy is within ourselves.

At independence we had a good and coherent policy towards our former colonial masters, the West as it were. This was the policy of nationalism nurtured out of the nationalist movement and articulated by the leaders. It called for the political independence of our countries: most of us achieved that and even fought with those who were left behind to achieve theirs.

If there is one major success of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) it was its Liberation Committee based in Dar es Salaam and effectively led by Julius Nyerere.

Without this committee the former Portuguese colonies would not have been independent that soon, Ian Smith would have made life difficult for Zimbabweans for much longer and apartheid could have lived into the 21st century. That was an African policy and programme with a vision, a mission and a tangible outcome. It was not a project driven for the self-enrichment of a head of state.

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But after independence we needed to liberate our people from the colonial yoke internalised as poverty, ignorance, disease and bad and repressive government disrespectful to its own people and oblivious to their human dignity.

Our people, from the peasant farmer to the captains of industry, should have been empowered to create wealth, and not simply depend on the benevolence of the state. This war of national liberation has deluded almost every African country as the leaders have, by and large, engaged the state in projects of personal aggrandisement and wealth accumulation more than the economic empowerment of the people. If that were not the case the following list by Forbes Magazine of Africa's top richest men would have been of entrepreneurs and not merely heads of states and government.

What entrepreneurial acumen do the following nine richest men in Africa have? Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the Angolan head of state, with a fortune of $20 billion dollars. Mohammed VI King of Morocco with $2.5 billion. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea is worth $600 million.

 

Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya is in fourth place with $500 million. Paul Biya president of Cameroon who is worth $200 million. King Mswati II of Botswana with a fortune of $100 million. Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria at $100 million. Idriss Deby of Chad at $50 million and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe at $10 million.

One of the reasons why the countries of South East Asia which have industrialised successfully since the end of the Second World War is that the political leadership has distanced itself from grand projects of personal enrichment using state power.

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