THE DESTRUCTIVE STYLE OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC LEADERSHIP

Africa has suffered from lack of enlightened leadership and a bad style of political and economic guidance. While African leaders could have excused themselves for being unable to protect their people from the exploits of colonial empires in the l9th and 20th centuries, they can hardly escape blame for allowing neo-colonial exploitation which continues to reduce many of their people into paupers in their own countries.

During the past three decades, Africa suffered lack of visionary and altruistic leaders committed to the welfare of their own people. They were persuaded to accept the development model of the West, borrow capital from the West and be guided by experts from the same West.

This was partly possible because the colonial administration deliberately destroyed and discredited the traditional forms of self governance in Africa. Until late 1950s when the inevitable wave of de-colonization swept across, Africa natives were not allowed to practice their own form of governance, culture, religion, traditions and customs. While the colonial form of governance was being put in place, the western religion and values were being imposed on those who converted into christianity.

Whatever provided guidance and order in the society was banned or condemned by the western missionaries as being incompatible with the teachings of Christ and Christianity.

Just before independence was granted, young Africans were promoted to positions hitherto unoccupied by the local people and they were trained by colonial masters to take over power from the colonial administration. Many of these African recruits were politically naive and uninformed. Some of them (or their parents) were naive corroborators with the colonial administration during the struggle for independence. Their employment into the prestigious administrative positions previously reserved for the colonial masters was a manipulative ploy. It blinded them. They became corroborating students of the same colonial administrators who wanted devotees of their philosophy and values to govern the new independent African States. These were to be the corroborators for neo-colonialism.

So fluttered by the new-found power and prestige in their new state, many Africans became sucked into a mechanism which facilitate the continued exploitation of Africa and the African people. It was easy for the new rulers to be blinded with material wealth and privileges associated with wealth and political power because they were naive and inexperienced. This development allowed the beginning of a small group of African elites who were in liaison with the rich North to continue the exploitation of the African resources while ignoring the fate of the impoverished majority.

With that bad beginning, leadership in Africa became characterized by opportunism, personal advancement and enrichment at the expense of the masses. The new black administrators and the bourgeoning elites enjoyed the same economic and social life-styles and privileges which the imperial administrators enjoyed. The only difference between the two in terms of the objectives for the country was the color of their skin. This elite class has accustomed to the privileged lifestyles which was impossible to sustain without continuing the exploitation and the oppression of the governed! And thus was laid the foundation for the present political, economic and social crisis in Africa.

African leaders has abandoned their people and worked closely with their counterparts in developed countries so that they could live as comfortably as their northern counterparts and enjoy the political and economic power and the privileges which go with it.

Africans masses has become disillusioned and started to agitate for better governance. Unable to deliver a better quality of life to their citizens, many African leaders has assumed totalitarianism and held their citizens prisoners in their own countries. That is when internal conflicts, torture and imprisonment of dissenting voices thrived. It was with full knowledge of the more democratic and developed countries. But during the Cold War human rights and the need for a democratic cultures were sacrificed.

With the advent of democratisation the citizens are rebelling and are threatening the very existence of the nation states. Some have collapsed. Uncertain and threatened, those in charge of such weakened states have succumbed to corruption, and more and more African states resemble a crumbling house from which both the owner and the onlookers scramble to escape with whatever can be looted. As a result, the civil society mistrusts and dislikes politicians and civil servants perceiving them as self-serving, greedy and corrupt.

The few African leaders who have demonstrated visionary leadership have been misunderstood and unsupported at home due to naivety and ignorance about the political forces at play in Africa. They also received no support from the international community. Instead, corrupt and unpopular African dictators, received huge support especially in form of military aid which sustain them in power. These dictators has built up massive armies, police forces and huge networks of secret service whose main preoccupation was, and still is, to spy on and terrorize their own citizens. In many African states, including the one I know best, Nigeria citizens have become prisoners and refugees within their own borders. They are denied freedom of speech, movement, assembly and association. They are required to carry identity cards which police will demand at gun point and may not assemble without a licence to do so.

Further, citizens are denied access to accurate and independent information because the Government refuses to licence independent radio and television stations even while using the state mass media as a mechanism for state propaganda and personal glorification. Uninformed and even misinformed, the African community remains marginalised politically and economically.

The African leaders preoccupy themselves with internal security, especially of themselves and those with whom they rule the country, and political survival. They misdirect scarce resources into state security machinery, a bloated civil service and prestigious, political projects such as the 3rd International Airport in Kenya, being constructed in the President's hometown (Eldoret) against the advice of the majority of Kenyans.

 In addition, leaders find it necessary to make changes in national constitutions to give themselves near absolute powers to control all national resources and mechanisms of governance (radio, television, the judicial system, the civil service, the police and the armed forces). All of these resources are utilised as if they were personal property of the heads of states and their appointees. Yet they are intended to serve citizens and provide checks and balances against dictatorial tendencies. Instead, they are utilised to ensure that dictators remain in power even against the will of their people.

How long do we continue to give excuses for the death of our citizens, the death of a 24 year old female accountant, could have been avoided if the security system of this nation was a top notch priority. Brothers killing brothers even Facebook, twitter friends are not left out. Even the poorest of the masses are filled with so much hate that they kill, maime anything to provide security, wealth, and basic amenities for themselves. What then is the way forward? Please tell me!