Nigeria sets no good examples for Africa

That Cliché about African Leadership

What is happening in Africa today bothers me a lot because it all concerns leadership – poor leadership, rotten leadership, leadership acquired by violence and corruption, leadership held onto without offering good governance, idiotic leadership and sprinklings of good leadership.

Very few countries in Africa can boast good leadership, there is hope, but what does surround us now is chaos.

For instance, today, Darfur in Sudan still represents an intractable problem of genocide that is quickly fading from urgent action; the completely botched elections in Kenya has caused so much unrest, violent displacement and killings that it might slip out of the control of the political leaders, Zimbabwe has registered an inflation rate (150,000%) that makes the mind boggle and rebels are trying to unseat a government in Chad.

Africans adrift in Africa

The result of this is Africans are refugees in their own Africa, displaced because of policies implemented by fellow Africans who want power and give no respite to their people – savagery, murder, hunger and displacement becomes the lot of the masses whilst the middle-classes and the rising prosperous classes are completely oblivious or indifferent of those problems in the slums, villages and the hinterland.

However, I only have to go back to my blogs in April 2007 where I lamented the issues around the Nigerian election to see why Africans are unlikely to have African solutions for African problems.

Africans silent to African suffering

The issue in Darfur never became a crisis until others outside the continent decided they could not stand for such large-scale suffering, Africans are still dragging their feet on the matter.

The elections in Kenya were most definitely flawed as the head of the electoral commission eventually said he was not sure of who won. African leaders then welcomed the imposed president who “stole” the elections whilst he left his country behind burning.

The entrenched eternal incumbency of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe should have come to an end with the people of the country being able to choose who would lead their country out of the morass it is in, but for the appeasement of African leaders that continues to make a bad situation worse.

It would take the threat and actions of the French army in Chad to keep a democratic dictator, Idriss Deby who has done nothing for his country in all his years in power that others who think they can do the job better have to resort to arms to unseat him.

Where is the country?

The question is, where is the African country with the authority, clout, gravitas and respect that can speak up for the downtrodden masses and exert the kind of influence to ensure things are done right in the “Dark” continent, such we can all be seen in the light as enlightened, emancipated and in control, able to solve our problems with confidence?

Step forward – Nigeria? The Giant of Africa in size offers none of this ability, its institutions are still mired in corruption, its elections are flawed that it cannot condemn the ones in Kenya, its leadership skirts illegitimacy so it can say nothing to Sudan, Zimbabwe or Chad.

In all that has been happening in the last few weeks, we have heard not one squeak from the Heart of Africa because it has a bad heart.

The insignificance of the giant

We have the biggest sporting event going on in Africa and the grand populace of 130 million could not produce a team that could survive the first stage of eliminations.

This is result of our polity not realising the example we should be setting for Africa so that things can be done right and if done wrongly, we can be a model for correction.

Unfortunately, South Africa cannot step into the breach because they have not been able to raise the expectations of their people beyond subsistence; they would end up with a leader very much in the mould of the many that gives Africa a very bad name.

Africa can only begin to solve its own problems when we deal with each other honestly, truthfully, fairly, justly and with mutual respect based on leadership and governance that eschews corruption and nepotism, that embraces transparency and begins to tackle with vigour the problems that affect Africa and Africans.

There is hope for Africa, but in the meantime, it would require a lot more international intervention and scrutiny to ensure what we are doing is well beyond reproach and within globally acceptable standards before we are respectfully left to maturely seek African solutions to African problems.

PS: This was written to highlight the frustration of a fellow Nigerian about his country not being able to address African issues with boldness because we have set bad examples and lost the moral authority that could be projected with our greatness in Africa.

Brood of vipers or leaders?

Names of great political graft

A few days ago I wrote about the First Jezebels who in the position of first ladies of their countries do not see the sense of duty in promoting and advancing the cause of women and children in their countries. Instead they satisfy their lusts for untold ostentation and extravagant living in the midst of the suffering that calls for the attention that their good office can help alleviate.

Now, the brood of African leaders also makes interesting reading – anyone would want to have a name that opens doors and gives access to privileges that would normally not be available to less fortunate people.

It cannot however be said that people then use that to good effect for anything than to move into some super-rich cadre hardly representative of the average of the societies that they have left from.

Criminal death

Last year, we read of the death of the son of the President of Chad, Brahim Deby at 27 in Paris in suspicious circumstances. This young man was in a position of privilege as a presidential advisor then got caught in criminal straits was convicted of weapons and drugs crimes – he got sacked.

Not many people get to be presidential advisors at 27 in any part of the world and definitely not in Chad where there was recently that fight to keep “orphaned” children from being abducted to enjoy the kinds of pleasures Brahim Deby might have commanded when resident in Paris.

Showy Nuisance

Then in Germany, Seif al-Arab, 25, one of the seven sons of Colonel Gaddafi, the strongman of Libya had his $340,000 Ferrari impounded for exceeding acceptable decibel limits for noise from an exhaust.

The fact is, this young man had been stopped and warned before, possibly the police were trying to avoid a diplomatic incident by not arresting him as might have happened to someone with a lesser name.

Indeed, one can assume Seif is a very successful Libyan businessman and it would be nice to see some ordinary Libyan attain that kind of status, if the policies of the government of Libya open up that kind of opportunity to lesser people with no names of political import.

Seif can get his car back with an undertaking to reduce the noise from 110.5 decibels to below the permitted 98 decibels along with paying a paltry fine. A fine ambassador for Libya, one would say.

Utter Embarrassment

Kofi Annan’s good name earned such great opprobrium when it surfaced that his son Kojo Annan, 34, had been seriously implicated in the UN Oil-for-Food Scandal. Apparently, he was a consultant with a firm that was part of the inspection party that was to supervise the programme.

The stench of a conflict of interest and the possible peddling of influence along with the innocuous connections with the UN that Kojo exercised as the son of the Secretary-General, albeit, allegedly unknown to his father, almost left the entire career of this great African in ignominy and disgrace.

How nice it would be for any son of Africa to have been able to gain such a position that allowed for a non-compete sweetener of $30,000 per annum for 5 years whilst you peddled influence elsewhere.

The sins of the fathers

In Australia, the visas of 8 students who are children of senior members of the Zimbabwean regime of the Grand Despot of Africa – Robert Mugabe – were revoked.

This was done on the premise that these children should not enjoy the privileges of a superb Western education whilst their parents and the regime they represent denies the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe the very basic needs for life, of which education is an important part.

More so, it would have the tendency to entrench an elite of children-of-former-leaders who for all the advantages they have received, exact undue deference from their peers when the time comes for a new generation of leaders.

Beyond the fact that their experiences would almost certainly be too far removed from the people they might eventually subjugate due to dynastic machinations; the problems of the people never really seeing the possibility for resolution in the foreseeable future.

In response, the force of government was utilised to seek places in the elite South African Rhodes University for the expelled students.

One pines for an opportunity where regardless of who you are, the government can champion the cause of its people in a way that celebrates their ability rather than progeny. One must say that the university does draw about 25% of its student population from Zimbabwe, in any case.

The Nigerian whelps

In 2006, the son of Ibrahim Babangida, Mohammed Babangida reputed to be the Godfather of Modern Corruption in Nigeria was arrested by the EFCC, quizzed and later released. But it exposed a number of deep-seated nepotistic and corrupt influence peddling activities of children of power-brokers in Nigeria.

The children of the erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo who is busy suffering the dismemberment of his rotten legacy were not with columns of newsprint for the wrong reasons.

At first an unguarded interview by Gbenga Obasanjo where he laid bare a number of issues as well as castigating the then vice-President and rival of his father.

Then all the rumours about how he peddled influence with all sorts of deals and contracts that brought in members of his extended family showed a network of intertwined conflicts of interest and matter that would not endure the spotlight of investigation in a good way.

The other sons

Another son keeps a clearer head and leads a more responsible if not respectable livelihood running a technology blog and working at Microsoft with an opportunity to sing the praises before Bill Gates of his father’s laudable democratic credentials in 1979 which were not so in 2007.

At one time he succumbed to the lapse of judgement by caricaturing a worker in his father’s household in a picture that spoke volumes about the abuse of the under-privileged in Nigeria. That photo opportunity won Dare Obasanjo, Ijebuman’s Foot in Mouth 2007 Award.

In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak who has been in power for a generation since 1981, has his son, Gamal Mubarak (b. 1963) who is quite politically active and is involved in trying to positively reform Egypt with the possibility that he might succeed his father.

Dynasties anew

There have been dynastic successions in Togo when a seemingly democratic setup allowed for Faure Gnassingbe (b. 1966) the son of Gnassingbe Eyadema to assume power after his father’s death.

I remember standing at the railway crossing waving a Nigerian and Togolese flag in Bukuru, Jos, Plateau State in 1974 when he visited with General Yakubu Gowon, the then Head of State to Pankshin as a pupil of Shamrock House, Corona School.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila (b. 1971) succeeded his father who was killed by his father’s close associates. He eventually got elected to the office of President.

Living responsibly

This is not to say that children of African leaders cannot rise to positions of responsibility by sheer merit, but any child born in Africa should by reason of good leadership and progressive government policies have the opportunity to rise by merit to any office in the land of their birth.

Having the head-start of name recognition is a good thing and it is used everywhere, but where that advantage has been gained, it should not be used to deny others opportunities and positions they aspire to and would have attained if the system and nepotism does not weigh against them.

Where however, children of leaders fail to realise their responsibilities to live their lives with a modicum of moderation rather than the excess of wanton debauchery earned by looting treasuries of countries their parents rule; neither should their parents continue to rule nor should they continue to live on the sweat and the fruits of the countries they have plundered.

Clapping for the Zimbabwe Mugabe destroyed

Clapping for the tyrant

This is really beyond me and my understanding of issues African. I am always amazed at how problems in Africa are allowed to fester and sometimes accorded the impression that things are alright when again like I said in my blog yesterday, they really are not.

One can say they reason why Darfur has continued to be the greatest humanitarian crisis in years is because African leaders have refused to stand up to other leaders in Sudan who have decimated their people with a brutality that is now only second to the Nazis.

The Nigerian elections which were clearly unfair, not credible and definitely not free as many objective observers could see were passed off as free and fair, everyone accepting the unacceptable and moving on.

The one that really beats me is at the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Lusaka yesterday, the gerontocrat Grand Despot of Africa – Robert Mugabe drew the greatest applause from the delegates at the summit.

Now, this might be a case of history not catching up with the present since Robert Mugabe at 83 is the oldest living African freedom fighter who is still in office, but this was at least a generation ago.

The demise of Zimbabwe

This man came into office in 1980, assumed all the levers of power soon afterwards and embarked on what is essentially the politics of anti-imperialism (PDF) – kicking the white man out and letting the indigenous black man take over the property and businesses of the white men who were forcibly dispossessed.

Now, there is more to the workings of this matter, but these few facts remain evident; Zimbabwe used to be a vibrant economy and the bread basket of Southern Africa, many of the white men who were driven out of their farms are just as Zimbabwean as any other black Zimbabwean – the white could possibly trace their ancestry back a lot further than any of their indigenous assailants.

The fundamental flaws in Mugabe’s mission was that a fair value was not placed on the property seized and after seizure, it was handed over to either his cronies or so-called freedom fighters who as mobs could raid the farms but had not inkling as to how to run the farms.

In the process, the mainstays of the Zimbabwean economy collapsed around a political situation that should be untenable if any African leader had risen up to really challenge the rape of Zimbabwe by selfsame Africans.

Now, about a quarter of Zimbabweans have fled the country to become refugees in neighbouring countries, the majority in South Africa as inflation in the country scales 4,500% and is expected to reach 100,000% by the end of 2007.

The Presidency introduced price controls which were of no effect because the shelves in the stores are empty as Mugabe still maintains a grip on power as a leviathan mite sucking dry the blood of everything that was once good about Zimbabwe.

Sorry Africans

Within this sorry tale of a catastrophic African failure, seemingly respectable people find the enthusiasm to applaud President Robert Mugabe for all he has undone for Africa.

I seriously do not get it, but this is enough to give Mr. Mugabe the impetus to carry on digging his country into the ground with South Africa being given the responsibility of resolving the democratic crisis that Mr. Mbeki has been too cack-handed to bring to any reasonable compromise.

I predict, if leaders of Southern Africa do not honestly speak up as men of principle about the unforgivable mess going on in Zimbabwe, France and Germany would be ready to host the 2010 World Cup because Zimbabwe for all intents and purposes is a man-made natural disaster that is claiming more victims and getting worse. I do not want to find myself in a security situation that could have been prevented if due attention, incentive or sanctions had been applied to get Zimbabwe out of the rut that it is in now.

Aussies put the boot in

Australia has never minced words about the situation in Zimbabwe to the extent that Prime Minister John Howard in preventing the national cricket team from visiting Zimbabwe for a test termed Mugabe a grubby dictator.

I am heartened by the fact that Australia would deport 8 students whose parents are senior members of the Mugabe government on one simple premise – “preventing those behind human rights abuses from giving their children the education their policies denied ordinary Zimbabweans”.

It is commendable and should be the kind of policy Western governments should mete out to leaders who plunder their homelands whilst seeking world-class opportunities for their kids in preparation for creating ascendant dynasties of leadership for generations to come.

As usual, Zimbabwe would react with some bombastic diatribe, to Australia this time, they are accused of “funding violence by aiding civic groups in the country”.

That Thabo Mbeki Collective

Unable to minister to health

The news of the sacking of the South African Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge with immediate effect last week by President Thabo Mbeki was received with alarm and sadness, but the reasons for her sacking are quite instructive and interesting.

Apparently, the minister had gone to an AIDS conference in Spain with her consultant son without the express permission of the President and he was no more going to countenance a situation where she exhibited the “inability to work as part of a collective” in cabinet.

One does not have to introduce Dr. Beetroot, the Health Minister Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang whose inability to understand the demographic crisis of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in her country where 25% are purported to have succumbed to the disease is expressed in her recommending herbal remedies like garlic, beetroot and the African potato for therapeutic management of HIV/AIDS.

Accumulated ignorance of health

However, we should not forget that President Mbeki still has problems with the accepted body of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and the science that underpins most of that knowledge – indeed there is an economy dimension to how that disease can be managed, but those who are infected and affected need treatment now.

It took a global outcry as well as derisive appraisals of South African health policy before things started to move in the direction of the proper management of the disease with drug therapies and other initiatives, many of which were spearheaded by the Deputy Health Minister.

Her inability to work as part of that obdurate collective is commendable, because that collective once had a chairman of the South African National AIDS Council who became the Vice-President of South Africa under Thabo Mbeki say that he had a shower to wash himself clean after knowing having sex with an infected partner.

Mountain climbing a mole hill

Such crass ignorance beggars belief as there would now be no serious driver for these initiatives having sacked a minister for what would have been an error of judgement when other ministers thrive in the cabinet by long-standing affiliation to the president rather than competence, probity and worthwhile activity.

Mrs. Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge has obviously refused to be subsumed into the group think that assumes all is well when nothing is. She supported a damning report about conditions in the maternity wards of Frere Hospital which both her boss and the president desperately tried to debunk.

Detached, oblivious and complacent

However, what makes this even the more instructive is the way Thabo Mbeki’s friendship with Robert Mugabe, along with his complacency and the condoning of the nonsense going on in Zimbabwe is allowing the situation to deteriorate into complete anarchy. There is nothing on this earth that can support Robert Mugabe continuing to hold sway over his country with despotic megalomania, not even in the name of quiet diplomacy or the African liberation movement of old.

Mr. Mbeki is of the view that the UK is to blame for the problems in Zimbabwe and that is disingenuous to the extreme. In fact, what this simply tells us is about leaders in Africa who are seeking African solutions to African problems they have not even begun to understand in any sense.

Expect nothing

If people who are supposed to wield such great influence allow intemperance to dissent to cloud the greater vision of bringing working solutions to the people, we have much to despair about Africa and it is a shame.

It would appear African ministers are only supposed to warm seats and go to international conferences to make Africa a laughing stock and subject us to ridicule, the moment you master your brief to start changing things for the better, the sooner you would be out of a job, because we are never expected to expect anything of our ministers.

Mr. Mbeki however is caught in the limbo between staid Western conservative and African freedom fighter – he is neither and in trying to be either or both we are left with the schizophrenia of leadership and even I would not want to be in the collective where Mr. Mbeki is top-dog.

Hocus Pocus Zim Bab We Arghhh!

A national day of spells beckons

Forgive my petulance as I try to imitate a possible chant in a ceremony in celebration of witchcraft in Zimbabwe as news arrives that witchcraft has been legalised.

This is most interesting considering hardly over a week ago, Mr Mugabe called a National Day of Prayer which was boycotted by senior Christian leaders or any sizeable Christian followership.

So, with the legal recognition of witchcraft, one can cynically expect that a National Day of Spells might have more of a participation to boost Mr Mugabe’s ego and incessant vituperative diatribe.

It goes without saying that Zimbabwe and its over 12 million people have been under a most treacherous spell – the looming, brooding, foreboding and malicious spell of Mr Robert Mugabe since he got his hands on the levels of absolute government on December 31^st 1987.

Leading from best to least

A country though land-locked was the bread basket of Southern Africa and as independence was declared showed great promise, but under the leadership of derision and tyranny of Mr Mugabe, the country announced a record inflation of over 1000%.

Excerpted from Wikipedia

The “so-called” reforms of Mr Mugabe introduced has given Zimbabwe the epithet of having the lowest life expectancy in the world – how miserable life really has become in Zimbabwe.

Great age little wisdom

All Mr Mugabe can muster with bombastic bluster is that the West is responsible for the problems of Zimbabwe. Maybe, that is the case, but a man of his quite elder years of 82 should have the wise head to resolve differences that turned Zimbabwe from a conduit of prosperity to an island of misery.

That is really a moot point; Mr Mugabe has simply mortgaged the soul of his country and suffers from delusions of grandeur that his leadership is for the better of Zimbabweans.

For a man to have presided over such a decline of fortunes of his fatherland and still hold his face up high in complete denial and braggadocio is breathtaking at best.

Giving witchcraft a mission

The new legalisation of witchcraft which probably stems from the President’s inability to muster favourable church support is revealing – one can only surmise that if the use of witchcraft does not sustain Mr Mugabe in mind and body, it has not helped stave off the disaster of Zimbabwe.

In Africa, his age has prevented critical analysis of his tenure and condemnation of his actions, the pall of patriarchalism has not served us well, and Mr Mugabe is definitely no Mr Mandela.

Where a man in all his evil refuses to depart in the quest of eternal incumbency we have one great hope, the mortality of man – I wish Mr Mugabe no evil, but the witch doctors have their work cut out.

For all the evil they have allowed to befall Zimbabwe, the greatest evil to bring the most beneficial good would be bring Mr Mugabe to the point of complete breathlessness and repose.

The sacrifice of one man for the good of his country call only be Mr Mugabe’s highest calling – be long – shall we honour the man as the Great Martyr of Zimbabwe or humour the man as the Great Old Oaf of Zimbabwe?