Guest Feature: Africa's Heartless Leaders

Written by Naana Ekua Eyaaba

13th March 2015

I am angry and sad, in fact, shedding tears because of the heartlessness of the people who call themselves ‘leaders’ in Africa. Today is “Red Nose Day” in the United Kingdom, the day on which people from all walks of life in the country do all kinds of unusual things voluntarily, to raise money for social intervention projects in the UK and particularly, Africa.

Early this morning, there was an interview with a BBC presenter who is dancing for twenty-four hours non-stop, to raise money, as part of his contribution to the Red Nose Day effort. On my local street early this morning, there were children as young as two or three wearing items of clothing and head bands they wouldn’t normally wear, to raise money. These are people with hearts for the suffering of others. If only our own people in Africa would be a little less heartless, I mused to myself, as I took in those poignant scenes.

Two events have happened on the continent over the past four months which convince me that if the leaders of Africa could roll up their sleeves and decide to work for the people who fund their extravagant lifestyles, be a little less selfish, greedy and cruel, we could be doing great things for ourselves as a people.

Firstly, Nigeria was able to stop the spread of Ebola after a rogue Liberian businessman lied his way into one of the country’s top hospitals and infected several health workers, including a senior Ghanaian Consultant Physician and a pregnant nurse reporting to that hospital for her very first day at work, both of whom sadly died, together with six other people.

According to the doctor who survived the infection, and later wrote a detailed account of her experience, from what seemed to be a mere shed with the most basic facilities, the Nigerian Health authorities built a modern ward with all the required laboratory facilities within a matter of two to three weeks, to nurse the other infected people back to good health.

The second incident was the transformation of the Ghana National Football team, the Black Stars, from total disgrace, disintegration and national shame, to a winning side within six months, only to lose narrowly at the finals of the African Cup of Nations earlier this year.

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which became the African Union (OU) in 2002 will be fifty-two years old this year. Adalla Bujra (in Transition for OAU to AU), described the decade 1980-90 as the “lost decade.” It was on the basis of this unproductive period that the “Monrovia Declaration” was made in 1979, according to which:

. The Africa of 2000/2020 will:

(i) have a high degree of self-sufficiency,

(ii) be democratic in national development

(iii) distribute wealth more equitably,

(iv) have a strong African solidarity and will carry more weight in world affairs. (What Kind of Africa in the Year 2020?” OAU, 1979, p.30)

The Monrovia Declaration led to ‘The Lagos Plan of Action’ later that year, ‘The Final Act of Lagos’ in 1980, and ‘The Abuja Treaty' in 1991. The deadline that was set for achieving the laudable goals of the Monrovia Declaration is only 5 years away, but there is no chance in hell of the continent achieving a single one of those goals. And the reason is the same old selfishness, greed and lack of vision on the part of African leaders that caused Julius Nyerere, one of the founding fathers of the OAU, to refer to the organisation as a “talking club of heads of states” in 1976.

Instead of equitable distribution of national wealth, the disparity between the rich and poor on the continent has worsened more than it was in 1965, possibly worse than under colonialism. Instead of “the high degree of self-sufficiency,” that the Monrovia Declaration called for; nearly every country on the continent has grown more and more dependent on foreign donors. Additionally, the continent has become the dumping ground of every kind of junk anyone can think of – from used ladies underwear through cutlery to toxic electronic gadgets – it is all there!

The cases of individual countries would be laughable were they not so debilitating for the nations involved. In Nigeria, the former Governor of the Central Bank has been in a long-running war of words with the Minister of Finance over a whopping ten billion dollars ($10Bn) that vanished without trace from the country’s oil account. Nigeria that maintains one of the largest and best resourced armies on the continent is begging for international assistance to locate 250 innocent young girls that were abducted about a year ago by the murderous rag-tag army of the terrorist Boko Haram group. Meanwhile, Chad with just 6% of the population of Nigeria and less than a millionth of Nigeria’s resources, has committed troops to go after Boko Haram.

In Ghana, a country producing oil for less than five years, over $300m of oil money cannot be traced, while another $700m of government over-expenditure is unaccounted for. Sadly, the country has gone to beg the International Monetary Fund to come and run its financial, economic and administrative organs, for $900m of assistance! How self-sufficient and “independent” can a country be after nearly sixty years of national sovereignty?

Officially, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has so far claimed 10,000 lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Senegal. With the assistance of foreigners, mostly Europeans and Americans, the deadly outbreak is gradually being brought under control. In the United Kingdom, any event, whether a bird flu outbreak or a fluke motor accident that causes more than five deaths, ultimately leads to a public enquiry and recommendation for its future avoidance.

The cause of the Ebola outbreak is environmental – poor sanitation, inadequate health services and lack of basic education in hygiene. Yet none of the countries involved is going to make any effort to improve the situation. Instead, some state officials are actually going to sell off the facilities that were flown in from the various countries to help fight the outbreak, and pocket the proceeds. How heartless can we get?

As I write, the BBC presenter I mentioned earlier has raised over £643,000 for Red Nose Day. That is less than half of the cost of the cross-country vehicles that were given to the twenty-two players of the Ghana national team, for coming second in the competition. Most of those players do not need those vehicles. However, very likely, part of the money that the BBC presenter has raised through his selfless action will be used to fund young British men and women to travel to villages where some of these players hail from, to go and dig pit latrines for the villagers.

The leaders of Africa are not the only ones guilty of displaying the gnawing temper of heartlessness but also the electorate are equally culpable. Nonetheless, for what some leaders in particular have done through the wanton dissipation of their respective national resources with nothing to show for, specifically, the two soulmates of West Africa, Goodluck Jonathan (a man who has had more luck than most people of his generation) and John Mahama; these two are probably the most incompetent leaders the continent of Africa has ever seen since national independence began with Ghana in 1957. Yet both of them are seeking re-election, and they are not going to run on their records. No, they are going to play on the tribal, religious allegiances and plain bribery of their people, to try and stay into office.

Heartless as they are, they will not care a hoot about the amount of their respective national resources or even borrowed monies they will plough into their re-election campaigns, as long as they get re-elected. Likewise, the voters are simply too heartless to care about the damage they inflict on generations unborn, as they take the crumbs from under the corrupt tables of these wicked leaders, to vote for them.

Let us be a little less heartless and vote them out. We need to begin a ruthless purge of the heartless and incompetent leaders of the continent to rid ourselves of the canker of corrupt and incompetent leaders who only care about themselves, their families and cronies, to the detriment of the vast majority of the impoverished millions.

Look out for the beaded gourd, for I shall be back.

Nana Ekua Eyaaba has an overarching interest in the development of the African continent and Black issues in general. Having travelled extensively through Africa, the Black communities of the East Coast of the United States as well as London and Leeds (United Kingdom), she enjoys reading, and writes when she is irritated, and edits when she is calm. You can email her at neeyaaba@gmail.com, or read her blog at https://naanaekuaeyaaba.wordpress.com/.