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Africa must raise the bar for good leadership
By
Garudzo
Masenga
WRITING on New Zimbabwe.com last week, Mutumwa Mawere argued that Africa
needs a black Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
I read his column with great interest and observation, and would want to raise a few points with regards to his remarks, analysis and conclusion.
I totally agree with Mawere’s view that Africa needs change if it is to survive and address the political and economic challenges it faces today. Like Mawere I find it hard that every time African leaders are called to account for their questionable policies, shortfalls and economic mismanagement, they always blame colonialism, the West and the so-called imperialist forces when many of them have been independent for more than 20 years.
No-one doubts and questions the negative impact colonialism has had on Africa, it has indeed robbed us of invaluable resources and shaped the political and economic landscape of Africa for the benefit of a minority. It imposed on us an economic revolution and a political set up, that many of our African countries have found novel, hard and difficult to accept as many were not ready for drastic change coming from above and outside.
Africa, it has to be acknowledged was developing at its own pace and rate, and colonialism disturbed this essential process by superimposing its own unique way of development. Like one learned colleague of mine has remarked, Africa was robbed of its childhood as it was forced to grow up immediately without experiencing the vital learning curves of any childhood, hence the current turmoil and political upheaval.
There is no doubt that as a continent we were thrown into the deep end and forced to adapt to new values of Democracy and Economic policies that in most instances contrasted heavily with our own deeply rooted values and ways of doing things. However, this must not be an excuse for the continued abuse of power, violation of human rights and sufferings of the masses in Africa.
As a responsible people, with individuals blessed with immense vision and purpose in our midst, is it not time that Africa has leaders who do their jobs with respect and ignore the blame-it-on-them syndrome, which many of our leaders use conveniently to mask and hide their great incompetence and lack of leadership grade. African leaders have a mandate given to them by the expectant and obedient African masses to take them to the next level of political and economic development, and like any accountable and responsible leader in any continent, they should own up to their failures and shortcomings when called upon to do so.
The world in general and Africans in particular are sick and tired of the, Them Against Us theories, that many African leaders have employed in explaining why our beloved continent lags behind in both economic growth and the implementation of democratic principles that benefit the ordinary person.
Africa and its leaders must stop blaming the past for many of their short-comings, and get on with the real task of making the continent a testimony that through unity, purpose and belief, Africa can rise up to the challenges. It becomes even more compelling and discouraging, when one realizes that the reason why these leaders were elected into office in the first place is to address, first and foremost, the effects of colonialism and secondly, to charter a new course of history for the benefit of their people. It offers no hope for any African child’s future to hear these leaders continue to blame the past for the current problems, when many of them have loaded Swiss accounts, and corruption is their middle name.
Surely we Africans as a people must be sick to the word, if we just elect leaders whose role and duty is just to blame the past while they enjoy the trappings and pecks of the Dearest leader. If this is their job description, I have no doubt that most of us will find it easy to be African leaders without any difficulties. All one needs to do is to master the art of blaming others, perfect the skill of spending public funds, co-opt Taliban methods of dealing with the opposition with an iron hand, and most importantly learn the essential and effective procedures of rigging elections -- you definitely need this one to survive.
Africa needs more than this and the bar of leadership excellence and delivery must be raised if the continent is to come out of the dark political age and survive. We cannot blame others for our own mistakes and greed for power. We seem not to have been embarrassed enough with our own blunders, that we continue to this day to blame the United States for the worst genocide in living memories in Rwanda due to its presumed failure to intervene, when the Hutus (Africans) inhumanely and mercilessly murdered the Tutsis (Africans too), shame on us.
Today we are pointing fingers at the United Nation accusing it of dragging its feet on sending more troops into Dafour, Sudan where as always fellow African brothers and sisters, are killing fellow Southerners, just because they are Christians. I am ashamed as an African to realize that most of our problems are self inflicted and yet we still have the audacity to blame others. It is the equivalence of a husband blaming his next door neighbor for his failure to intervene while he batters his wife to death. We Africans should, and must rise up and start looking at ourselves before pointing the finger at the next person. Success, development and improvement, only begins when we identify and accept our own weaknesses, before concentrating on our strengths.
This brings me to what I would consider to be one of the most important articles ever written by Mawere in one of his contribution to his Monday weekly column on New Zimbabwe.com. I have to salute and praise Mawere for bringing to the forefront such an important debate with regards to our continent, and I believe it will generate the necessary debate in many circles. We owe it not only to ourselves but to the future generation to come that such a debate on African leadership and problems must be opened up and kept alive. A people without a vision will perish, and Africa is at the cross roads, of whether it forges ahead or collapses in political turmoil and economic meltdown. What then is the issue that Africa the cradle of mankind faces with, in the current situation?
According to Mawere’s analysis and observation, which I must admit I respect, all that Africa needs is personnel of the talent and experience of Tony and Gordon’s caliber. However, in as much as I agreed with Mawere’s call for the need of change in Africa, I beg to differ on this particular point that we do not have the type of personnel to carry this seemingly impossible task. The problem in Africa is not an issue of lack of a black Gordon Brown and black Tony Blair, we have them in equal measure be it form, type, and quality. I personally believe that the problem is more deeply rooted than the way the respectable Mawere puts it across.
Just for the record it is indeed a great insult to Africans of great value, moral standing, integrity, great vision and exceptional achievements to be told that all Africa needs is a black Tony Blair and black Gordon Brown to rise to the challenges they face. I have no doubt that it is even a worse insult to people like Mutumwa Mawere himself who many honest and impartial Zimbabweans believe is an outstanding businessman and professional of great talent and vision.
I am not trying to patronize Mawere here, it has never been my style, I am just being honest in trying to address the issue at hand. Those of us who were privileged enough to have been in Zimbabwe when Black Empowerment was an issue remember vividly the rise and rise of Mutumwa Mawere. One term that became famous and synonymous with Mutumwa Mawere is financial engineering, a term I had never heard of until this businessman appeared on the economic scene in Zimbabwe in grace and style.
My point is simple and clear, we in Africa have a blessed people of immense vision and ability, and when allowed the chance and opportunity to express themselves Africans will outshine Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Do not get me wrong, I have outmost respect for these two outstanding politicians of our generation and I admire what they, together with the Labour Party have achieved for their country which many commend and acknowledge. One thing I have to emphasize though is that, they were blessed enough to have been born in a country that values, appreciates and honours people of service, class and integrity. This allowed the two to chart the course of history, map their vision and articulate their policies without fear of disappearing, threats to their family members and imprisonment, most of which exist in Africa.
No-one doubts that we have African leaders of immense leadership ability, political standing and social values who when given the same platform that Messrs Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have been accorded will make Africa proud. I may go on to submit that those who work in a violent, risky and life threatening environment have more substance, leadership talent and mental strength than those who long after they have made a speech critical of the Leader sleep in peace knowing that they will not get an unwelcome visit at night from the Secret Police.
To this extent, I totally disagree with Mawere’s simple analysis that ignores the complexities and difficulties that Africa faces. Nelson Madiba Mandela is an example that comes to mind in showing that Africa is blessed with leaders of the highest quality. Other great names which I can mention with great pride is the late Honorable Member of Parliament, Sydney Malunga -- a fierce, honest and open critic of Mugabe's tyranny and the late Chris Ushewokunze, a young turk who made history by becoming the first Zimbabwean minister to my knowledge to date, who publicly admitted his ministry’s failures, a novel and rare occurrence among Africa leaders.
Just to contrast this with a simple example, long after he left his Ministry, the respectable, talented and adored Professor Jonathan Moyo (ref: HARDtalk Interview) is still defending unpopular decisions he made whilst in office. All Professor Moyo should do is to take a leaf from people like John Prescott in owning up to his scandals, and admit his role in creating a fearsome regime in Africa. Like many former students of the loved Professor, I have no doubt that he has a big role to play in addressing the current problems that bedevil our beloved country and continent.
My argument is simple and straight to the point, it is not the personnel that we require in Africa, we have them in abundance, Cyril Ramamphosa, Sir Ketumile Masire, the late Mwalimu J. Nyerere, Simba Makoni, Professor Moyo, Mutumwa Mawere, Professor Arthur Mutambara, Brian Kagoro, are just some many examples. It is rather the political environment and set-up in Africa that needs to be overhauled if the hopes and aspirations that many of us cherish are to be nourished, championed and achieved. African politics and its leaders, lack values and principles that define good leadership, maintain high standards, preserve political offices, separate powers, call people to account and most importantly respect the wishes and voices of the majorities. As the saying goes most of African politics is dirty and those involved in it are dirty too.
| "The good have no role to play as the African political values do not welcome them, and those who manage to survive only do so by playing to the tune of the filthy and dirty African corrupt leaders" |
| GARUDZO MASENGA |
What Africa needs to do is to accept change in many ways, not only for the leaders’ benefit but for the public too. While we have adopted the offices and titles from the West, for instance Presidential Terms, Ministerial benefits, we have not embraced the most essential values of accountability and respect that accompany these offices in many Western countries. African leaders have been selective in their choices the reason being clear to us all, to use Western values at their own convenient time, for example rigged elections to promote their own brand of Democracy. Our African leaders lack honesty, integrity, humility, sacrifice and accountability. Put any great leader in African politics and he will end up with these twisted and unacceptable values because he has to survive the political terrain in Africa that gives no hope and encouragement to honesty people and outstanding individuals of duty who have high hopes of offering great services to their countries.
The good have no role to play as the African political values do not welcome them, and those who manage to survive only do so by playing to the tune of the filthy and dirty African corrupt leaders. There is no place for right thinking, and honest people in most African countries as many who have tried to stand against the Dear Leader have found to their great surprise and shock. All Africa needs to do is to raise its political standards to a higher moral standing and most importantly, African leaders must learn to be accountable.
This is why I believe African politics needs to be reshaped and the political landscape remapped. I have come to agree with total embarrassment that we have no statesmen in Africa except the one off Nelson Mandela and to some extent Julius Nyerere. What we have in abundance are politicians who are worried about election victories, popularity polls, tenure of office and not the future and prospect of their countries, 20 years after they have gone. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Bill Clinton, Mandela, Julius Nyerere are arguably great statesmen -- individuals who are concerned about the future of their countries 50 to 100 years long after they have gone. No one will convince me that these values are new to Africans. I reject that. From the early Stone Age period, to the relative Modern era, African Chiefs would appoint successors to ensure that long after they had gone, and long after their bodies had decomposed the prospects of their Kingdoms would be preserved. It is what many of us call planning with the future in mind, and I am ashamed to admit that this is absent in many African countries.
The nearest this comes to in Africa is unsound and unrealistic policies like Vision 2020, which are conveniently used to shift focus and blame current failures to the future, a brutal shift from accountability. I am not suggesting that African leaders should appoint their heir, but my argument is that succession issues must not be a taboo that African leaders use to prolong their stay in power. A close example home is that in African families, parents are worried about the future of their children and grandchildren, no wonder they give them the best education to continue the family name long after they have passed away. Surely if these parents were like our African leaders whose concern is now, they would not be sending their kids to some of the best institutes in the world. These values therefore exists in Africa but for some reasons in politics our dear leaders do not want to implement them as they threaten their position and continued stay in power.
This brings me to another important issue that many African leaders use in their defense – we fought the War. I will continue to challenge the arguments of liberation movements who claim to have fought the War of Liberation, granting themselves a divine right to rule us till they drop dead or are forced out of office by any means necessary. What is the meaning of independence, if you take us from one suffering to another, which is worse and more painful this time, because it is being perpetrated by my own black brother and sister through torture, shooting, imprisonment, displacement, and fear in the name of false patriotism?
If FRELIMO, MPLA, ZANU PF, ZAPU, NDU, UNIP, CHAMA CHAMA PINDUZI, CORRUPTION PF or Democracy Destroyer had not fought for independence, somebody would have done so. How can one be a hero/heroine when they are paid to do it and demand even more? True heroes and heroines are people of principle and virtues who fought for the true independence of their countries and most importantly their people. These are people who were pained, moved, inspired and forced to act due to the immense sufferings and struggles that they saw African people go through as a result of Colonialism. I doubt whether, they are the same leaders in power in Africa today as their values have changed. In place of the will of the people, self interest and greedy has become the order of the day.
I have no doubt that many would have gone to the struggle if they had known that they would have been handsomely and richly rewarded as our current African leaders. What is the difference with mercenaries then, give anyone a Mercedes S600 or a BMW X5 for their partner, a plushy house in Borrowdale, a holiday house in Victoria Falls, freedom of Harare, immunity against criminal prosecution, and I can assure you that they will join any struggle to bring change in any political situation. African leaders have reduced African politics to such embarrassing and humiliating levels.
My little study of agriculture informs me that if you eat roots of any tree it will die due to lack of support. It not surprising that most African economies are collapsing, as leaders literally eat the roots of independence and not the fruits. People go into political office in Africa to line their pockets as this has become acceptable. Africa is bleeding because we have leaders who have no moral value and have no calling to account to their mistakes.
We have qualified personnel who use their intelligence and knowledge to rig election and evade accountability. It is this culture of African politics that I personally believe must change. We as Africans must be ashamed of our embarrassing behavior and unacceptable leadership standards. We must also be ashamed of our lack of tolerance and constant sufferings we inflict on those who hold different views from those of our own. A time has come for us to hold our hands and shoulder the blame for our own mistakes and failings.
I believe a new generation of leaders is emerging, leaders with a difference and leaders with a purpose not only to lead but to serve in humility. To those ordinary Zimbabweans who want to achieve extraordinary goals, to those Zimbabweans who refuse to be labeled with a tag but want to be outstanding, to Zimbabweans who want to be part of history and be known for the right reasons and noble causes, the process begins here and with you. Before we die, let us offer great services and sacrifices to our motherland, the seeds deposited into us by Heavens Above.
We as leaders of tomorrow and the future generation have to learn to be mature and responsible enough to have a dream, ambition and vision, but humble enough to work under someone’s leadership whom we believe is better positioned, qualified and experienced enough to lead. The time has come for us as Africans in general and Zimbabwean in particular, to accept that we cannot all be leaders, but can in whatever position we are, contribute towards the building of a strong and powerful Zimbabwe.
The winner takes all mentality, currently part of the African political system, must be addressed. The Opposition and the Ruling Party must work closely in matters of mutual interest and those affecting their countries. Let us take the best of the Western values and marry them with the cream of African way of life. Some of us admired and were inspired by the way Messrs Tony Blair and David Cameron stood shoulder to shoulder and worked together during the terrorist attacks on London. I would love to see this happen in Africa and more importantly in Zimbabwe for the Ruling Party and the Opposition Party to share the same platform. The time is now or never shall it ever be.
As the late Warlord Chakaredza once remarked, and I quote, “Leaders of tomorrow are not going to be legendaries of the liberation struggle but those who have excelled in social, economic, professional and academic circles.”
Zimbabwe is calling and how many of us are ready to serve in any capacity and for the benefit of all their countrymen and women, and not only their tribe, religion and colour?. Let us raise the bar in Zimbabwe and Africa will follow.
From Here We Rise.
Garudzo Masenga is a political scientist and commercial lawyer, currently based in Birmingham, England. He can be contacted at: gmasenga1973@yahoo.com
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