2018-03-09Staff Report 2 Questions are being raised concerning the growth and development of African countries. Are African countries in a stable position to stand on their own and operate independently? Africa is the most blessed continent with valuable resources. However, lack of leadership skills and poor political/economic practices within Africa are hindering the growth of the continent. Well, we want Africa whereby our leaders respect and strongly govern their countries based on the principles of good governance and allow full participation of citizens in decision-making and economic development. Most of our leaders ignore the principle of good governance. We want an Africa where there is gender equality, promising a good healthy life, promising an educated society, and promising a leadership that is about serving rather than being served; do we have it? No, because our leaders are too selfish and often neglect the society. We are a multi-ethic society with basic values and we need to embody them within our society. We are being exploited for the sustenance of those who enslaved us and continue exploiting us rather than exploited for our own emancipation. We have to strengthen the universal system of health and education delivery and rethink where we are, why we are there and where we could be. An educated society is a developed state. Most of African countries are focusing on fighting one another instead of working together to improve the well-being of their people. We want an Africa that is free from violence, conflict and war and, as a result, we have to ask ourselves what kind of measures we have to implement and leadership we need to create that. I think we need critical self-assessment on how we govern Africa. Our leaders need to be assessed to determine their performance based on their leadership and services they are delivering. I understand that there are obstacles to African development; failure of leadership is one of the obstacles because leaders tend to get into public offices and use power vested in them for their own personal interest, which is a wrong practice. Leaders become too greedy and want to stay in power forever. However, we need men and women that are competent to use their offices for the benefit of their countries instead of engaging in the activities that undermine their countries. Let me not only shift blame on our leaders. We are only politically independent but still being exploited and allowing the West to control our economies. We want an Africa where we have absolute control over our own resources, full control of our own sea, mines and factories. This will help Africans to develop their skills on how to work for themselves and feed their own nations. We have a case in Namibia where our leaders hold two or three positions at a time while we have qualified people that are capable of doing the job. However, such posts are occupied by our top officials, simply to make their packages fat. How can we reduce unemployment if top officials are multi-tasking? We should learn to share in order to progress. That’s where corruption begins! There are competent and skilled youth and other activists that are trying to speak out on the wrong practices done by our leaders but their ideas are taken as insults. Now, the question is, where are we heading if our leaders don’t want to be questioned or held accountable for wrongdoing? Leadership deficit and lack of trust in policies and programmes perused by leaders are two critical leadership problems among African countries. In my view, for Africa to be changed to a better home, good leadership will be crucial to enable Africans to exploit the window of opportunity that has opened up in the past decades, notably natural resources. Voting into power competent leaders that are skilled and resourceful and who can be held accountable may be more important for the development and transformation of a better Africa. We should focus on good leadership in order to reach global potential. We should get rid of white supremacy and dependency syndrome and start working hard to achieve our vision as Africans. Africans should be given equal opportunities to participate in economic activities to boost economic development within the continent. This should be done by giving back the land to pure Africans and have them trained by experts to start producing for themselves since being a landowner in Africa will bring pride, sense of worth and allows for inter-generational wealth development. We want an Africa that competes with the rest of the world instead of sitting back and giving everything to foreigners to work for us. Greediness, selfishness and corruption should be rid of. We should polish our leadership style in order to sustain and build a strong foundation for Africa. Let Africa be ruled by competent leaders, who lead by example and have the interests of their own people at heart. *Jesaya Michael is a graduate in public management and pursuing his studies at the University of Namibia 2018-03-09Staff Report 2
