AFRICA'S FAMILIAR LAMENTATION THAT NEVER GETS TO BE HEARD 50 YEARS ON

By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
March 16, 2009

As early as 1957, Kwame Nkrumah complained about it and asked Africans to do something about it. Soon, Leopold Senghor, Mwalimu Nyerere and numerous African scholars would join in to cry for real value change in the continent.

All of them desired a common thing; to revolutionize our institutions of government and learning so that home grown African intellectuals could be produced to chart the cause for the continent on the African model and move away from colonial legacies.
Dr. Samuel Agonda Ochola, a retired UN Development Economist has written an interesting book that he has called “Leadership and Economic Crisis in Africa”.

It is a book that more or less repeats what Franz Fanon said about post colonial Africa over forty years ago. It is a painful portrayal of Africa’s failure at many fronts in human development. But more painfully, this failure, though generously attributed to our past colonial masters and neocolonialism, is the very making of black postcolonial governors that ascended to power once the imperial governors left our shores.

Ochola’s cover illustration captures the whole story and leaves very little to the reader’s imagination. With an African president in a sombrero hat carrying a begging bowl in both hands with his walking stick hanging at his elbow as the donor drops dollar coins; we are treated to the spectacle of the recipient’s mouth salivating for the goodies; a real indictment of African leadership failure.

Ochola is of the opinion that the introduction of patronage, bribery and corruption in our political systems throughout the continent has undermined accountability and discipline which are critical in the continent’s development agenda. He says that these practices have devalued people’s belief in hard work and instead given them a false sense that the quickest road to wealth is political patronage and cutting deals. Individuals therefore spend a lot of time chasing political leadership in the hope that they will share in the spoils when the leadership recognizes them.

This culture of laziness has created another subculture of begging. Many communities have instead abandoned their farms for endless politics at market centers as they wait for the arrival of political chiefs. And when the chiefs arrive, everybody runs after their cars in the hope that something small will be handed out to them. And even in this begging culture, there are self-styled political brokers who act as go-betweens to shield the chiefs from the begging masses. They are the ones to be consulted, handed the cash and distribute to the masses as they see fit.
I got this book at a time when Kenya’s president Kibaki had called a donors’ consultative meeting in Nairobi to specifically declare famine a national disaster and literally begged donors for help in feeding starving Kenyans.

Never mind that Kibaki’s ministers arrived at the meeting in the latest state of the art European models of the best cars money can buy. Those who opted for Japanese models arrived in 12 cylinder four wheel drives that many middle class Kenyans could only dream of.

Yet this was the government that was begging for cash to feed its citizens, a whooping Ks 37 billion, the equivalent US $ 500 million. Never mind that the same government maintains the largest cabinet in the world with the most well paid legislators anywhere. With an annual wage bill of Ks 5 billion (US$ 60 million) in untaxed wages, one can be forgiven if donors become skeptical in helping a regime that would rather not help its own even when it can.

Ochola is concerned that this culture of cutting corners and chasing politicians has spread into the private sector, where business executives instead of investing in obtaining technical information and expertise to improve their companies; they are increasingly devoting more time in seeking political connections and interventions from their god-fathers. He rightly points out that this type of behavior has eroded people’s confidence in their ability to determine their own future, think strategically and develop their careers. For this reason, this culture of dependency on others has culminated in rampant poverty as most able-bodied individuals in their prime productive lives have abandoned honest work.

This dependency syndrome that has been encouraged by Africa’s political leadership has permeated the entire social fabric. Parents cannot take their children to school unless others contribute. Villagers cannot go to hospital unless some important leaders come in to help. Families cannot bury their dead unless they tax other villagers and relatives to the bone.

Unfortunately, this acceptance of the status quo that “we are poor because we don’t have” has handed our politicians the power and audacity to usurp our rights as they install the concept of failure in us while hunger and poverty keep on claiming our lives.

Will this continent ever get out of this vicious cycle?

jerryokungu@gmail.com