In our past article, we explained why and how Africa was maintained under domination by European countries. Should we keep blaming the West for all of our failures? Or Africa has its own responsibilities in our miserable life?
Definitely many African leaders, who came to power by accident, were not prepared to properly manage their own countries and bear a lot of responsibilities in Africa’s poor destiny. Their poor leadership has often undermined the continent’s potential and instead created chaos.
One of the immediate consequences of weak leadership is chronic political instability. From coups to contested elections, leaders prioritized power retention over democratic governance.
With leadership that lacked vision and accountability, public services such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure suffered. Billions are lost to corruption, while citizens lack access to clean water, decent schools, and hospitals.
According to the African Union, corruption alone costs Africa $148 billion annually.
Over 60% of Africa’s population is under 25. Without credible leadership to create opportunities, many young people are turning to dangerous migration routes in search of better lives. The “brain drain” continues to rob Africa of its most promising minds.
African improvised leaders still rely on commissions from resource extraction instead of building resilient, diversified economies. Overdependence on aid and foreign investors, without strong domestic strategies, making their countries vulnerable to global shocks as seen when there is an international crisis (Financial crash in 2008, Covid in 2019…)
Weak leadership leads to institutions that serve individuals instead of citizens. Justice systems become tools of repression. Parliaments turn into rubber stamps. Civil society is often silenced instead of being included.
In a nutshell, Africa doesn’t lack talent or potential, it lacks transformational leadership. The future depends on leaders who are ethical, visionary, and accountable to their people, not just their political survival.
Leadership in Africa has often oscillated between promise and betrayal. Many nations have been held back by self-serving rulers, weak institutions, and governance systems that failed to deliver for their people. Below are a few case studies showing how poor leadership undermines peace, prosperity, and progress.
From the early 60’s, decade after decade, some countries became independent. But never got liberation. The main reason being the leadership failure.
1960’s DRC and Burundi: power over peace
The inability to control vast territories, power vacuum filled by militias, foreign exploitation of mines in lawless zones, ignoring democratic principles and legal term limits, kleptocracy, repression of opposition, media, and civil society and weak economic vision: high poverty and youth unemployment, poor management of conflicts in the eastern provinces.
The consequences are political instability, international isolation, and mass refugee flight, a shrinking economy with very limited domestic and foreign investments and lost trust in democratic institutions, ongoing armed conflicts and mass displacement, rampant corruption and illegal mining and trading by presidents’ families.
1970’s Mozambique: peace undone by corruption
After a brutal civil war (1977–1992), Mozambique was seen as a success story. But hidden government loans and growing insecurity reversed its gains.
The $2 billion “tuna bond” scandal in 2016 led to a massive debt crisis. Then a weak governance in handling the Cabo Delgado Islamist insurgency. The absence of leadership consequences are the loss of IMF and donors support, rising terrorism in the north, displacing over 800,000 people and public anger and protests over living costs and broken promises, during last year’s elections.
1990’s: South Africa – Leadership crisis in a developed economy
Post-apartheid South Africa was hailed as a democratic model. However, the Jacob Zuma era (2009–2018) was marked by “state capture” and deep institutional decay.
We noticed massive corruption scandals involving public enterprises like Eskom and Transnet, erosion of trust in law enforcement and judicial independence, insecurity, failure to tackle unemployment, especially among Black youth.
The consequences are dramatic: decline in investor confidence and credit downgrades, worsening inequality and social unrest in July 2021 riots and others in the mining sectors. The last elections showed a widespread loss of faith in the ANC-led government.
As the same causes produce the same effects, it’s no surprise that we observe the same problems in many other African countries which failed because of poor leadership: Somalia, Sudan’s, Mali, Zimbabwe, Chad, Madagascar, Zambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone etc…
Leadership determines destiny: The above few case studies illustrate how leadership shapes the trajectory of nations. In each case, poor leadership has eroded institutions, mismanaged resources, and violated public trust. But the path to recovery is clear: Africa needs leaders who serve, not rule. Accountability, inclusive development, and visionary governance are not luxuries, they are necessities.
Reflecting on the historical context of current global dynamics and the implications for Africa, it appears that the ancestors of today’s Western leaders were instrumental in developing ideologies that led to slavery, colonization, and the establishment of institutions like Bretton Woods, without ever apologizing for their role in dismantling African cultures.
This raises questions about the motives behind contemporary Western dictates to African leaders on concepts such as democracy, world order, international community, ICC, sanctions, human rights, climate change, whether these carry hidden agendas similar to those of ancestors a century ago. We believe so, with no doubt.
A more urgent need is a fundamental shift in the mindset of many of our own African leaders. Too often, their discourse remains confined to outdated politics of tribalism and divisionism. As the World grows increasingly complex, Africa requires visionary leadership and well-educated civil societies. This is a critical moment for our continent. We must listen to the calls for change arising from within Africa.
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