Leadership is Responsibility, Not Excuses

There are many things and many areas in which Afrikans do not necessarily agree. And these may not even be about serious issues, some times, they like to “fight” and argue about which country in West Afrika makes the best Jollof rice, or even argue which countries in Afrika are producing the best or most popular music artistes. Sometimes I see these “fights” and arguments online and ask myself if something is wrong with the priorities of Afrikans when they get entangled in such “fights”. But it is what it is really. Siblings do fight and that’s one way to keep the family from boredom. But one thing Afrikans don’t seem to fight about or disagree with is the fact that we really do have leadership issues in our countries and it’s costing us dearly.

In Afrika we do not have limitations of natural resources, ideas, innovative minds, creators of things and technologies required for modern day expectations. But clearly, we do have a shortage, if not almost a lack, of great leadership minds who are not puppets in the hands of global controllers, or slaves to the acquisition of personal wealth to the detriment of the nation they are supposed to be leading. It has become a very smelly smear on the face of leadership in our continent that almost none of the heads of states of Afrikan nations are doing their people proud, either by their people-centered policies, or by their economic ideas, to take their people out of poverty. They like to make noise about their unseen achievements on national and even international television, but what is happening on the ground is clearly different and that really is what matters.

Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that all Afrikan leaders are “dumb” or let downs, but I am saying we have seen too much of negative outcomes of economic policies, political stand-offs that keep showing us that our leaders are not themselves, and that they do serve the interests of some shadow entities both within and outside the continent. And that is a major issue that needs addressing. We lack leaders that know how to look into the eyes of responsibility and take a stand without throwing blame around like Pharisees who are so obsessed with their stones of blames and accusations.

A recent event

There was a market fire incident that happened recently in Ngong’ town of Kajiado county. Kajiado is one of the counties that makes up the Nairobi metropolitan area.

The Star Daily newspaper made this report:

“Residents of Ngong Town, Kajiado County woke up to a fire Saturday morning around the Ngong town bus park.

The fire broke out around 4 am setting ablaze a furniture workshop store worth hundreds of thousands of shillings.

According to residents present at the scene, the dawn fire started abruptly and the cause is yet to be established.”

From reports on ground that day, the fire started around 4am and for about two hours, the fire service that was called was nowhere to be found. The residents only managed to put out the fire at around 6am. In fact, they even chased away the fire service truck when it arrived too late. There was blame thrown here and there about what may have caused the issue of the fire service coming very late. In fact, a person claiming to work at the county offices said that Kajiado Governor Lenku had given the jobs of driving the three county fire engines to his relatives.

“The trucks that were being driven by the Governor’s relatives, two of them got into accidents, while one has a problem with its clutch that will take less than Sh50,000 to repair,” said the worker.

Now, my issue is not that there was fire, nor is it that nothing could be rescued from the inferno because of the delay of the fire service. My concern really is the response of the county government’s spokesman.

Concerning the allegation that the governor gave the operation of the fire service trucks to his relatives, Kajiado County Spokesperson, Alex Maina dismissed the allegations, saying they were malicious political tactics by the governor’s competitors:

“These are just dirty tactics being peddled by competitors. In fact, they are coming at a time when the Governor will soon be launching a new truck for the county,” he said.

If you take a good look at the response of the supposed government spokesman, you will see what really is wrong with leadership in Afrika. That a fire service truck did not respond to a distress call until after two hours and that this was only after all the stalls had been burnt to the ground means someone should be out of a job by now. Someone was sleeping on the job. But no, the situation simply created an opportunity for the government to shift the blame on someone else and call it dirty tactics being peddled by competitors.

There is no higher level of foolishness and irresponsibility than such a statement. When will Afrikan leaders simply accept the fact that they do not know what they are doing and should make room for someone else who does? And if they think resigning is shameful, they should at least learn to accept responsibility for the failure of their offices and then come up with new ways to make changes going forward. But no, someone else has to be blamed for their failures and that has been the picture of the cycle of irresponsibility and mismanagement we have in Afrika.

Will we ever have great leaders in Afrika?

I do not think leadership in Afrika is supposed to be difficult or complex. It just needs minds that think outside of the box of Euro-centric ideologies and the wrong narrative of what Afrika should look like or be governed like. I really think we keep going round in circles of failed leadership not necessarily because of the leaders we elected, some of them really have good intentions, but I think the problem really is the system that they come in to lead. I do not think there is any country in Afrika that is not head deep in the oppressive and unproductive colonial system of governance that was passed down by the colonialists when they were “leaving” Afrika. But what does it really take to create a new system of governance that is really for the Afrikan people? The passion and the commitment to do so.

I think the lack of political will to both see and also actively make the required changes is lacking in our system of governance, and that is where our problems lie. It’s like there is an unwritten script that says no Afrikan government must think of creating a system that sets their people free from poverty. And as long as they keep going to line up in queues in America, China and Europe to beg for loans and aid, then they are “good boys”. Is slavery so sweet that Afrikans must embrace it even in a 21st century world? But how long will it be before the Afrikan people themselves decide to take matters into their own hands? Time will tell.