President-Elect Obama and Africa

Louis Egbe Mbua

So far, President–Elect Barack Obama has been tight-lipped about his African Policy he is to follow nor has he attempted even to define them through an aide. Whether this is a wise strategy or not is open to debate. But when one watches helplessly, from the sidelines, the head-strong octogenarian Robert “Bob” Mugabe, a man who used to command international respect as an African statesman, being ridiculed in the Western press and himself refusing to go quietly for the sake of his country, the lack of policy statement by Obama seems unappealing.

One should not in any circumstance expect Obama to treat Africa differently from the rest of the world; at the same time one expects fairness as he represents the superpower of the world. Consequently, it was right for Obama to come out directly against the brutally savage attacks on civilians by deranged religious terrorists in Mumbai, India last month; and his arguments put forward to support his proposed continuance of the “war on terror” against those who “come against America”. While it would be interesting to “wait and see” how his policies unfold, it is a matter of concern and urgency that one can carry out an analysis of the situation on the ground which may serve as a guide on what problems need fixing in Africa.

The problem in Africa are two folds: Mass incompetence that has wrecked havoc on the economic, political and social front dragging the entire continent several decades back and eroding some of the gains made after independence; and economic paralysis the latter dependent or independent of the former, further depending on the school of thought. This surreptitiously malevolent incompetence has permeated the entire civil life of the continent; and as a result this malaise must be the first vice that has to be eradicated in the continent since an incompetent continent cannot compete in the international scene or even against itself. The cause of this mediocrity is not quite clear. However, there are many fingers that are pointing to the top of governments in both the civil and the political arm. Stories about wholesale looting of the continent’s treasury with a total disregard of responsibility to the people; and the shamelessly and obscene blatant overlook of the rule of law by men in “suits” need not be repeated. On a sounder note of reason, this seems to have degenerated into a clichéd art for writers; but this writer believes there is deeper cause to Africa’s problems: unqualified leaders – not necessarily corrupt for the latter vice emanates from the former.

Africans tend to qualify, rather mistakenly, their leaders wholly by academic qualifications. While the academia may be important, most prominent is the personal quality to serve the people rather than oneself – personal qualities take precedence over technocratic crammers for it is better to have a leader who can differentiate between good and evil as applied to his people and himself than to have a fool who went to university but believes he was born to rule by divination from the celestial realm. Consequently, a highly qualified individual in the academic sense, but who does not understand the passion of the people is totally worthless as a leader: the result being that he will neglect his duty with incompetence to follow. This mediocrity and lack of leadership qualities will evidently and eventually lead to inappropriate acts such as constitutional fraud, wholesale mortgage of a country’s resources, naked theft of money, laziness, neglect, oppression, assassinations of his people, subterfuge, nepotism; murders and other acts of entrenched turpitude, insanity and power madness.

Any seasoned diplomat will surely give an honest advice that this incompetence is slowly killing the continent: with diseases threatening to wipe out the entire youth population in some nations while wars, political oppression and poverty are driving millions to Europe and America. On this count, therefore, President-Elect Obama, after receiving his oath of Office in January 2009, should move swiftly and decisively, to seize the moral high ground by denouncing such acts of corruption in African countries that have instituted oppressive and incompetent regimes that are causing great suffering, terror and depravation to the people while the politically and professionally incompetents ride rough and shod over those who are more capable. He should refuse to talk to such corrupt regimes or have anything to do with the protagonists of such untold mismanagement while at the same time supporting institutions that are geared towards democratic reforms, rule of law and social justice. He should refuse to invite them for a visit; and he should frain from accepting invitations from African tyrants and thieves with blood in their hands.

Once the political front has been cleaned, the economics must take precedence. Africa needs massive injection of international finance. This writer is of the opinion that international finance was misdirected to the wrong region in the last ywenty years; thus causing the present global financial melt-down. For want of bluntness, one can say without reservation that Africa needs her own “Marshall Plan”. The African economy may be growing at an average of 4% per year but this is commodity-led growth; whose prices are always open to variations in industrial out put in Europe and of recentl the Bric countries. Thus, African states have moved very little from the colonial economy they inherited – rubber, cocoa, coffee, gold et.

To move from this dependence, the African economy needs capital – a joint international venture between the United States government, African entrepreneurs, all African governments in a united front, and the African Union as an overseer. Industrial giant marches in Iron and Steel that are the mainstays and fundamentals to industrialisation should be one of the main areas and so too with Green energy. Obama’s promise of confronting climate change and the immensely important energy transition from the dependence on oil and other fossils is a bold and sensible policy; and it is evident that Africa has almost all the raw materials and adequate land for the manufacture of bio fuels; the many rivers and rugged terrain bathed in 12 hour sunlight make the continent the potential front runner for Green energy: harnessed from wind, sunlight, geothermal. Since African entrepreneurs have no access to capital at a large scale, an Obama policy of a joint American-African venture will benefit both continents; and as a result, improve living standards in Africa, and may serve as part of a catalyst and stimulus for his economic recovery plan for his own country – the United States of America.