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The dysfunction in African Leadership & Society- Part 1

- The following two part narrative is a lesson for all developing nations
Dickson Igwe. Photo: VINO
By Dickson Igwe

The road to social and economic success goes through lands of integrity, honesty, transparency and good governance.

This is a globalised world. Capital and finance move about the globe at the speed of light. Powerful blocs, multinational organisations, and wealthy countries, easily dictate the economic and social realities that weaker nations must follow and abide by.

Globalisation has turned the world into a village. There have been two impacts. One is the present backlash against global elites by the white working classes in the west. The second impact is the loss of control by weaker national governments over their own economic affairs. African nations fall into the latter.

Consequently, the only true way to compete, survive, and thrive, is to possess strong and enduring social and economic institutions, and have a zero tolerance for corruption, lack of transparency, and poor governance. The preceding evils cripple and destroy the strongest nations. Nations that are already weak have little chance if they are cursed with corrupt governance.

A number of countries in Asia and Latin America have long woken up to this reality and have fostered positive change in their national ethics. These countries enjoy sustainable economic growth and good social development as a result: Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, started off in the same place with many an African state developmentally, but today are ahead in the game of development.

These are the moral and ethical choices all Africans face if they hope to see the African continent wakeup from its decades of deep slumber and get off of the bed of social and economic underdevelopment, and numbing poverty.

Now, this Old Boy enjoys reading the Nigerian Newspapers. For this Curious Type, Nigerian stories are the most interesting in the world. Anyone taking the time to read a Nigerian Newspaper cannot but feel the vibrancy, pulse beat, and energy, of Africa’s most populous nation.

The real Nigeria is an exciting and tempestuous place. Geographically and demographically, it is hugely diverse. And had it not been for its grotesque and mediocre governance, Nigeria would have been a tourism Mecca today. From the humid and rainy south to the dry and arid north, the country teems with spectacular wildlife, and is dotted everywhere with hundreds of distinctive landmarks, and unique natural formations. Nigeria is a land of huge tropical rain forests, massive mangroves, endless jungle, hundreds of miles dark sand beach shaded by the ubiquitous palm, add small to medium sized mountain ranges. It is a country of fresh water lakes and ponds, and ever refreshing waterfalls that naturally irrigate the country’s interior.

Nigeria possesses hundreds of miles of windswept sandy desert, winding rivers that travel from deep in the interior to the Atlantic, swamplands and grasslands that run for hundreds of miles before coming to sudden stops at plateaus that rise up majestically, thousands of feet, and that run for hundreds of miles themselves, before stopping at some spectacular formation or heavenly landform.

It is a country blessed with a universe of mineral and natural resources. Nigeria is further blessed with an agricultural and rural topography that could feed the whole of Africa. Nigeria remains mysterious and unfathomable, with a rich, colourful, and historic culture, despite the litany of ‘’bad news’’ that flows from the country's active and colourful press.

OK. Reading a Nigerian newspaper is reading a story about chaos, confusion, and madness that is uniquely Nigerian. This is a dysfunction that appears to survive, and even thrive.

A day in Nigeria is a complex story in itself. It is a tragic tale of a shipping container falling off the back of an 18 wheeler and over a flyover, crushing a family to death in their car one hundred feet beneath. It is about another family sitting quietly in their home when suddenly hundreds of horned cattle and armed herdsmen rush through the house and yard, killing everyone and destroying everything in the path of the stampeding beasts.

It is terrorists kidnapping hundreds of young girls, while insurgents blow up oil pipelines, and kidnappers carry off the parent of some high official for a ransom, murdering the victim in spite of the ransom paid. It is a story of the public lynching of petty thieves and the unauthorised executions of innocent civilians by the security services. These are the daily occurrences of life in Nigeria.

Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital is a number of islets that sit on a lagoon in the country’s southwest linked with one another and the Nigerian mainland by bridge. Lagos is the world’s greatest ecosystem of chaotic urbanism. Lagos is an urban jungle with touches of Dickensian Britain of the late 1800s. Unbelievable poverty squats next to unimaginable wealth.

The stories of Lagos are legendary, and well placed in the annals of global city dwelling. Lagos is a model of societal dysfunction in as much as a city can be dysfunctional. Lagos is a beehive. It is a jungle of vibrancy. It is a capital that is thrusting, bursting out at the seams, and anarchic. It is urban sprawl gone haywire.

Lagos is organic. It is a groaning city that molds itself into the hearts and minds of its 20 million inhabitants. It sways, shifts, and grows making room for millions more migrants that are expected to arrive in the coming years, as the move from village to town and from town to city, continues the vast demographic rendition of an African population on the move, and looking for a better life. 

To be continued

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1 Response to “The dysfunction in African Leadership & Society- Part 1”

  • E. Leonard (23/07/2016, 10:43) Like (6) Dislike (0) Reply
    Dickson, good read! The African continent is blessed with an abundance of natural resources yet its standard of living and quality of life of too many of its citizens, for the most part, is much lower than in some resource-poor countries, i.e. Switzerland, Japan.......etc. It may be suffering from resource curse: "resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty, refers to the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources, specifically non-renewable resources like minerals and fuels, tend to have less economic growth, less democracy, and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural ..." It needs to manage its natural resources for the maximum benefit of its citizens. It must do more than mine and sell its natural resources; it must used it natural resources to create manufacturing industries to put its people to work. With its natural resources, the African continent should have one of the highest standard of living and quality of life in the world. But corruption, mismanagement, poor governing.... etc delays what should be.


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