Qualities of leadership and governance in Africa
“Before even the British came into relations with our people, we were a developed people, having our own institutions, having our own ideas of government” (Caseley-Hayford, 1922).
Africa had its own system of governance, before coming into contact with the West. However the continent has experienced a checked history of different forms of governance structures, from colonial era, such as apartheid and dictatorships. Throughout the period, each governance and leadership structure, affected growth of the African continent, either positively or negatively.
Walter Rodney in his book, “How Europe underdeveloped Africa”, Phillipe Diaz in his documentary “End of Poverty” and Amartya Sen, Author, Nobel Peace Prize and economist, (United Kingdom) jointly opined, that the underdevelopment of third world countries is as a result of calculated attempt by capitalist states to siphon the resources of these poor countries.
Pan African scholars on the other hand, attribute the seeming governance and leadership gaps in Africa to bad governance and “insipid leadership”of Africa by the continent’s own leaders. This paper therefore attempts to define, draw a synergy and further evaluate the qualities of leadership and governance in Africa.
LEADERSHIP
“Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal” (Kruse, April 9, 2013). Leadership is a norm-based, promoting, protecting and defending United Nations (UN) norms and standards contained in international treaties, resolutions and declarations. (UNMedia, 2017). Many writers have defined leadership in terms of behaviours, traits, competencies, activities and results whilst others see leadership as the capacity to create a compelling vision, translate it into action and sustain it. “To an extent, leadership is like beauty; it’s hard to define, but you know when you see it” (Bennis, 1989)
GOVERNANCE
Governance has been defined to refer to structures and processes that are designed to ensure Accountability, Transparency, Responsiveness, Rule of Law, Stability, Equity and Inclusiveness, Empowerment, and Broad-Based Participation.
Governance also represents the norms, values and Rules of the game through which Public Affairs are managed in a manner that is Transparent, Participatory, Inclusive and Responsive. (Unesco-IBE, n.d.) Governance is performance. It is the Delivery, of political goods to the people. (Rotberg, 2009).
The World Bank describes governance as “the role of the rulers, typically within a given set of rules”. Governance is the process-by which rules, and by which these rules are enforced and modified. This understanding of governance, according to the World Bank, requires an identification of both the rulers and the rules, as well as the various processes by which they are selected, defined, and linked together. (Bank, 2002).
“Governance therefore encompasses the processes, interaction and decision-making among state and non-state actors involved in a collective problem that lead to the creation, reinforcement or reproduction of social norms and institutions”. Whatever form the entity takes, its governance is the way the rules, norms and actions are produced, sustained, regulated and held accountable.
SYNERGY BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE
The synergy between leadership and governance is thin since both run in tandem. Therefore there cannot be good governance without quality leadership whilst there cannot be quality leadership without good governance since leadership is the vehicle upon which governance operates.
Raja attempted to draw a line between leadership and governance. According Raja, whilst governance disperses power, leadership empowers widely. Raja posits, that governance must be accountable whilst leadership must give and obtain commitment. According to Raja, other responsibilities of governance include openness, integrity, honesty, objectivity, selflessness, fair rewards and considers long term objectives, whilst leadership communicates policies effectively, sets example for followers, sets and monitors standards, establishes checks and balances, uses a servant-leader approach, motivates by opportunity rather than money and thinks strategically. (Raja Rizal et al, 2016).
It is therefore an incontrovertible fact that quality leadership is vital in any form of governance whilst good governance is also key in the development of every state and corporate organisations. One can therefore not discuss governance or leadership independently from the other in the African context.
GOOD GOVERNANCE
According to the United Nations Human Rights office of The High Commissioner, there is no internationally agreed definition of ‘good governance’, yet it may span the following topics: full respect of Human Rights, the Rule of Law, Effective Participation, Multi-Actor Partnerships, Political Pluralism, Transparent and Accountable Processes and Institutions, an Efficient and Effective Public Sector, Legitimacy, Access to Knowledge, Information and Education, Political Empowerment of People, Equity, Sustainability, and Attitudes and Values that foster Responsibility, Solidarity and Tolerance. (OHCHR, 1996-2021). According to the OHCHR, the key attributes of good governance are; Transparency, Responsibility, Accountability, Participation and Responsiveness (to the needs of the people).
Ostensibly, good governance and quality leadership would ensure the formulation and implementation of strategic policies to safeguard the following; Strengthening and Protection of Democratic Institutions devoid political manipulations, Effective Public Service delivery system where bureaucracies do not become an albatross on citizens seeking public services, the Rule of Law, where the judiciary is independent, professional, and well-resourced and a corruption free society, where corruption is made unattractive through punishment.
QUALITIES OF LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA
PAN AFRICANISM
One quality which has motivated leadership and governance in Africa is the concept of Pan Africanism. Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous and diaspora ethnic groups of African descent. (Kuryla). Pan-Africanism as championed by both indigenous and diaspora Africans played a major role in ending colonialism and apartheid in Africa. Pan-Africanism rallied leaders of Africa around a single concept which gave birth to the principle of African Unity.
Pan-Africanism has been a major source of influence on Africans, although it must be recognised and remembered that it meant different things. It was developed by members of the African diaspora, primarily from the western hemisphere; as a result, it was not African in its origins and leadership and ownership did not pass to Africans until 1945.
Pan-Africanism was also a reaction to the fever of racism and intolerance which gripped most of Europe and the West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; for black people who were increasingly excluded and discriminated against in the western hemisphere and Europe, who were looked down upon and denigrated, therefore, pan-Africanism was an attempt to find some alternative.
CONTINENTAL AND REGIONAL GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS
The emergence of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963 and (now known as the African Union) and other regional governmental organisations such as the Economic Community of African States (ECOWAS) could be said to be a positive sign of leadership in Africa. Although these organisations have been severally criticized for not meeting the expectations of advocates of good governance on the continent, some successes have been made such as the ECOWAS’ intervention in the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars, intervention in Mali, sanctions against military regimes in Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso (to ensure their return to civilian rule) and the African Peer review mechanism among others.
The survival of these organisations and efforts to resolve governance crises on the African continent could be said to be an emerging quality which ought to be developed and safeguarded.
EMERGING DEMOCRACY
Although all is not well on the continent, some successes are gradually being achieved in leadership and governance. For example, Ghana has successfully practiced a little over three decades of uninterrupted Constitutional Rule and a growing media freedom. Other African countries have also made efforts to sustain Constitutional rule.
EDUCATION
A number of African countries including; Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Morocco and Ghana have implemented policies to provide free education for the youth. This is to ensure that every Senior High School Student benefit from free education. (MOH-Ghana, 2022). This policy is to ensure an enlightened African society, with emphasis on science and Technology. It is believed that adaptation and successful implementation by other African countries will develop better human resource for the African continent and produce quality leaders to manage the future of Africa.
GENDER DEVELOPMENT
Although gender development still remains a challenge to African societies, (especially among Islamic communities), since many countries have since not met the global requirement of thirty percent women participation in governance and leadership, Africa has made an improvement over the last decade. (UN, 2022). For instance Rwanda was the first country in the world with a female majority in parliament, currently at 61.3% for the Lower House and 38.5% for the Upper House. Senegal ranks seventh in the world with 42.7% of women in parliament whilst in 2006 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first female head of state in Africa. (SWAC/OECD, 2017).
CHALLENGES OF LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA
In spite of the progress being made by some African countries in leadership and governance, the continent is still inundated with widespread leadership challenges. According to (Ntata, 2015) there are seven challenges of leadership in Africa which are:
- The Policy of rewarding friends and punishing foes which stifles criticism and promote a hand-clapper culture
- Nepotism, ethnicity and tribalism
- Blurred Vision
- Competition for prominence among heads of state
- Corruption
- Dictatorship and
- Failure to redefine goals.
However, one school of thought opines, that the cause of Africa’s woes are as a result of deliberate machinations by the West. The relation between the degree of destitution of peoples of Africa and the length and nature of the exploitation, the continent had to endure is evident. Africa remains marked by the crimes of the slave-traders: up to now, her potentialities are restricted by under-population, (Toure, 1962).
Rodney in his book “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” attributed Africa’s challenges to The European Slave Trade as a basic factor in African underdevelopment, Technological Stagnation and Distortion of the African Economy in the Pre-Colonial Epoch and Continuing Politico-Military Developments in Africa from 1500 to 1885 among others. (Rodney, 2009 edition).
POOR GOVERNANCE
Poor governance, irrespective of pre-independence factors is Africa’s main challenge. Poor governance in Africa has led to lack of Political, Social and Economic Rights of Africans, unfair and manipulated elections, lack of responsiveness, inefficiency and ineffectiveness, lack of transparency, unethical behaviour on the part of leadership, incompetent and “insipid leadership” and lack of innovation and openness to change.
LACK OF ECONOMIC RIGHTS
It is said that over sixty percent of Africa’s 1.216 billion citizens are poor and semi illiterates. This phenomenon denies majority of Africans their political and economic rights, hence extends the poverty bracket on the continent wider. Without economic rights, citizens will not be empowered to participate in politics and governance of their countries hence affecting leadership and governance on the continent.
GLOBALISATION
African countries continue to be producers of raw materials to the economies of capitalist states. Whilst the West capitalized on technology to industrialise, Africa continues to supply raw materials which are reproduced and exported back to Africa. This phenomenon in the globalization sphere has affected governance in Africa, since states lack funds to undertake infrastructural development, unless they rely on the loans from Asia and the West.
CORRUPTION
Corruption continues to be a major challenge to leadership and governance in Africa. Usually because, of ‘governments of family and friends’, heads of state have been reluctant in arresting, prosecuting and punishing corrupt officials, whilst some African Heads of state themselves are involved in corrupt acts of transferring funds into secret accounts in the West.
LACK OF RULE OF LAW
Most African countries do not promote the Rule of Law and transparency. The judiciary either sing to the tune of the government of the day or they are witch-hunted. This challenge has usually led to public outcry, discontentment and military interventions in governance, such as in Sudan, Mali, Niger, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
Other leadership and governance challenges in Africa include ethnicity and tribal wars, low participation of women in leadership, low levels of education, lack of infrastructural development, diseases and widespread poverty among others.
CONCLUSION
Africa is not poor materially but poor in leadership and governance. Quality leadership and good governance is what Africa needs to change the woes of the continent from destitution to development. Until Africa educates her citizens and groom quality leaders, the continent’s story shall not be different for a very long time. Quality leadership and good governance will wean Africa from the breasts of the West and transform the lives of citizens.
In as much as science and technology education is needed for industrialization of Africa, leadership training from infancy is equally important to transform Africa at all levels including both public and private sectors. Meanwhile, there is still some hope for Africa as the media and new media are becoming the new public sphere where almost every youth gets the opportunity to contribute towards public discourse. If any current leader could do much for Africa, it should be grooming of Transformational Leaders for the continent through education, quality leadership and good governance.