The bid by the EU to peg development assistance on governance while welcome, should not be one-sided. An online survey conducted by The African Executive on Probing Governance and Prosperity in Africa (September 2009) revealed that Africa’s governance dilemma hails from internal factors; external factors and a hybrid of the two.

While Africa’s leaders were castigated for their constrained vision and surrendered leadership, developed nations were blamed for being part of the problem by manipulating Africa’s leadership, sabotaging Africa’s economies through disastrous policy prescriptions and plundering of Africa’s resources. Differences over European Development Fund allocations for example, have been partly blamed for the failure by the East African Community to conclude new Economic Partnership Agreements with Europe.

It is no secret that western capitals have played a critical role in the suffering of  the masses in DR Congo; Gabon; Haiti and Liberia, just to name a few. Whereas they have blamed Africa for corruption, they have been keen on keeping the ‘stolen’ money in their capitals.

It is important that governance issues self-evolve from the African people. Africa needs to initiate its governance paradigm on the basis of how external interests impact on its people; how elitist short term focus destroys ability to build sound institutions on the continent and how to get African people productive. The EU stands to gain immensely by relating with Africans that have the ability to manage their destiny as opposed to Africans that need a feeding bottle.