Education is not only an opportunity but a necessity for life. Life without education is visionless. An educated society is an asset to a nation’s success. Good leadership goes hand in hand with education.  Education is the key to success and therefore becomes a priority for any focused leadership. Besides, education is a gateway to development. Good leadership backed with good education produces remarkable results in terms of political stability and economic prosperity. 

With education people are enlightened, make sound judgments and are able to make good decisions. Educated people are also able to distinguish good from bad and right from wrong without being coerced. On the other hand Education also creates fear and inferiority complex among uneducated and un-informed leadership which thrives on people’s ignorance and stupidity to remain in power.

In the 1970’s through to the 90’s, many African intellectuals and elites were forced to flee their countries fearing arrest and murder by dictatorial regimes which could not stand their stand on governance issues. In Kenya, Intellectuals like professor Ngugi WA Thiongo, Micere Mugo and many others were forced to flee the country and to live in exile as fugitives for decades. The same happened in many other African countries. Are we better-off after independence? No! Despite attaining independence nearly fifty years ago many African people are still living in abject poverty and dying from hunger.

Intellectualism is a leading resource for development and leadership as opposed to retardation, corruption and bad governance as is the case in most Africa countries today. Education has greatly contributed to the success of most countries in Europe, Asia, America and Canada, among others. It is ironic  that despite the high level of education achieved by our leaders mostly from the Western world institutions, most African leaders are still underperforming  politically and economically.

It is debatable whether young professionals taking political leadership and responsibilities in Western nations such as Europe and America are more mature compared to   most educated African leaders twice or thrice their ages. The trend and quality of leadership practiced in the western world is more superior and cannot be compared to the kind of leadership experienced in Africa under the hands of much older people in their sunset ages.

For instance in Kenya, older men and women over fifty years aspiring to become Kenya’s next president   are still considering themselves as young.  How can such mature men and women with families like Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Eugene Wamalwa, Martha Karua, and Vice President Hon Kalonzo Musyoka still consider themselves as youth? What is the definition of a Youth? How can they still remain youthful having served in parliament for several years in Cabinet holding various portfolios? This is pretense and mockery of the highest order.

Why do we die during drought and also during rainy seasons? Doesn’t show lack of foresight and leadership?  The continent is surrounded by water sources all over in terms of Oceans. Within Africa itself, many countries have reliable fresh and salty Lakes.  Lake Victoria which is the world’s second biggest fresh water lake is located in East Africa apparently existing in all the three main East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Katzuo Matsuzaki, a former Japanese Expert in Kenya attached to the National Youth Service project once observed that if Japan had resources like Africa, it would have become a World power beating off every other world power. With proper planning and management, Africa can confidently and adequately feed its own people, manage its own resources and import surplus to other needy countries in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

The gap between the haves and the have-nots in Africa is widening day by day raising no hope for the people. In most African countries today, cabinet Ministers and parliamentarians are accomplished professionals in areas of economy, law, engineering, leadership and management, education, and environmental management.  Nearly 100 % of elected Members of Parliament are university graduates. The problems come when it comes to making decisions and planning both long term and short term economic and political policies.

Leadership in Africa is staggering and struggling to hold. Policies laid down like Vision 2030 are not implemented as planned let alone followed up to their logical conclusions. Results are not examined and evaluated to access the impact of such economic stimulus, programs and strategies.

Leadership is not about pomp and color. Neither is it about education and intellectualism. It is about ability, acumen, wisdom, focus, desire and good planning. African leaders always look inferior when they visit developed and other developing nations because of the high level of infrastructure development, social welfare programs, stability and governance in those countries.  Could it be that despite the high level education standards and intellectualism among African leaders, they still require additional on-the -job training?

When I visited Pecsi city in Hungary last year, I was challenged and intimidated by the way the city is managed. It was all about devolution and how best it can work for a nation. The city was clean, well-managed and less congested. It has planned, local transport system whether rail, road or air. For the few days I was there, it rained hard twice but I did not see floods or traffic jams. Daily social activities for people’s entertainment are organized and well planned with effective security arrangement. CCTV cameras were all over backed by reliable and alert security personnel on patrol on twenty four hours basis. Pecsi is the fourth biggest city in Hungary, a developing country just like most African countries.

In one of the streets in Pecsi city, I visited a very romantic corner reserved for lovers where they go with padlocks to lock themselves up by locking padlocks to symbolize their love. According to my guide Dr. Suzszana Hauck, some of the locks I saw are dated back to the 1950’s and yet they are still clean, intact and admirable.

Africa needs to learn a lot from other nation’s successes, experience, performance, management styles and organizational skills. Many developing countries in Europe and Asia which until not long ago were unstable and underperforming economically today are donors to many African countries. In 1970’s the per capita income of South Korea was far below the per capita income in Kenya then. Today South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia are experiencing remarkable economic growth and development which is not comparable to Kenya or any other African country. Other developing countries like Hungary, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria were struggling with ethnicization and balkanization wars and struggles. They are out of the woods, are stable politically and are performing remarkably in terms of economic growth and infrastructure development.

For Africa to develop and move forward steadily and speedily,  it is paramount that its governance style, leadership and politics be reviewed and re-examined.

By Denise Kodhe,

Executive Director, The Institute for Democracy, Leadership & Empowerment in Africa- IDEA.