My mind was drawn to African crises by peoples’ outcry on bad governance on the continent.  This made me wander in libraries to research on the origin of bad leadership and whether a solution to it could be found.

I read through African history since the coming of the Arab slave traders in the 11^th century, the invasion of the continent by the whites in the 19^th century and subsequent partitioning of the continent among themselves, the war for independence and the present crises. 

Africa has gone through six terrible phases without reverse.  From 1200 to 1880, about 40 million strong men and women were siphoned out of the continent by Arab slave traders to Europe.  Many of them are now found in remote areas of Bolivia, East Caribbean and North America.  Those in the Arab world were castrated and all died out. In the period 1880 to 1940s, the continent experienced aggression by the whites, stealing of African treasure worth trillions of shillings and a random partitioning among themselves without the participation of Africans.  

The third phase (1945 to 1960s) was mainly anti colonial and was the only time Africans combined forces to fight the colonialists. Although countries proclaimed independence, their boundaries maintained the colonial design, denying communities independence. Over 10 million people died during the fight against colonialists. The 1960s to 1980s saw the continuation of European rivalry in Africa. Schemes were hatched by western European powers and the World Bank to overthrow able African leaders and eliminate them through coups or direct assassination, while propping up collaborators to take over leadership and grab the assets left by the colonialists. There was massive corruption, single party dictatorship, European economic developers misdirecting African economies and disillusionment by the people of Africa. Civil strife as evidenced by coups in Ghana and Nigeria and civil wars in such places as Mozambique, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola and Uganda ensued leading to the death of over 20 million people. 

The 1980s to 1990s witnessed the collapse of communism and an intensified plot to control Africa by the West through avenues like the World Bank. This was manifested in the introduction of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) which worsened living conditions and sanctioning of direct intervention by the United Nations as the ruling power in the ungovernable Africa. Ungovernable conditions in Somalia, Rwanda, Zaire and Siera-leone ensued to serve as experiments. From the 1990s to 2000 after the defeat of European mercenaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) came into play  forcing countries to work in partnership and creating goals which must be fulfilled. The AU and NEPAD are trying to achieve these goals from the top to match European demands and not from the bottom to match African communal demands.

As all this was going on, there resulted 186 coups and 26 major wars that killed more than 7 million people, costing Africa $250billion, saddening Africa with a debt of $305billion and reducing the continent’s world trade to only 2 percent, according to Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa. 

This must be avoided. Before colonization of Africa, all African communities were independent, a right that they lost during colonization. After decolonization, these communities neither gained back their independence nor got back their land grabbed by the colonialists.  They were left with constitutions that treat them as if all were from one family, making it easier for European schemers and their collaborators in Africa to play one community against another while they promote their interests.

The mistakes should be corrected by communities going whole. No community should be divided between two or more countries like the Teso between Uganda and Kenya, the Kuria between Tanzania and Kenya and the Alpulaar between Mauritania and Senegal.  The minority communities should join the majority side. This will correct African countries’ boundaries as per the natural settlement of communities but not artificial demand for wealth.

All communities that have gone whole should go autonomous.  All existing Members of Parliament (MPs) within the community should choose one of them as governor. Since each community feels it should lead its own fate, they will see the chosen governor as their own leader to whom they will delegate their problems. Communities with a population of 100,000 and below should join related communities and choose one governor, but should have their own leader as deputy governor. The governors should occupy office for three years after which elections should be held.

The chosen governors of related communities (communities with same language or culture) should sign co-existence agreements to form regional governments and appoint one among them president for 5 years before elections are held.  The communities in co-existence remain completely autonomous. In cases where some communities such as the Kisii of Kenya find themselves “inland” (they are of Bantu Origin but are completely surrounded by Nilotes), the community should rule itself but only seek trade alliance within the region.  In this order, we can have Cushitic African Region, Negroic African region, Arabic African Region and Bantu African Region. 

Respective regional Presidents should form the United Regions of Africa (URA) to replace the African Union, and also form a council of URA composed of African experts and themselves to replace NEPAD.  The council should distribute African wealth northwards, eastwards, southwards and westwards before exporting surpluses. It should verify all imports in Africa and allow only quality goods according to regional demand. African exports and imports should be channeled through five chosen ports and airports, to check corruption and unnecessary goods.  The council should advise each regional and national (communal) government on agriculture, mining and other economic priorities. 

In addition, the council should control the African Development Bank (ADB), which will give loans to African regional Bank/IMF loaning facilities.  Only on special conditions approved by URA Economic experts and no attached debt conditions should ADB be allowed to secure a loan from the World Bank/IMF. No regional or National Government should deal directly with the World Bank/IMF. 

As concerns research, amnesty and land, no foreigners should be allowed to carry out research in any region of Africa without approval by URA Council.  Where one is approved, an African expert should be attached to verify the orientation of the research and its benefit to the region or continent. Amnesty Africa should have an amnesty wing to resettle all refugees displaced during this long disorientation and man-made disasters in each region and nation. The council should control land commissions in conjunction with the regional and National Government to revert all grabbed land to original owners.  Those removed should be settled by the Amnesty wing. The National Government should keep between 30 percent to 50 percent of the retrieved land for national agricultural production. The farms can be leased to individual farmers to produce required crops.

Large cities have risen up in Africa.  Before they came up, history tells who occupied those areas. A city of 2 million people and above should form its own government but pay duty to the nationals on whose land it stands.  A city of less than 2 million people should be controlled by the nationals on whose land it lies.  Those opting to leave the city because of the new arrangements should be allowed to advertise sale of their business within a given period. At the expiry of the period, the national government should buy the business and sell to her nationals later.

All the regional governments should practice the tri-party system of politics to allow fewer political parties and contenders and give people chance to choose best leaders.  At this level, I have confidence that we shall answer the World Bank’s question “Can African decline be reversed?’  The Bank then answered itself: “It can and must happen from within Africa. Like trees, countries cannot be pulled upwards from the outside world.  They must grow within, from their own roots.”