Attention all Africa - Good Governance wanted!

In his recent interview with the BBC, Mo Ibrahim explains why no ex-leader has won the award for good governance this year. You can see the interview here

Mo Ibrahim interview on BBC

This comes with no surprise to me, the state of global leadership much more in Africa, has over the years been in limbo, till the advent of Barack Obama. In the last era, most Africans could name a few prominent continental leaders, the likes of Nelson Mandela but now that he is no longer active politically there is none standing up to his statue.
In the book Prince by Machiavelli, he states there are two ways a prince or leader is made- by preparation or good fortune.
Those that have been prepared over a life span by mentors, education and experiences are most likely to posses the ability to lead and be successful. However those that find themselves installed as leader by the good fortune of benefactors, soon find themselves without ability to govern the masses and are left prone to the whims of their installers.

This sadly is the state of most leaders in Africa today, they have been installed by external influences to cater to outside interests rather than the needs of those they govern. In Egypt President Mubarak is retained to preserve geo-political stability, while the west ponders a peace deal for the Israeli -Palestinian conflict.
In Nigeria a corrupt political regime is tolerated to keep the oil flowing, while in Kenya Kibaki a tyrant by all measures rules as we all hold our nose under the pretense of avoiding civil war, this also applies in Zimbabwe.
In DRC as in Zambia, accidents of death by design in one case and fate in the other have installed ill equipped novices, to govern masses with severe needs.

As I listened to Mo Ibrahim make the case for want of good leadership in Africa, I couldn't imagine but wonder how long it will take for Africans to get their act together. How long before we realize, we can not put up with cronies any longer?

Another critical factor, highlight in the interview, was the absence of relevant statistical data for most African states. What is known of measurements of important elements like poverty, education health etc are crude estimations of western visitors that do not bear the remotest semblance to the conditions or state of so many Africans.

It is essential, that Africans know and understand for themselves their immediate estate, rather than continue to validate western perceptions.
As Sun Tzu writes in the art of war, one must posses the knowledge of one's strength and know that of one's adversaries, in order to succeed in any endeavor . In this regard, it is not always external influences that impose adverse conditions of poverty and under development upon so many Africans. Cultural adherence and often a lack of personal drive for self improvement are as much to blame, especially in parts where violent conflict has been absent.

Africans must demand more from our current system of governance, we must ensure basic systems exist to collect social indicators; a basic structure to track life from the cradle to the grave.
Inadequate clinics, schools, roads even insufficient legislative representation stem not so much from a lack of resources as from the lack of useful data to match population needs to infrastructure capacity. This can not be allowed to persists at a time, that a goat herder on slopes of a remote hill in Kenya, can receive a money transfer to his cell phone from any part of the world.

It is only when more Africans begin to take a keen interest in creating and maintaining an accountable system of governance that more Africans will begin to seize the opportunities that exist to exploit African resources for our own benefit rather than external interests.
Just as, Mo Ibrahim was able to envision an opportunity to sell more than 25 millions phones across Africa, more African entrepreneurs may begin to envision other opportunities to exploit.

Dambisa Moyo's "Dead aid" - Africa's PR disaster

Dambisa Moyo is on a TV book promotion circuit appearing largely to audiences in the UK and the US, who are also Africa's most charitable benefactors and in some part Africa's most unscrupulous lenders.
Her appearances on TV, as her book attempt to call attention to the failure of some aid programs in parts of Africa, to lift the standard of living for most Africans.



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While I agree that some aid programs have failed to meet their intended goals, I fear the narrative Dambisa's appearances and book has generated have now turned out to be a PR disaster for Africa and more specifically Zambia's charity program needs.

It may not be what Dambisa set out to do, but in this case the message and the messenger are gravely tainted. Dambisa has worked for the World Bank and Goldman Sachs in the past, if she views the two entities' activities in Africa as charitable or aid, she may have taken to much boardroom cappuccino and whisk. Most of the 1 trillion Dollars she keeps bringing up was made out in interest loans to newly independent countries beginning in the 1960's.
It is important to remember the prevailing circumstances in much of Africa in the 50's.
The high rates of illiteracy, absence of health care facilities, clean water, decent housing, roads and food insecurity etc. The status quo in Africa may seem out whack for Dambisa after her Wall street boardroom experience, but surely all the money spent in Africa was not in vain.
As a former Munali secondary school graduate, that spent a considerable amount of time learning in classrooms which we popularly called "World bank" because they were built with funds from a World Bank loan to the Zambian government, I take her generalization of mass aid failure with a pinch of salt.
It may be a case of seeing the glass half empty or in her case what she is selling(snake oil). I wonder if she had worked with USAID or World vision instead of the World Bank and Goldman Sachs, would she still have had the some perspective?. There are certainly, always better ways of spending money especially when looking at things in hindsight but "dead aid".

In Lusaka, Zambia for example Irish aid and Jica ( Japenese aid) programs to improve access to clean water in peri urban areas, have had more success than the impact of German loans to the Lusaka water sewage company to do the same. It important for Dambisa especially in her TV appearances to make a qualified distinction between aid funds and loans.  She then needs to explain the difference in impact aid vs loans have had on Africa's social development.
Contributions to aid organizations like the Red cross, one world etc have already being negatively affected by the global financial crisis, Dambisa 's narrative of "dead aid" will do more harm to operations of aid organizations in Africa, especially now, when many need the most help.

Dambisa's book has put Africa's western benefactors in a difficult position, should they withhold aid until the last corrupt African government has  developed a better structure for managing programs effectively or continue the much needed aid with the knowledge that, as Dambisa puts it, that it will be "dead aid". It is like the case of "two mothers and one baby" brought before king Solomon in the bible, only Dambisa in her quest to sell her book, may have chosen to have the baby die rather than risk ending up in the wrong hands.

My abiding faith in the Bright side of Mwanawasa!

My past criticism and/or praise of our most learned President has always been rooted in the abiding hope that good education especially the study of Law, will always give birth in the bearer, that insatiable desire to right injustice, to do what is moral, to advance the general welfare of men, among other virtues. Albeit a good education does not necessarily preclude someone from being evil, nor does lack of education prevent one, from doing good.
Indeed, at height of the multi party movement in early 90’s Mwanawasa’ effective use of the injunction clause in our laws did a lot good for the movement. And perhaps as a testimony to his good conscience, he resigned from Chiluba’s corrupt administration.
Since becoming President he has fought corruption with brazen vigor, there is now growing confidence in a public service delivery system that was once openly corrupt.
His recent surge in efforts to leave Zambians, a good constitution is admirable, though he should not have waited till his final term (A good chef must be first to taste his own cooking).
He has also tried to inspire Zambians to do more, to be more productive…. Whatever became of the winter maize project?
It is however, this recent move to bring in more ordinary Zambians in the mining equation, that rekindles my faith in the bright side of Mwanawasa. Nothing has given me as much grief as the marginalization of ordinary Zambians as far benefits from mining are concerned. It has always been a limited elite, in collusion with foreigners that have derived the most benefit from mining, especially gemstones mining. Those that were privy to, mining exploration data got licenses for interest areas and have kept this information and the tremendous benefit from the sell of Zambian gemstones out of public domain. Zambian emeralds account for 20% of global gemstone sells; this is why Kashikulu would like to give three cheers to our most learned president for this statement –

…There are more than 380 gemstone mine owners and over 80 other small scale mining license holders with accumulated unpaid area charges in excess of K10 billion contrary to the law," he said.
President Mwanawasa called on the defaulters to clear the area charges adding that the new mining cadastre system, which will be opened to the public soon after March 31st, 2008, will not accommodate and recognize holders of mining rights who are not compliant with the Mines and Minerals Act.
Government is determined to open up the Zambian landscape to investors.
"We are cancelling licenses not complying with the Mines and Minerals Act regardless of whether the defaulters are holders of large scale or small scale mining rights. This will be done before the new mining cadastre system opens to the public after 31st March, 2008," he said
On the fiscal regulatory reforms for the mining sector President Mwanawasa said there will be no discrimination between owners of the old privatized mines and the new investors... Zambia Daily Mail.

State of despondence part 3 – How long before Zambia attains the age of enlightenment?

The lack of rationality in the manner Zambians continue to view both their constitution and national resources might evoke the question – how long before our nation attains the age of enlightenment?
How long before the correlation between the individual and the state is widely appreciated?

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the popular expression “insanity is doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results each time” than Zambia’s constitution review process. We have had the
i) Mvunga constitution review in 1991,
ii) Mwanakatwe constitution review in 1996,
iii) Late Lucy Sichone’s call for a constituent assembly,
iv) Mung’omba constitution review in 2003,
v) Levy Mwanawasa’s Indaba 2003
vi) And now National Constitution Conference.

I expect at this point, that an eminent citizen like John Mwanakatwe or Wila Mung’omba would spearhead an intellectual movement of the Enlightened and advocate reason as the primary basis of authority and straight talk to average Zambians to end this insanity!
We know what Zambians want and expect in their constitution, why should an authoritarian president continue to trample on the greater rights of common Zambians.

On the other hand, against the run of logic and rationality a matter deserving of at least one commission has received none and as a consequence theft, corruption and wanton exploitation of Zambia’s natural resources by foreign interests continues with average Zambians fighting over leftover crumbs.
A more telling example is this recent lament of
“Former Zambia Privatization Agency (ZPA) director James Matale says the destruction of the public enterprises during the Chiluba regime that accounted for over 80 per cent of economic activity was an act of unprecedented vandalism."It surpassed even the destructiveness of the definitive Attila the Hun. Zambia lost economic investments and assets accumulated over a period of 100 years," he says."A large proportion of the famous K7 billion debt was attributable to investments in assets and operations of the public enterprises. For instance, with the destruction of Zambia Airways, Zambia lost the entire stock of civil aviation technology that she had acquired over 30 years at a great cost. I think that, in the fullness of time, when all the numbers are finally tallied up and the last statements recorded, the Zambian privatisation programme will rank as the biggest fraud in economic history."So what went wrong with Zambia's privatisation programme?Matale offers a rare insight into this monster of a programme whose benefits some Zambians have been questioning over the years.Matale explains that the programme faced resistance and opposition from several critical stakeholders.He also explains that there was a deliberate effort by powerful business interests in the government to treat enterprises and assets lined up for privatisation as goods fallen from the back of a delivery truck.The donors too had their own invisible hand on the process.” Extract from Maravi

Also troubling is capitulation of men like James Matale and others like John Mwanakatwe, Alex Chikwanda, Wila Mung’omba, and Prof Mvunga and many other distinguished, well read and educated Zambians.

How can there be, such a disconnect to the affairs of nation?

I admire the courage of Prof Clive Chirwa; and understand his indignation with the status quo. However, like many well educated Zambians before him, that have held positions where they could have at least helped influence rationality in the minds of Zambians- I wonder!
Might he not be a lone voice pushing a nation stuck in a cultural drag with roots stemming from it's past?