Kofi Annan Thinks African Leaders Are Not Enlightened, And I Agree

Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan delivered a lecture on leadership and public service dubbed “an afternoon with Kofi Annan. During his speech, the international icon touched on various issues pertaining to democracy and leadership in Africa.

One particular statement that keeps reverberating in my heart is his standpoint on leaders in Africa: “unfortunately, Africa has had too few enlightened people of this kind”, in reference to “true democratic leaders who understand that they are at the service of the citizens, and not the other way around. Leadership is a service. Leaders must understand that they hold power in trust of the people, and it can also be taken away”.

Even though the statesman may have been speaking in pure terms of democracy with respect to transfer of power, I cannot help but apply Mr. Annan’s assertion on a wider scale.

Firstly, his expression, “…Africa has had too few enlightened people [leaders]…” gives an unequivocal understanding that majority of African leaders are unenlightened, they are ignorant.

I wish to continue from where Mr. Annan left off. Africa leaders are not only unenlightened on matters of democracy, but they are uneducated on the concept of leadership-political-as well.

To African leaders, leadership is all about occupying power, and harnessing state resources to the benefit of their political affiliates.

African leaders do not understand the challenges of poverty, huge infrastructural deficit, high rates of illiteracy, ballooning unemployment, weak public institutions, and so on and so forth.

My fear is that it is not only for lack of understanding of our problems that African leaders are victims of, but also, they are actually clueless on how to solve these problems.

The only thing the African leader is enlightened on is how to resonate with the unsuspecting populace and climb to reign. In instances where they lose their ability to deceive majority of the citizenry, they take to force, and impose themselves on the people against the people’s will.

Thank you, Your Excellency Kofi Annan, for reminding us of the awful reality. Nothing may change, but at least African citizens will grow to accept day by day that the continent is been governed by incompetent hands.