Spio Raps African Leaders

…”They Fail To Distinguish Between National Interest And Personal Interest”

Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah, Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), has observed that the major problem confronting most African leaders is their inability to distinguish between national and personal interests.
“In most African countries, there has been no definition of what constitutes national interest; so although leaders often come to power with some commitment and patriotism, they soon get lost in pursuing their personal agendas at the expense of their nations,” the CTO boss, who is also aspiring to secure the presidential ticket of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), said recently while addressing the African Business Leaders Forum in the South African city of Johannesburg.

He noted that one other great difficulty that faced African leaders was how they could plan their successions. He said many African leaders did not pay sufficient attention to building teams of technocrats who could actually solve problems, but were often happy to have in their fold, weak individuals who simply went along with their decisions. Succession planning, he said, was a critical requirement of good leadership.

The forum, which also featured top African leaders like Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, former President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Chris Kirubi, a prominent Businessman of Kenya, William Egbe, President of Cocacola (Central and Eastern Africa) Mr. Mutharaika a prominent Tanzanian Businessman, was organized by the publishers of the Business in Africa Magazine to discuss issues of Africa's Political and Business Leadership.

Dr. Spio-Garbrah, was of the view that the current rapid rate of globalisation, and the emergence of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) culminating in what he called “the new Knowledge Age” have necessitated the need to have a new crop of Technocrats who have a sound understanding of the global economic, financial, and trading systems, as leaders of African countries.

Such leaders, according to Dr. Spio-Garbrah, would be in a position to craft new innovative programmes and work to enable their specific countries and Africa as a whole, compete effectively in the very dynamic new world order. He said that good leaders were the products of their times and stated that “in view of the mainly economic and development oriented challenges that Africa faces today, the best leaders for Africa should be those whose backgrounds, training, and exposure give them the greatest probability of being able to solve the specific problems of poverty, unemployment and under-development.”

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, who also spoke at the opening session of the forum, noted that qualities such as vision, commitment, patriotism and knowledge were important for African leaders. He was of the view that leaders were the products of their circumstances and therefore must be judged by the context from which they sprung, and what specific goals they wanted to achieve.

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda considered vision and commitment as being very important for good leadership. He added that it was also very important to understand the needs of one's people in order to offer good leadership.

Also in attendance were some 500 business and political leaders across Africa, including some of the continent's most influential tycoons and leaders, among whom were Ghana's Tony Oteng-Gyasi, President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Elizabeth Villars, Managing Director of Camelot Ghana Ltd., and Alex Banful, Managing Director of Ghana Social Marketing Foundation (GSMF).