body-container-line-1

The Sole Aim of Current African Leaders: Is to Amass Wealth

By Ephraim Franco Marblow
Article The Sole Aim of Current African Leaders: Is to Amass Wealth
MAR 23, 2018 LISTEN

Africa is no doubt, one of the wealthiest continents, but for the past years: its wealth has been mismanaged and squandered by those leaders presiding over the continent. As a result, many Africans run elsewhere in search of a better life, and some prefer risking their lives to leave Africa. To whatever extent, the leaders of Africa are to take the blames; they have refused to utilize the continent's wealth appropriately.

Though Africa has lots of natural resources, most of its inhabitants live in abject poverty and destitution. Its men and women are constantly seeking refuge elsewhere because the leaders have failed to meet the expectations of the masses. Amid extreme poverty, there is also war and human abuse- and the struggle for political domination is causing unease, too. Instead of being a custodian, current African leaders are the ones exploiting the wealth of the continent and causing chaos for their constituents. Their aim of being a public servant is to amass wealth, yet they purport to be a servant of the people. The reality is that those leaders are the main problem of Africa. Those leaders of current days are the worse generation of leaders Africa had ever seen. They are simply unscrupulous leaders supervising nations that need well-seasoned leaders, not the ones without vision and commitment. African leaders during the Independence epoch were, without doubt, better than the current ones.

Leaders in the 1990s were Far Better than Leader Nowadays

In the 1990s, Africa had leaders that were committed, united and, passionate about unraveling the problems Africa faced. They were zealous and passionate. And to illustrate their love for the continent, in 1963, they formed the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which aim was: to support African liberation movement, mediation of boundary conflicts and civil wars, and research in economics and communications. Those adroit leaders knew what was right for the continent, and they acted promptly to remedy the problems. They were not perfect, but they brought on board wide range of integrity and punctuality. As evident to this, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said: ''we prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility''. One could feel the urgency and unison through the orations and actions of those leaders, which was indeed good- because what Africa needed was to step out of the many barriers confronting it in the early 1990s. Besides their advocacy for the emancipation of Africa, there was no looting of the continent's wealth. In fact, this generation of leaders were the least paid leaders.

But today the case is reversed. Leaders nowadays use public office to enrich themselves and abuse others, which is often to the detriment of the masses, such repugnant demeanor must come to an end. Instead of being servants of the people, they are multi-millionaires and celebrities. Many of them become business tycoons when elected; therefore, financing their private businesses with state funds. In fact, some have finally succeeded in dividing the people against each other. They preached tribal dominance, legality, and supremacy for political purposes. The current leaders of Africa are its worst adversary, to put an end to this, there must be an agenda that sets the state or continent above its leaders.

The Next Africa Agenda
The only way Africa can step out of those barriers, which have impeded its progress for too long, is she has to adopt an agenda that favors the state above an individual. In other words, the people of Africa must seek the interest of the state or continent and interdict any leader whose aim is to amass wealth for himself and family, while much of the people languish in abject poverty and destitution. In other to achieve this, a method should be put into place whereby a leader/president will not be paid with a salary that surpasses the income of ten citizens who live on less than two dollars a day. If every nation in Africa adopts this modus operandi, Africa can rest assured that the transformation it desires will be actualized, and those leaders who come to public office with the intent of enriching themselves will abscond the public sector. Therefore, we are going to see the influx of leaders that have the passion to lead, not those seeking self-wealth at the expense of the people.

Meanwhile, leaders are to be given bonuses based on their successes in public office. For instance, if a leader succeeds in alleviating poverty within his country, that leader should be given a bonus for his efforts. This will ensure that every leader of the state would work hard to transform the lives of their people. Leaders are servants of the people, not kings and queens, who should live in luxury and grandeur. The state shall provide the necessity for its leaders like schooling, health care, and feeding, which would be accessible to members of the nuclear family. Lastly, past leaders should be compensated base on his/her service rendered to the state. If he/she does good while in office and finds favor with the masses, he deserves to be compensated. With this, I believe that the new generation of leaders will focus their attention on improving the lives of their people than just chasing the big salary. This agenda is paramount to the development of Africa.

What Makes This Paramount?
However, this agenda, when materialize, would ameliorate Africans of the many constraints they currently face. Africa has what it takes to change the lives of its populace. And this agenda would be pivotal for the transformation because it would feature leaders whose aim would be the alteration of the continent. When such thing happens, Africa will surely be on the path with other continents in terms of infrastructure, healthcare, technology, education and human resource development. Africans wouldn’t leave their countries in a search for better life. Furthermore, African would remain in their county to build and embrace its culture, which is currently in serious peril by other civilization.

Conclusion
It’s never late to transmute Africa. But to do this, the continent interest must be above those individuals who have ruined it over the years. In much the same way, there must be a policy to restrain the many problems of Africa. And the ‘Next Africa Agenda’ is the way forward. The agenda would give birth to the right individuals who are going to seek the interest of the state- not the ones who are going to accumulate wealth for themselves. In this light, I believe, Africa could reach her full potential. Before I leave you, I would like for you to retrospect on these words by Nelson Mandela, one of Africa’s hero. ‘’I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.’’ That Africa is now, no need to prolong the people’s interest, Africans deserve better.

body-container-line