AFRICA NEEDS TRANSFORMATION MINDED LEADERS.

BY:TEDDY KATONO

Nelson Mandela former South African president and an anti-apartheid revolutionist.

Africa needs a new wave of leadership that is transformation minded. Leadership is the measure of any nation and if the people in leadership are intellectually and morally incompetent chances are that the nation will be unprogressive, underdeveloped and vice versa. Nations rise or fall depending on the caliber of their leaders.

It is hard to comprehend Africa’s condition, it is said this is the richest of the seven continents in the world, yet black Africans are poorest. Probably the first home of the human race, it is the least developed.

Africa is blessed with abundant minerals with the largest reserves of gold, diamonds, copper, platinum and nickel in the planet. At least every country in Africa has a share in the underdeveloped and unexploited minerals. This is a continent whose labor force is abundant and comparatively cheaper than in most parts of the world.

Diseases, hunger, social injustices just to name a few are some of Africa’s nightmares all narrowing down to leadership mishap or failure. From time immemorial people expect leaders to deliver the promises they made while begging for their votes.

One of biggest weakening factors in Africa is failure in leadership; incompetent governments that drive her towards the wrong direction with massive embezzlement of funds burdening the taxpayers and of course straining the nation’s economy.

A good leader practices self-denial for the sake of the citizens. This is evidently missing in most African leaders who openly use their power to use embezzle state money and public funds to satisfy their gluttonous needs. According to Fredrick De Klerk a former South African president, “Leadership is being able to make a positive difference”.

Such changes well employed today will be a big move in turning the right solutions into reality. Accepting the need for real change, wise decision making, ability to deliver and being able to control any greedy needs leaders will indeed lead Africa towards the right direction.

The greatest achievement a leader can achieve is to willingly surrender leadership even after terms of political, social and economic stability. Laying down the responsibilities of office to a new person will initiate new ideas and enterprises.

Staying in power, even after the end of one’s tenure ,not only destabilizes the nation but may also result in loss of innocent lives. African leaders need to be transformation-minded to help realize the best of the world’s second largest continent.