)
was published by IDEA, Inc. in anticipation of
Obama�s vision for Africa.
We at IDEA are gratified that Barack Obama
visited Ghana and addressed the Continent in a
very candid and frank manner. The Government of
Ghana, under the leadership of John Atta Mills,
and the people of Ghana received Obama as if he
was a native son coming back home. Indeed, Obama
along with the First Lady Michelle Obama and his
two daughters, Shasha and Meliya, went back to his
land of his ancestors.
Obama, however, did not travel to Ghana for
pleasure; he went there to tell African leaders,
in the most honest and revealing fashion, that the
continent is in big trouble. Unlike other heads of
states and diplomats who mystify social reality,
Obama presented his basic insight with respect to
Africa in a very lucid and persuasive way.
However, his emphasis on corruption hides,
rather than expose the underpinning major
obstacles for African development, including
Europe�s sinister gift to Africa (via
colonialism and beyond), wrong development
policies such as structural adjustment program
(SAP), prescribed by the World Bank; American
policy of rewarding corrupt and dictatorial
regimes in Africa, and of course African leaders
(not all) lack of commitment and vision. These
underlying problems were not mentioned in the
Obama speech, and corruption, to be sure, is a
manifestation of the inextricably connected
multifaceted elements in the big picture.
Some of the most important points Obama raised
in his speech are, �no nation will create wealth
if its leaders exploit the economy�; �Africa
does not need strong men but strong institutions�;
�development depends on good governance� etc.
We agree with Obama that good governance or a
committed and visionary leadership will ultimately
play a crucial role in the transformation of the
Continent. Sometime in the early 1980s, the famous
Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe said, �the
Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability
of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to
the challenge of personal example which are the
hallmarks of true leadership.�
Good governance, however, must be analyzed and
critically examined in the context of intricate
global relations, the policies of the
industrialized North vis-�-vis Africa, and the
impact of the international institutions such as
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) on
Africa�s development strategies. Trying to
understand the African reality without carefully
extrapolating the above factors is tantamount to
failure in providing substantive vision. Obama
does not address the real problems Africa has
encountered for decades.
We agree with Obama that African leaders should
not scapegoat neocolonialism for their failures.
Indeed, a lot of corrupt and dictatorial African
regimes deliberately create phantom enemies such
as the �West� to gloss over their own
diabolical deeds and in order to hoodwink their
people. But, these excuses are old-fashioned and
Africans are no longer fooled by cover-ups,
innuendos, and disinformation unleashed by their
respective governments.
Obama visited the Cape Coast, from which
African slaves were shipped via the Middle Passage
to the Americas. There is no doubt the Cape Coast
encounter was a sober and sad reminder for the
Obamas. However, beyond the crime against humanity
perpetrated by the dreadful and haunting dungeon
of the Cape Coast, Obama should have expressed the
loss of millions of skilled African labor that
eventually created a vast wasteland in Africa. The
African continent was devastated by the Holocaust
of Enslavement for nearly four centuries
(1450-1850), and by the time the slave trade was
about to end Africa, with the exception of
Ethiopia and Liberia, was taken over by the
colonial forces of Europe from roughly 1830 to
1960. So, the African experience clearly depicts
five and half centuries of devastation and only
half century of freedom that also have become
checkered by neocolonial forces.
Before talking about corruption and good
governance, thus, President Obama should have
introduced his speech with what happened to Africa
before independence, and also what it experienced
after independence. That could have given his
audience the big picture of a much complex problem
and an understanding of an endemic corruption; and
also could have enabled him to layout a proposal
to overcome the problem Africa faces at present.
More specifically, the proposal embedded in his
speech could have suggested the right direction
toward forging a genuine democracy and economic
overhaul for the welfare of Africans.
We also agree with Mr. Obama�s portrayal of
Ghana as a �model� of democracy, although, we
might add, with some reservation. Now, Ghana is a
democracy, but its democratic experiment began in
2001 and the country had to go through a turbulent
voyage (accompanied by several coups) from 1957 to
2000 to realize free and fair elections, a working
constitution, independent judiciary, and most of
all, a tolerant political system.
But, long before Ghana became a democracy,
Botswana boasted a stable and democratic system,
coupled with good governance that contributed to
the country�s prosperity and middle-income
status. South Africa, though troubled by crime in
the urban areas and the lack of control of
indigenous Africans of the national economy, is
the most successful country in Africa, both in
terms of industrial output (its GDP is one third
of all sub-Saharan countries combined) and the
establishment of robust institutions, a working
constitution, an independent judiciary, and a
culture of open political debate, thanks to good
governance spearheaded initially by Nelson
Rolihlahla Mandela.
Tanzania, though a one party system, had
enjoyed good governance since the days of Julius
Kambarage Nyerere, an Mwalimu (revered teacher)
and an exemplar in leadership, including
relinquishing state power voluntarily. Mauritius
and Seychelles, two islands floating on the Indian
Ocean, have shown spectacular success in good
governance and economic development. Nigeria, the
epitome of corruption (central theme to Obama�s
speech) is a leader in education nonetheless. At
independence, Nigeria had only one university. In
couple of decades, Nigeria founded 55
universities, 45 colleges, and 40 polytechnics,
and the country has played a major role in the
making of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) and in realizing peace and
stability in Liberia.
Obama should have incorporated some of the
African success stories in his speech in order to
have a more balanced synthesis of the African
reality, which could also have been an opportunity
for him to dispel the misconceptions surrounding
the Continent. There is no doubt that Barack Obama
is a remarkable leader, well-rounded, and a man of
vision, but he clearly failed to address the most
important, and perhaps most vexing questions for
policy makers, that have indeed strangled the
Continent�s path to development.
Whatever the merits of the Obama speech in
Ghana, we at IDEA hope that the trip of the first
Black president of the United States to Africa
could reveal new opportunities and a newly
restructured U. S. foreign policy embrace the good
leadership in Africa without equivocation.
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