Education and Leadership: The African Reality

Africa: Where are the leaders?

Education and acclaimed global ratings

Many foreign analysts continue to pop up the excitement hormone of many African leaders that their continent is moving towards a better era. They give and bring out numerous reports on how advanced the continent is. World Bank continues to give economic reports with no correlation with the reality on ground. Everything coming out with different indexes are best surrounded in myths and mysteries. There is no way any foreign analyst can successfully determine the condition of Africa based on foreign standards and experiences. Africa has been turned into a continent where greed and avarice kill all theories and modicum of practicality.

A renowned professor of Harvard university, Calestous Juma, opined that Africa is moving towards plausible advancement direction with the election of technocrats as leaders. About 13 African countries are led by technocrats which to him is a good sign of projection. His postulation brings a question to mind: Is education really enhancing leadership acumen in Africa? The best answer going by the current trend is NO. Nigeria has a zoologist who is PhD holder yet gaffe and make decisions like someone just out of the university with a youthful mindset.

In Kenya, Mwai Kibaki continues to talk about good governance while overtly watch trial deaths happening and occurring. Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe has been strengthened to a nauseous state where members act as lords when elections are around the corner. Of what benefit are leaders who are really educated but act like toddlers in decision making. Leaders who see and witness the burning of their continent with tribal and religious bigotry yet covertly ember the heat and inferno rather than do all they can to extinguish them. Analyses shall be done on a selected few to show the real reality.

President Pierre Nkurunziza – Burundi: attended University of Burundi and major in Education and Sports. Has sports and education advance under his reign and regime? Education is to simulate the creativity and passion in minds, hence sports and education ought to be flying under him in Burundi.

         

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Liberia: BA in Accounting at Madison Business College in Madison, Wisconsin
Diploma at the Economics Institute at the University of Colorado
Master’s Degree in Public Administration, Harvard University.

When President Sirleaf was elected, everyone hoped and believed the Liberian economy will pick up with great panache and awe-inspiring growth. Unfortunately, that continues to elude Liberians. The first rubber deal signed exempted the Firestone Rubber Natural Company from any environmental responsibility. A reminder of how shell operates with impunity in Nigeria. The Liberian economy ought to be a model in West Africa with the leadership of a renowned economist.

             

President José Eduardo dos Santos - Angola
He was awarded a scholarship in 1963 to study in the Soviet Union where he received a degree in petroleum engineering. Upon graduation in 1969, he stayed in the Soviet Union to continue his studies in Communications.

President dos Santos seems to be one among many that has proven his worth in his field. Angola has been doing well in the oil and gas sector and to a reasonable sense, he continues to stem the tide of insurgency in the country though more needs to be done. He took Angola to a level at which she competes with the African oil giant, Nigeria in oil and gas to the extent that Portugal, her former colonial master genuflects for her. Angola is brewing in an upcoming protest. The Arab and North Africa uprisings are influential foundation for the dissidents.

          

President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé - Togo
Degree in financial business management Sorbonne, Paris
Master of Business Administration degree The George Washington University United States.

Togo is one of the poorest in Africa and West Africa yet a Master Degree holder is her President. This in a way is a very queasy status yet the international financial institutions tells Africa the lion is charging.

           

President Dr. Thomas Yayi Boni – Benin

Studied economics at the National University of Benin. He studied banking at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, and later economics and politics at the University of Orléans in France and at Paris University, where he completed a doctorate in economics in 1976.

Benin Republic almost totally depend on trade with Nigeria with much smuggling and illegal transportation of contraband goods like cars and foodstuffs into Nigeria through the 'notorious' Seme border. Benin over the years has not shown high developmental thrust despite the qualification of the leader in business and economics. One would naturally expect the president to influence greatly, the orientation and diversification of the economy from dependency to a self-sustaining one. Sadly, this is not so.

           

King Mohammed VI - Morocco
B.A in law at the College of law of the Mohammed V University, Rabat.
Certificat d'Études Supérieures (CES) in political sciences & Diplôme d'Études Approfondies DEA in public law. Trained in Brussels with Jacques Delors, then President of the European Commission. Doctorate in law (PhD) with "Very Honourable" distinction and the Congratulations of the Jury on 29 October 1993 from the French University of Nice Sophia An tipolis for his thesis on "EEC-Maghreb Relations."

King Mohammed has lived up to good expectations by not allowing the Monarchy to be swept away by the North African uprising and the Arab Spring due to his 'foresighted' policies. His rule to a reasonable level gives Moroccans the unique identity of belonging to a sustainable country. Moroccans though tried to stir and shake up the system but the leadership style of the Monarch based on 'Constitutional Monarchy' salvaged the situation. Morocco has a model and a standard best suited for Morocco.

          

Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan

Jonathan holds a B.Sc degree in Zoology in which he attained Second Class Honours. He holds an M.Sc degree in Hydrobiology and Fisheries biology, and a PhD degree in Zoology from the University of Port Harcourt He worked as an education inspector, lecturer, and environmental-protection officer.

Jonathan is a President that was voted into office due to his 'amiable' countenance and educational background. The president has proven so far that there is no synergy between higher education and leadership or so it seems. All his policies and decisions are at best that of someone just going in for higher education. Disappointment in all ways is what Nigerians get. Report came out in London that lions are going into extinction in Nigeria and tourism is massively collapsing yet no one is acting.

One expects a zoologist to be passionate about wildlife but such is not the case. Education is meant to be soaring high in Nigeria but it continues to retard. More universities, less qualified graduates. No equipments, no educational resources. All going down the drain. Nigeria is consistently broke. The economy is crying. Corruption smiles on. Shell continues to act impudently and with massive impunity against the environment with gas-flaring and environmental degradation yet an environment-protection officer is at the helm of affairs. So far, so good, Nigerians have not seen any justification and synergy in the educational qualifications, policies and actions.

                

President Mwai Emilio Kibaki – Kenya

Economics, History and Political Science at Makerere University College, Kampala, Uganda. Bachelors of Science with Distinction in Public Finance at the London School of Economics

Kenya under Mwai Kibaki has witnessed advancement in education, economy and technology but leadership greed is killing all prospects to the future. The sit-tight syndrome is a canker-worm eating the country just like it is around the continent except is places like Ghana, Botswana and South Africa. Here too education should have informed Mwai Kibaki that no man is an island of leadership or an emporium of knowledge to warrant continuous stay in power as if no other human exists. History is disgraced by Kibaki because he refused to learn from it.

             

President Paul Kagame - Rwanda
Attended Ntare Secondary School in Uganda

Paul Kagame has revealed that leadership and higher education does not necessarily correlate. They are two distinguished entities that depend on the capability and capacity of the person involved. Kagame was a rebel soldier with just a secondary school education yet Rwanda is skyrocketing in all facets. Her economy is growing, she stood her ground against Western control unlike most African leaders. Rwanda under Kagame has a veritably sustainable economy and society. The Rwanda experience shows that education is not a central criteria for leadership sagacity, hence Professor Calestous Juma's assertion on the prospect of plausible advancement for Africa hinged on the elections of technocrats is not particularly justifiable.

African leaders continuously make the continent a disgrace to Africans. The UN gave West African nations the legal framework to intervene in Mali but the leaders acted not. The delay in assisting Mali to curb the violence is the same in every other countries on the continent. It takes the efforts of the Jimmy Carter Foundation in line with the UN to make the 'peaceful' disintegration of Sudan possible. The Libyan question was allowed to turn into a NATO affair because African leaders are incapable of managing African affairs. What then is the basis of all the educational statuses?

Mali degenerated into real chaos because they were sleeping. Central African Republic is left on its own. Congo continues to wallow in insurgency and sufferings because the leaders cannot sit and think of a tomorrow. Nigeria is on her kneels with Boko Haram. Peace is elusive in Libya and everybody is watching. Kenya is bequeathed with pre-election tribal violence and they are folding arms. Joseph Kony is more than Uganda and the only way to tackle him is to call the US. African leaders have bastardized the concept of leadership and education.

Photos: Saharavibes and wikimedia