The Festering Leadership Problem in Africa

John Campbell

Politics, Africa

"The fact remains that all too often Africans are ill-served by their leaders."

It is no secret that bad leadership at the top has long been a brake on the economic, political, and social development of certain African countries. Many years the Mo Ibrahim Prize for leadership by an African president who leaves office at the end of his term goes unrewarded. There have been numerous, egregious examples of bad presidential leadership over the past few weeks.

Yoweri Museveni was recently elected to another five-year term as Uganda’s president. Consequently, he will likely be in office until 2021; he came to power in 1986. The just concluded electoral process was marred by the harassment and arrest of opposition candidates and there are numerous charges of voting irregularities. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta promptly became the first head of state to congratulate Museveni. He was followed by Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza. Kenyatta successfully stonewalled an International Criminal Court prosecution for his role in the violence associated with the 2007 elections in Kenya; his vice president is still under indictment. Nkurunziza’s political machinations to remain in office form the backdrop to the current bloody crisis in Burundi. Kenyatta, Nkurunziza, and Museveni are an East African trio. They are joined by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who appears to be trying to ensure that his wife, Grace Mugabe, becomes his successor as president. He celebrated his ninety-second birthday on February 21 lavishly, notwithstanding the drought that threatens famine. Posters proclaimed “Mugabe’s birthday is like that of Jesus Christ.”