to have given the Inaugural Lecture at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, the University of South Africa, today Tuesday, October 27. I would like to share some of the thoughts that I generated and the positive responses to them with the broader public. I do so with the understanding that two eyes are better than one, and a finger cannot lift a large basket to the head: these are two African proverbs that illustrate our collective responsibilities to communities.
If you think it could not get worse, let me take you on a trip down to Ivory Coast and Ghana where the high rate of child trafficking has led to mass agitations coordinated through the hashtag, #ChildTrafficking in both countries. Cameroon, Liberia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and others are not in any way exempt from these social media-driven protests that have further enhanced the energy of African youth to reinvent their socio-economic and political ambiance.
In the absence of colonialism and military rule, African democracy is handicapped by a recurring problem — leadership failure. Since the Western colonisers’ departure, the primary factor inhibiting significant growth and development for more than half a century in these countries relates to leadership deficit. African leaders either implement bad policies or poorly implement good ones. At other times, it is the reluctance even to implement any at all.
The feasibility of achieving the above desire is not in doubt. This is especially the case with the School’s commitment to the teaching and training of students in “Citizenship and Development Studies, Leadership Studies, Peace and Development Studies, Study of Government Affairs, Urban and Regional Affairs, Simulations and Futuristic Studies, Security and Intelligence Studies, Sustainable Livelihood and Resources Management.