In this issue, we focus on the quality of leadership in the continent, looking at the challenges, triumphs and trends. In his paper,   Gerrie Swart, argues that any “mention of African leadership today regrettably always tends to conjure up the negative associations with Africa’s so-called ‘Big Men’ and the ravages of dictatorship that has on frequent occasions laid waste to many African states’ political and socio-economic stability”.

he quality of African leadership is, therefore, becoming an increasing concern to Africans of all walks of life because of the urgent need to have Africa play a leading and not simply a dependant role in the world development agenda. Dr Salim Ahmed Salim is further quoted to have said that the continent is littered with failed institutions, mostly due to bad leadership and that the leadership factor is at the centre of African development proposals and should, therefore, be given due attention

At the end of 2007, Kenya’s anticipated change in government ended in disaster. Raila Odinga’s opposition Orange Democratic Movement won a clear victory in that country’s parliamentary election, but curiously, the result was reversed in the presidential election, whose official results declared President Mwai Kibaki the winner.  Whereas Kibaki, as presidential successor to Daniel Arap Moi, was once considered an alternative to despotic rule, he was now widely viewed as cynically and ruthlessly clinging to power, and in doing so, he thrust Kenya into turmoil. This is a dramatic setback, in a country which had a long record of relative stability and peace. The resulting opposition demonstrations, ethnic violence and strong response by the police, led to the known deaths of at least a thousand people and the physical displacement of many more. However, while this scenario was all too familiar in Africa, the response on the continent appeared to indicate an unusual sensitivity to democratic principles. Not only were most African governments reluctant to recognize the Kibaki government as legitimate, but as many as four retired African Presidents visited Nairobi within days after the eruption of violence to lend their skills and weight to the finding of a solution. In earlier years, African presidents would have closed ranks with their counterpart. 

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was launched in 2003 with the purpose to “foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful and best practice, including identifying deficiencies and assessing the needs for capacity building” (Paragraph 3, APRM Base Document). While forms of peer review and oversight have existed between states (notably in the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation) the APRM is unique in the depth and breadth of its inquiry, examining simultaneously constitutional, political and democratic practices as well as economic governance and management, corporate governance and socio-economic development.

In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolutioni  that called for a review of the Security Council (UNSC) composition. The UNGA acknowledged quantum changes in global politics, among them the significant increase in its own membership and the “increasingly crucial role of the Security Council in maintaining international peace and security”.  Luck notes that the Council’s enhanced post-Cold War profile – and by implication its potential to intrude into the affairs of states – had become such that “[q]uestions of equity, representation, transparency and accountability were being raised … [and questions as to] how, why, and by whom [the Council’s] decisions were being made”. iiThis official admission that the very exclusive, very powerful executive core of the United Nations (UN) needed transformation, set off a multilateral frenzy. In particular, the potential permanent accession of more states to Council membership raised expectations and sparked feverish competition within the UN community. 16 Years later, the debate is no closer to resolution: on the contrary, it has become moribund; collapsed in despondency and exhaustion. Adebajoiii has gone as far as declaring the debate “dead”.

Ironically, Africa was, and remains, the only continental bloc to endorse a unified position on UNSC reform. This so-called “Common Position”, unfortunately, exists only in rhetoric: it reflects a noble but unrealistic obsession with unity and cohesion. The continent-wide multilateral strategy has not been successful – neither within African ranks nor within the broader context of global relations. Rather, it has depreciated what ought to be an imperative, and a feasible goal, namely the permanent presence of (an) African state(s) on the UNSC. 

Kenya held historic elections on December 27, 2007, marking the fourth electoral exercise since the inauguration of the multiparty era in the early 1990s. These elections were momentous because of the significant voter-turnout, reflecting an abiding yearning for a better future through the ballot box.  They also symbolized a learning process where, after three elections of varying competitiveness and openness, the electorate had started to be acclimatized to the perception that that it could make a decisive difference through the vote, whether in local parliamentary constituencies or at the presidential level.  Yet the electoral outcome, mired in acrimony, mayhem, and ethnic violence seemed to nullify the political gains of the last 15 years and potentially set the country on the dangerous road to anarchy and state collapse.  After a protracted mediation process by international actors starting in January 2008, the country pulled from the brink of disaster, but uncertainties abound about the solidity of the coalition arrangements undergirding the government of national unity inaugurated in early March 2008.

Olusegun Obasanjo by statute ceased to be president of Nigeria on May 29th, 2007. The purpose of this article is to place and assess his eight-year tenure in the popular consciousness of the Nigerian people. For this exercise, we raise three fundamental conflicting and contradistinctive portrayals and characterizations that we believe exist about the former president among the people of Nigeria.

Nigeria must work out how to get adequate, stable and affordable electricity and energy supplies by 2020. However meeting the immediate energy challenge is not so simple. Therefore, the government must identity doable strategies for revamping power and petroleum products supply within the shortest possible time; at least, before 2015. Failure to achieve this fait will make the current clamour of making Nigeria to belong to the top 20 economically advanced nations by 2020 a pipedream. For example, according to official sources, now, nearly all Nigeria’s current electricity generating stations are producing less than 20 per cent of their installed capacities.

 Furthermore, again, according to official sources, Nigeria imports 100% of its petroleum products as all its four petroleum refineries are out of production. The crude oil and petroleum products pipeline networks are also aged and vandalised. Therefore, without further dramatic changes and initiatives from both the public and private sectors respectively, we will be going backwards in terms of maintaining the existing outputs from the existing generating and refining facilities. Hence, ensuring adequate power and petroleum products supplies is a great challenge to President Umaru Yar Adua’s administration. This challenge, he has accepted to confront as an urgent national emergency and would be treated as such by his administration.

In February 2008, Mwalimu Ali Mazrui became 75 years old. Seifudein Adem sat down with him recently with a bunch of “unusual” questions.