Stand up for good governance in Africa

Supporting good governance is a patriotic act. Government failings in several African countries have led to multiple but connected challenges that include widespread corruption, lack of free and fair elections, absence of freedom of speech, economic instability, and security crises. There has been noticeable stagnation and/ or deterioration in overall governance indices in many countries with worsening outcomes for the average population. Suffice to say improving governance is fundamental to Africa’s development and that starts at the point where we stop normalising silence as a political strategy.

Appeasement will never work, neither will nostalgia of the first few years of independence from colonial rule; these are not strategies but methods of giving up responsibility of our fate. We need to stand up and speak up for good governance because that is the most patriotic thing the regular African can do in this era-defining moment.

Silence plays a significant role in governments failing the average African. Although no single event leads to government collapse, silence often precedes and shields governance failings by allowing unchallenged malpractice, unresolved risks, lack of accountability, weak checks and balances to fester leading to structural breakdown and eventual crises when transparency fails creating a culture in which there is avoidance of scrutiny and erosion of integrity.

Effective governance is a manifestation of informed, positive engagement by all citizens. Nothing is to be gained from silence; silence in the face of governance institutions reflecting lack of moral clarity and collapsing before us is not neutrality, it is betrayal that will not address, but maintain and perpetuate, governance problems; blaming everybody else, but African leaders will only serve as the barrier between failing leadership and accountability. If there is somebody else to blame for failings, our leaders will relax, not change.

Change is possible when people take responsibility, and not make excuses, for their (in)actions and make real adjustments to improve things. We must build a culture of accountability at all levels of governance. Increasing access to equal opportunity for people to influence how they are governed is critical to the future of Africa.

Hypocrisy of Black elites has been allowed to fester; the wealthy elites have appropriated the history and experience of colonialism just to distract from their moral depravity. Often, the elite explain systemic failings and related poverty as the legacy of colonial institutions and the systemic marginalisation of natives, yet they pay a blind eye on similar marginalisation of the average Black African by postcolonial, Black-led governments. If colonialism is the reason for the poverty afflicting the regular African today, how do the wealthy account for their wealth?

While the average citizen is conditioned to believe that many of our problems derive from extractive economic policies of the colonial period and the continued exploitation of Africa by Western governments in this era, many of our leaders’ lives remain deeply imbedded in Western capitals; they are the first to seek medical care in the West, stash stolen wealth in the West, and wilfully accept a Western stooge ideological posturing in which they are micro-managed to meet interests, not of the average African but Western governments and lobby groups.

To break this toxic cycle of hypocrisy, it is important that we stand for something, something that idolises and reflects our traditions and diverse culture, believe in something and base our politics on high moral values. Let us not stand just for ourselves as individuals, our tribes, clans and race, not just for the province or the country or continent but let us stand up for humanity; let us make sure no human being is left behind, deprived and made to feel less worth for any reason.

Let us not avoid challenges and take the easy pathway. It’s too easy to excuse ourselves because of slavery, colonialism, bad climate, etc. We must never fall for that trap. Challenges must trigger innovation and solutions. Whatever we do, it will be us who do and it would be us who take full responsibility for the outcomes, whatever form they take.

What every African citizen must demand from themselves, and their leadership today is a clear vision, so they know where to stand and what to stand for.

Creating strong governance institutions is everybody’s responsibility; blaming others, especially the West, may be valid at times, but it will not solve governance problems in Africa; in fact, it has become an escape route for leaders not keen to take responsibility for their failings. We must stand up to bad leaders because if we do not, the bad leaders will feel emboldened; we must stand up to ignorance, because if we do not, the ignorant will run amok to spread disinformation and ignorance like a disease. Stand up for truth, stand up for all that is right or we do not and be part of the reason why Africa is failing.