Lessons of failure must be heeded if the African political economy is to change and transform lives of all, not some Africans; all who call Africa home must be able to engage meaningfully in the socioeconomic and political space. Intentionality is important, so we set appropriate institutional expectations and boundaries. Those in power must be obligated to answer to the power in the people. There are ways of achieving that, the public must undergo transformative lessons starting by learning the nature and extent of the power they wield and how to protect it from the predatory instincts of the wealthy elites and their political allies.
African youths face a perilous future with ever-declining opportunities for meaningful participation in formal economic and political activity; in their millions, they are searching for escape routes outside the continent for opportunities. Shifting the problem may relieve the pressure but that spells disaster for Africa. Outward migration may provide relief for those who can make the journey and remittances may improve lives of relatives left behind, but it does not address the perpetual systemic problems facing the continent.
Systemic problems create self-sustaining life cycles the source of which need to be identified, isolated and disabled. Our system is a one-way valve that only permits the flow of power, wealth and opportunities from the most vulnerable to those who sign cheques; it is designed to secure bottlenecks and block any backflows that threaten the cultural normalisation of inequality.
Motivation and depth are essential ingredients in changing things. No one should be expressing concern, everyone must act to solve local challenges; young people must not be consumed in the often-exaggerated wisdom of the old guard, learning is a lifelong process, so everyone learns from everyone at any given point. To counter dysfunction and manufactured dependencies, young people must always stay true to themselves, trust their instincts to open doors shut by failing systems, and never let what society says distract them from their goals of designing future-ready institutions.
Poverty in Africa has scarcely been rooted on a lack of resources but a manifestation of the lack of political will to make the right changes to systems that disproportionately serve the wealthy and the political elite over the public. If Africa can produce millionaires through local resources, it surely can protect its population from the effects of poverty; the same resources, if used equitably, can lift millions of people off the depths of poverty, but there is no political will; worryingly, there is not enough push from the public to redesign institutions so benefits from locally generated wealth are distributed fairly – fair salaries, better working conditions, universal access to healthcare, access to equal opportunities to participate in the decision-making process and education.
The pathway to self-governance and self-reliance lies in owning our shame; it requires looking inward rather than deflecting and blaming external forces yet continuing to depend on external models to address local challenges.
Promises broken as soon as they are made is how things have been done in Africa. We have normalised dysfunction and with it reduced accountability to an option not an expectation within our institutions. What will change Africa is the African public actively changing how it sees things; people must take more responsibility to organise and dictate how they should be governed – that means demanding more accountability from those in power.
We need strong internal institutions for accountability, and even more important, we need to integrate our economic infrastructure – improve technological skills, research programmes and innovation, transport and communication systems across the continent.
Complaints from African leaders about the legacy of colonialism and injustices of contemporary Western economic designs and political suppression are legitimate, but without accompanying tangible action to decouple from these institutions we will not empower Africa. Change happens only when people change how they see themselves in things and take concrete action.
We must act to create the change we want, dismantle the costly extractive economic design of the West that has successfully created a single valve system where power and resources move from the poor to the wealthy, never to return thereby causing imposed dependencies on Africa. Adding value to raw material before exporting must be our priority; increasing processing plants is essential. We must learn to feed ourselves and the world, select interdependencies based on mutual interests.
To conclude, we reiterate to the average African that the power in people is greater than the people in power. Leaders must fear the people; public views must matter and it is only the public that can change how its power is used by the leaders and how institutions are designed. The politicisation – even weaponization – of the system is not a new thing but it has accelerated since Africa attained its independence. We need to find answers. The good news is that Africans can change things.
MI 
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