The future
of Africa in our hands
Ultimately, it is up to Africa’s children to bring about
meaningful change to a long suffering continent. Yoseph’s
The View, advises us that individuals are the best agents of change
for a continent that holds immense potential.
Africa today faces a lot of problems, from poverty to AIDS and to
conflicts. Sometimes, our problems are too many that we help the
dictionary define the word 'problem'. Even though we have a continent
rich with resources, rich with culture and human force, we are still
poor. Have you ever wondered why?
Do you know that in the past 15 years, 32 of the 54 African countries
have experienced violent conflict? Corruption is something that
we talk about quite often in our society. Corruption costs African
economies more than $148 billion USD each year. This is over 20
times the budget of the Ethiopian government. This means that if
corruption stops today, we will be able to support over 20 governments
for a whole year! And we are the ones who say that Africa is poor.
Where is the problem? There is one big answer to this question:
lack of ethical leadership.
I had the pleasure of meeting with an African visionary, Fred Swaniker,
who is the founder of the African Leadership Academy, with the aim
of creating future ethical African Leaders and Entrepreneurs. He
defines a leader as an agent to positive change in society. He is
convinced that the problems of Africa can be solved if we have individuals
to bring positive change in society. When we talk of leadership,
we are not only thinking of the Nelson Mandelas and Desmond Tutus,
we are talking about individuals like you and me, bringing positive
changes to society.
Pointing fingers is the easiest thing to do, and blaming our problems
on someone else is likewise. Why do we have malaria? One could say
it is because of our geographical location. Are you saying that
we are destined to always be a non-developed continent? If you are,
then you should know that the United States of America had malaria
in 1930, but they don't have it anymore. Why don't we then look
for the root of the problem, and try to solve it? With good leadership,
we would focus on the roots of our problems rather than react to
the symptoms. We can bring positive changes to our society, you
and me.
Entrepreneurship is something that Fred Swaniker finds important
for the economic development of Africa. Africans being innovative
and creating our own employments can have a huge impact in society.
This way, university graduates will not be sitting at home waiting
for a job offer. Instead, we create our own jobs, and not only that,
create jobs for others! For example, let us look at the founder
of Celtel Africa, a cellular company, Ibrahim Mohamed. One single
man, by starting such a service, is providing hundreds of thousands
of employments in the whole of Africa. Imagine all the people who
sell vouchers in almost every corner of the many countries, the
people who construct the towers, and the many cell phone shops everywhere.
One idea is keeping thousands of people off the streets. Fred Swaniker
said that if everyone in Africa was employed, we wouldn't have so
many conflicts because we would all be busy!
Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad said, 'waiting
for the "right" thing to happen is like waiting for all
the traffic lights to be green five miles before starting the trip.'
There is a lot of truth to this, where many of us wait for an opportunity
to find us, for a job to come knocking at our doorstep, for a raise
to come to our office desk. We wait rather than seeking and searching
for opportunities, and if we don't see any then we create an opportunity.
Waiting for someone to do the job will always keep us poor, always
depending on foreign left-over dollars to build schools and hospitals.
And we always find someone or something to put the blame on for
our miseries. We end up living for today rather than making our
tomorrow. The future of Ethiopia, the future of Africa is in our
hands, the hands of our generation. What are we waiting for?
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