The Labour Party candidate during the February 25 presidential election, Peter Obi, has said Africa’s growth and development may be impossible if the leaders do not get their acts right.
He said if the continent does not deal with its only challenge, which he claimed was leadership failure, achieving the needed development and growth may be near impossible.
“Unfortunately, Africa’s growth and development will continue to appear as an impossible dream if we do not deal with the only challenge facing Africa – leadership failure,” Peter Obi said in a series of posts on his X handle on Monday.
The former Anambra State governor explained that while the continent is blessed with abundant human and natural resources, leadership failure had been its albatross.
He said, “Africa, as the second largest and second most populous continent in the world, with a population of over 1.4 billion people, is home to a youthful, and dynamic workforce with the largest concentration of working age population of about 1.1 billion people, which when combined with the abundance of huge natural resources ranging from minerals to over 874 million hectares of arable land for for agricultural revolution, positions Africa as a key player in the global economy.”
According to him, to paraphrase Late Prof Achebe’s ageless words on Nigeria, ‘the trouble with Africa is simply and squarely leadership problem,’ caused mainly by the unwillingness of African leaders to rise to their leadership responsibilities.
He alleged that governments across the continent have become “gigantic criminal enterprises.”
Peter Obi said, “This is a point I’ve heard Prof. Lumumba make continuously. Governments in most African nations have become gigantic criminal enterprises where the citizens, especially our youths who have the talent and energy, to lead the world in technology, health, and other areas, have watched their leaders shamelessly convert public wealth that should be used for a greater Africa, turned into private pockets. This criminal style of leadership tradition must be dismantled in order to guarantee the youths a future.
“The fate of Africa is in our hands; especially, in the hands of our youths. We can ignite the long overdue emancipation of the African continent, by adding our voices to the need for change, but more importantly, by committing to ending Africa’s leadership morass.”
