January 1, 2017
This is the start of a new year and I would like to welcome all visitors to this blog who have read the article, "Dear African-American Youth." Working to tackle the seemingly overwhelming social, political and economic problems posed by poor leadership in Africa is just one of the ways I propose to take up the Trump challenge!
Let's get started.
Problem #1 Selfish Leadership in Africa
In Central Africa, the majority of leaders cling to power to prolong their and their families' access to the rich mineral wealth that abounds in the majority of their respective countries. The Republic of Congo is blessed with massive oil reserves, while its much larger neighbor is spoiled with many of the world's richest deposits in several mineral categories including diamonds, gold, copper as well as the minerals that are essential for our cellphones and other electronic gadgets such as tin, tantalum and tungsten.
Selfish leadership in such countries is derived from one purpose, "to get as rich as we can from our countries' mineral wealth." This is the very opposite of the service leadership that all citizens naturally expect of their leaders. As you can imagine, therefore, the majority of citizens who live under selfish leadership suffer from neglect and even worse, disdain.
Subsequent problems will not be as broad as this one but I wanted to start with a broad one and one of the most intractable problems in Africa to obtain broad-based reactions as well as to get young people engaged in tackling problems in Africa, in general. The two questions I pose under this problem are thus, as follows:
A. What can we in the West do to eliminate selfish leadership in Africa and to promote leadership defined by compassion, excellence and service?
B. What strategies do you propose for Africans in Africa and in the diaspora to employ in transforming selfish leadership to servant leadership?
