Africans really can lead the world - Moky Makura

Moky Makura

I distinctly remember the night before Lieutenant Colonel Bukar Suwar?Dimka was executed by a firing squad in Lagos, Nigeria. It was May 14th, 1976, and the city was under curfew following a failed coup attempt the day before, which resulted in the assassination of then-Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed. As children, we were immediately banned from playing outside after the curfew as our usually vibrant suburb of Ikoyi fell into an uneasy silence.

But late that night I remember the distinct sounds of a Volkswagen Beetle breaking the silence. By morning, we heard Dimka had been captured (his getaway car, I still believe to this day, was a Beetle). He was executed at Bar Beach, a place we enjoyed as kids, the same day. The mood was heavy, and the adults subdued. It was the first decade of my life and I had learned my first lesson about change and uncertainty – it doesn’t wait for permission.

There is now a global demand for leaders who can adapt to uncertain, complex, and evolving environments with confidence and creativity. It’s a skillset highly valued in today’s world, where change is constant, and flexibility is the key to success. And it’s a skillset that many Africans have acquired naturally. Many of us have lived through situations where regimes suddenly fall, and new governments come with their new vision that is sometimes dramatically different from what existed before. Ask anyone who has lived in South Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Niger, or Zimbabwe in the last 20 years. For many Africans, change has been the constant.

For years, though, the world seemed to think Africa was uniquely flawed for its unpredictable changes and stretches of uncertainty, because according to the richer nations, change should be slow, predictable, and measured. They cited our shifts in leadership and policies as proof and called us unstable. Economists labelled us as risky, and investors charged more for the privilege of lending us money – Africa’s risk premium is still a painful reality we are living with today. Africa No Filter recently released a report that showed that media’s contribution alone to that risk premium is a staggering $4.2billion.?

But here’s the irony. Today, the very things for which Africa was once disparaged are becoming the rest of the world’s new normal. Political landscapes are shifting rapidly – in the US, Trump’s win has made many Americans anxious and the world uncertain. In France, the vote of no confidence and the ousting of Prime Minister Michel Barnier has dramatically undermined President Emmanuel Macron’s influence in the National Assembly. In South Korea, a significant political crisis ensued following President Yoon Suk Yeol's unexpected declaration of martial law and in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad’s ousting by rebel forces and his escape to Moscow has left the country in an uncertain state and in the hands of a rebel coalition.

As conflicts and crises increase globally, the new humanitarian?chief at the United Nations',?Tom Fletcher, recently told reporters in Geneva that ‘the?world?is on?fire’ as he appealed for $47 billion to tackle some of these issues.

This ‘new normal’ of change and uncertainty is also affecting the business world. Investors are pulling out of industries they can’t predict; social media has made consumer markets harder to forecast as trends evolve at lightning speed. AI is making all of us (or is it just me) uncertain about our futures in the workplace, and companies are desperately seeking leaders who can adapt to this ambiguity and embrace change.

The world may be waking up to a future that feels very uncertain, but for many of us who have lived on the African continent, it’s familiar terrain. We’ve been adapting, innovating, and living through change for decades.

?? "This article was originally published in New African Magazine, written by Moky Makura https://newafricanmagazine.com/30689/