Beaten At Their Own Game
The most dangerous enemy is one who has nothing to lose, one who thinks that its all but a game when the foe is fighting for dear life. I am not a sympathizer with our African governments but believe they have always been victims rather than predators as they would like to believe in their minds. I have never really respected most politicians, cause to me all they want is to be elected into office, just like most company managers; all they want is a job. That makes them vulnerable because it makes them short sighted and narrow minded. Its very rare to find politicians or managers who are sophisticated, who are able to balance short term results and achieve sustainable long term success.
The difference between most 3rd world countries and the developed world is the former focuses on the next move and the later plays 10 moves ahead. Most African countries spend all their energy trying to deal with immediate problems like draughts, diseases and jobs, I am not saying its wrong, while most of the power houses obsess with the future, things like technology, better business models and strategic political conquests abroad. So its more of a cat and mouse game, predator and prey. The real difference then comes down to the quality of leaders and vision.
Vision : Whether you are running a business, country, family or church vision is defines the end. The ability to see into the future makes a nation great because then you are able to choose which position you want to be in and set yourself up. I am a Christian and one of my favorite phrases in the bible is "without vision, the people perish". So if you don't have a clear end you are trying to reach you will definitely crash or in other word find yourself fire fighting day in day out, the world can really be unfair believe me.
In Africa, our governments are constantly obsessed with finding aid from outside and our leaders take pride in just having positions and looting national resources for enriching themselves. More than 50% of Africa's GDP comes from exporting natural resources which cannot be replaced like the Arabs. I don't think that is overly a bad thing but what really worries me is entire governments take pride in just wracking in cash from selling stuff you didn't really create, those who pride themselves as entrepreneurs are mostly just guys with connections to the guys in power. What happens when that runs dry three to four generations from now. Most of the successful companies are but shameless rip offs from other developed world businesses, its not a bad thing, but it means you constantly be second best. Instead of just solving the days problem I which a wise man called trying to live yesterday's reality, like Dubai I believe Africa needs to look into the future and decide where we want to be and not just live for the day or just for this generation. We need vision
Leadership: Hitler is viewed as the incarnation of the devil in modern history a view which was painted mainly by the allied powers after Word War II. I am not saying he was a saint, believe me he was far from it, but for me he was a great leader in his own right. The Fuhrer was a sweet talker who was ruthless on execution a rare breed of a politician who had a strong vision for a country not just getting into office.
in 1925 Germany was one of the worst economies in the world mainly caused by sanctions leveled by the League of Nations. The problem was propounded by Germany's weak leadership whom I liken to Africa's current crop of leaders, who just want power and feed their own bellies. Fast forward to 1940 Germany was one of the most advanced economies in the world the success which is evident to this very day. Hitler's policies were not perfect but one thing that made Germany a resounding success was his bias towards execution. Unlike the League of Nations who talked and talked, a toothless bull dog, if Hitler wanted something he didn't just talk, talk, talk, but he went on to go get it, he was ruthless at executing his plans.
Another man who was ruthless at execution was Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. He got things done. Many people didn't like his personality but when it came to delivering results you knew you can count on him. He single handedly transformed entire industries: the computer industry(the Macintosh; software later cloned by Microsoft), the music industry(iTunes) and the cellphone industry(iPhone, software cloned by android). His success was mainly because of vision and most importantly ruthless execution.
Back to Africa; the leaders are addicted to having other people come solve their problems in aid, loans and FDI. A wise man once told me that having a bad plan is better than having no plan. If the vision is there, no matter how insignificant or misplaced with ruthless execution one is bound to get results; corrections can always be made and lessons learned. Africa's problem is, one there is no vision, what our leaders call vision is nothing but resolutions adopted from the UN or by academics just copying from some old textbook. Number two the leaders are only good at talking and very weak on execution, maybe they can take comfort in that it is not just Africa's problem but a politician's disease.
Our heroes, those who claim to have the guts to talk boldly on world forums against developed countries and stuff are but ruthless talkers who are very weak on execution. When it really matters they come back begging for loans, aid and FDI from the very people they are cursing. Though they are feared by their subjects when it comes to producing results that really matter they become "the prey", useless and desperate. The only economic activity is selling natural resources nothing more. The only time they are ruthless is at getting elected, they'll do what ever it takes.
My Opinion:
If Africa is one day going to be an economic and political powerhouse we need to stop playing just the next move but look at the whole board. The world is fast becoming one society and one can not be everything: America chose to be a the world technology lab, china the world manufacturing base, Dubai the world's shopping mall, Britain the Financial Centre the list goes on, but what are we as Africa. This we can do all things gospel really shoes lack of vision and focus. No wonder most industries that were vibrant in the 60-70s are now crumbling, the times have changed and one cannot just be everything, focus is more critical than it ever was.