HOSTING over a billion people on over 11 million square miles area-wise and possessing vast amounts of natural resources which are the envy of many, Africa is slowly, but surely being drawn to the centre of global politics in a way which many of us could hardly imagine two decades ago!
It is a fact that the West, in particular Europe, has almost exhausted most of its natural resources, especially minerals, and has been looking at Africa for long with covetous eyes.
Equally the East whose economies have been rising steadily for decades now is also looking at African resources to sustain its economic ascendancy.
This competitive scenario between the West and the East is amply symbolised by the recent Africa-US summit hosted by Barak Obama in Washington DC in 2014 vis-a-vis the mega business deals signed between Zimbabwe and China and again between Zimbabwe and Russia in September 2014.
It seems the new tempo of the battle for African resources between the East, led by China, and the West, led by the US, signals an increasing strategic significance of our continent in world affairs!
There is no doubt that the rise of China in particular as an economic powerhouse and that of other countries in general, is a game changer which could alter the fate of Africa forever!
In the past, Africa has been subjected to one-sided predatory economic behaviour by the West.
The same West captured Africans and enslaved them for generations on an industrial scale.
Thereafter the West descended upon Africa itself, colonised it and again enslaved its populace for the benefit of Europe!
Further, it followed up on this kind of looting with one sided economic deals specifically targeted at post-colonial Africa!
In brief, the story of Europe in Africa has been a sordid and shameful one in which it has always created wealth for itself at the back of African resources and labour, leaving next to nothing for its inhabitants!
All that is no more now partly because the serious entry of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) into the global economic arena means there is now competition for resources from which Africa could benefit!
The real prospects of transforming Africa are there, that is if we have the right kind of leaders with a progressive vision!
In light of the above stated scenario, the question is: does Africa have the kind of leaders foresighted enough to lead Africa in a way which not only protects African sovereignty but makes the most of economic opportunities which have now arisen so as to generate prosperity for all those who dwell on our beloved continent?
Put differently, what kind of leaders does Africa need in order to outgrow its proverbial status as a fabulously resource rich continent which, paradoxically, remains host to an unbelievably impoverished population?
When referring to leaders to lead Africa towards an era of prosperity, one here is not only referring to political leadership which, by the way, remains critical, but also to leadership in areas which include education, business, institutions etc.
Below are some of the characteristics and qualities of what we should be looking for in those who aspire to lead at the political level:
First, anyone in Africa aspiring to lead has to be a visionary, that is he or she has to be someone possessed by a dream to make Africa different from what it is today, to make our continent and its people more prosperous than has been the case so far!
In other words, we need leaders preoccupied with ideas about how to make Africa a prosperous place, how to make Africa a good home for its people in a material and non-material sense!
This dream has to be something which goes beyond nursing of pot-bellies, beyond self-interest and enjoyment of lavish lifestyles, beyond conspicuous consumption and driving of luxury cars, beyond the display of power for the sake of titillating one’s ego.
To acquire power and or to assume it has to be guided by something purposeful and collective, something which gives birth to a prosperous future for generations to come, not parochial pre-occupations and narrow, sterile imperatives!
Second, anyone aspiring to lead in Africa has to be well-versed in African history!
This is critical since other countries, especially those from the Anglo-Saxon West, have always thrived on our ignorance about ourselves, our great past and its achievements in the Nile Valley of Egypt and Meroe and the Kingdom of Ghana, Mali and Great Zimbabwe etc.
Any serious leader has to possess an acute sense of the history of those whom he intends to lead!
And this sense of history has to be profound in so far as it relates to where we all come from, how we have related to our environment and to each other across centuries and to the rest of the world.
An African leadership that is barely conscious of African history in the global context is severely handicapped one, fated to make us repeat past mistakes, to make us embrace our enemies as friends because they know no better.
Some mistakes in Africa illustrate the tragedy of being led by people either ignorant of our history or disdainful of it in one way or other!
For instance our acceptance of our former enslavers as our teachers of human rights, our acceptance of white colonialists as our models in life-our failure to appreciate our concrete experiences in life and our heroes and heroines in favour of those of our enemies who, by the way, have never failed to take advantage of us at any given time!
A leadership not informed by a strong sense of history can only succeed in making us the children of Sisyphus, fated to carry the burden of other races at our expense!
Third, anyone aspiring to lead in Africa has to be a perpetual student of global politics, someone who loves to know how, why and when various countries relate to each other.
An understanding of the world and the dynamics shaping that world is a must! The danger of being led by someone who is either illiterate or semi-literate about world affairs means that Africa will always be short-changed, unrepresented or not represented well.
Ignorance and or innocence about world affairs is something too costly to have in a leader!