The Billionaire Who's Squandering His Wealth On African Leaders |
The
Mo Ibrahim Foundation has announced that it could not find a winner for its
US$5 million prize for good governance in Africa. The selection panel said no
candidate had met all of the criteria, as was the case in 2009 and 2010.
The
foundation has set high and commendable standards for performance, which
African leaders should aspire to achieve as the continent works to strengthen
other democratic institutions. Two decades ago Africa’s leadership was
dominated by autocrats, many of whom had risen to power through military coups.
But
it appears that the road to democracy is being bridged by a rising technocracy.
While
the Mo Ibrahim Foundation was announcing the “no winner” in London, the African
Union was installing a South African medic, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as its
new chairperson in Addis Ababa.
In
2012 alone, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Senegal, Tunisia and Senegal elected
engineers to top political offices. Eritrea and Nigeria are headed by an
engineer and a fisheries scientist, respectively.
Technical
aspirations among African leaders have at times been truly inspirational. When
the founding father of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, stepped down from the presidency in
2005, he registered as a masters student in geology at the country’s national
university. He graduated in 2009.
Then
only three African presidents had technical training. Today the number stands
at eight. In addition, nearly 40% of Egypt’s cabinet is made up of engineers.
This is remarkable for a continent that has generally provided limited
opportunities for training in the engineering fields.
The
change in the technical background of African leaders may appear random, but it
represents a significant realignment of Africa’s top positions with the
continent’s contemporary development challenges.
Infrastructure concerns
(energy, transportation, irrigation, and telecommunications) as well as health
tend to dominate local political platforms.
For
example, Angola’s last elections were marked by the inauguration of new
infrastructure projects by the ruling party. The government has put forward a
US$17 billion plan for electricity generation by 2016. And Senegal has recently
scrapped its Senate, saving the country nearly US$15 million per year that will
be invested in flood control, which is largely an engineering initiative.
Senegal’s President Macky Sall is an engineer by training.
It
is not possible to meet development and integration needs without building a
strong engineering base for the design, construction and maintenance of
infrastructure facilities. In addition, Africa needs “soft infrastructure” in
the form of laws, regulations and other institutional support systems for
effective management of physical infrastructure.
The
main challenge is the lack of alignment between infrastructure strategies and
the need to expand engineering training. As a result, there are very few
engineering programs in African universities. There is also a perception that
engineering is associated with large projects that tend to be linked to high
costs, corruption and ecological degradation.
Much
of the economic advice to Africa, which focuses only on the macroeconomic
impacts of large infrastructure investments and less on the microeconomic
benefits of such financial outlays, is standing in the way of common sense.
It
is estimated that the continent will need to invest nearly US$93 billion per
year over the next decade to meet its infrastructure needs. Mobilizing
financial resources is critical. But more importantly, training opportunities
will need to be expanded to include non-university institutions, especially
institutes of higher learning that are located in various line ministries
(including ministries of defense).
The
telecoms sector is already stimulating electronic and electrical engineering
training that includes the creation of dedicated telecoms universities in
Kenya, Egypt and Ghana. Uganda, on the other hand, has created a Military
University of Science and Technology whose graduates are now involved in the
rehabilitation of rural railway networks.
Private
and public enterprises can also provide critical in-house, university-level
training that meets growing market demand. Other strategic interventions
include engineering training facilities as part of all new major infrastructure
projects.
Coordinating
such efforts will need to be supported at the highest level in government by
science and technology advisors to presidents and prime ministers at par with
economic advisors. Today no African president has a dedicated office of science
and technology advice. It is not enough to leave this critical function to
presidents and prime ministers just because they have technical training.
It
is too early to tell what the impact of the new leaders will have on the
continent. But Africa’s democratic transition will require the helping hand of
engineers, medics, scientists and entrepreneurs. This is a trend that Dr. Mo
Ibrahim, a Sudan-born electrical engineer, might want to watch. Source: Forbesmagazine
Calestous Juma teaches at Harvard Kennedy School and co-chairs the African Union’s High Level Panel on Science, Technology and Innovation (Twitter @calestous)
The
views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily
reflect the editorial policy of The-North-Bank-Evening-Standard
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