Poor Leadership In Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo Vs Nigeria - Essay Example

Poor Leadership In Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo Vs Nigeria No doubt, African countries have been proved more vulnerable to poor leadership for a long time now. Almost every leader who gets into power portrays a sense of poor leadership skills. Perhaps, the majority of them are influenced by personal benefits, and that is why they lead poorly, or perhaps it is a thing that has developed and so affecting the lineage of the African leaders (Khan 36). However, the truth is that, almost all African when in power, changes to allow the nation to get submerged into poor leadership (Meredith 22). Nigeria and DRC Congo are just but two nations among the many nations that have long suffered the results of poor leadership. This essay dwells on how Nigeria and Congo are being driven by leaders who are and have been leading poorly. Nigeria According to the newly installed Adamawa Talban, Mr. Bwala, he affirmed that it is high time Nigeria should get good leaders who value transparency in the government at all levels. In this way he says, the country will be in a position to overcome numerous challenges she is facing (Meredith 16). He further pointed out that the country’s problems were multifarious; however with the right leadership; she could not have been in an insurmountable situation. According to reliable resources, the country is expected to make efforts in overcoming insecurity, endemic corruption and the huge gap of the unemployed just to mention but a few (Meredith 26). For these looming issues to be rectified, the country should ensure its leadership is transparent and that they depict good and right leadership morals as well as the power and ability to think beyond the citizenry (Khan 32). It follows that, the above could be the primary aspects that can lead the nation to the right and admirable destination. All that the people of the nation want is to enjoy the services that those people who are in the authority are giving them (Meredith 38). The country right now is experiencing insecurity, problems related to electricity, poor infrastructure mostly on the roads and most importantly the country should ensure corruption is pinned down at all cost. According to experts, they argue that even school children are talking about several millions of naira, in as much as they are not gainfully employed (Meredith 21). How can school children be talking about such great amounts of money, when they have not been employed yet? This illustrates the presence of corruption in the country at a very high degree, all of which have been caused by bad or poor leadership. Further, the sources illustrate that the level of unemployment has greatly been unprecedented in the history of the nation. The youths who are known as the future of tomorrow, do not have what to do and, therefore, they are roaming in the country aimlessly (Meredith 32). Some one may think youths who are not employed are not as a result of poor leadership; however the truth here is that the country should create jobs for the youths. For a long time now, this had been a weapon of seeking favor when campaigns are being made, after which the leaders themselves ignore this phenomenon when they get what they wanted (Khan 33). Hitherto, the country is still enduring the majority of the youths being unemployed despite the promises the leaders made. This is a vivid sign of poor leadership (Meredith 33). At the time when new Talban was being installed, the universities had been shut, with no insight hope of the same being opened. Moreover, the question was what can the citizens do? Moreover, the government itself had remained silent on the matter. This situation was growing worse due to the fact that leaders were thinking of themselves and not the whole country as expected (Guest 161). Therefore, they lived struggling to feed themselves and not make their environment more and more perfect, and yet the whole nation needs them. With that, it represented a call to the leaders to ensure they are considering their fellow citizens and not only themselves (Khan 35). In fact, they are supposed to consider the people they are ruling more than themselves. That is what is termed as good leadership; however, the leaders are doing contrary to this. With no second thought, their families are living a happy life, while the students and youths wander for the reason of no employment in the country (Guest 163). According to research, the Nigerians are suffering as well as wagging in what they called terrible poverty and yet the country is rich with resources, which are being disposed of without a second thought. This is because, poor leadership has engulfed the country and that the leaders have lost their sense to lead and have drowned into the sense of self-centeredness (Guest 165). Arguably, the leaders natural should bear the mandate of connoting responsibilities, further; they should be able to think beyond their subjects and to take on reasonable decisions on the behalf of the citizens. Leaders also are expected to show a sense of being proactive and not reactionary (Guest 167). They should stand in the gap and do at the time of wanting, and not be in a state of waiting, when all the people are looking up at them. Moreover, this is what most of the leaders in Nigeria are currently doing. They stand and wait when they are least expected to do so. They sit and wait, when the country is crying for their recue (Khan 39). However during the meetings on decisions affecting millions of people are in progress, the same leaders attend and listen, after promising to do something on the same, they go and remain silent as if they promised nothing (Guest 169). To ensure good leadership, sources affirm that both the followers and the leaders should portray a strong union and at the same time, be willing to sacrifice. The country should ensure that there is no big gap of power between the followers and the leaders (Guest 178). The big gap is what gives the leaders a chance to misdirect the country hence driving poor leadership phenomenon without being concerned with the smallest person in the country, who again needs to be assisted. Democratic republic of Congo The Democratic republic of Congo is known to be one of the rich countries in Africa. Experts estimate that the subjected nation has over USD worth twenty-four trillion. The amount is equal to the combination of Domestic Gross products of the U.S and Europe. The above value is an estimation of the untapped deposits of minerals, significant quantities of copper, diamonds and gold as well as reserved cobalt (Guest 5). This country alone is known to supply almost seventy percent of world’s tantalum. For precision, it should be understood that tantalums are valuable minerals that are useful in making capacitors in laptops and mobiles known to heighten the device’s performance (Khan 40). Despite all this, the country is still considered among the most poor nation of the world. According to reliable resources, most of the students in the country are pursuing their studies under a very poor learning condition (Guest 15). Majority of people lead a very miserable life, even employees who are in lower posts still sing the same tune. The question is what could be a source of all this miserable life, when the country bears valuable minerals that can make the country get at the top of the other rich countries in Africa? This question might correctly be answered after several factors have been put into consideration. First it should be noted that the Democratic Republic of Congo is a country that feels proud of its richness when it comes to Gold. Through this mineral, electronic components are manufactured (Guest 18). With the highly priced electronic components, it is sad to note that the country is still under siege when poverty is considered. Research illustrates that the country is being controlled to a certain degree by international corporations and to another degree by the politicians (Guest 20). Consequently, the two are the parties that are benefiting from the valuables of the country; as almost seventy million of people suffer and live in poverty, without acknowledging these natural resources which they also bear their right of being put to their benefit (Khan 45). Significantly, it is disheartening to heed that poor leadership is based on a connection of some politicians with international corporate businesses. According to experts, they firmly argue that the cause of poverty in the DRC is centralized by poor leadership (Guest 23). The corrupt politicians in Kinshasa have very little or no vision of national development. Further, the research demonstrates that every person who is in a higher position or power utilizes the chance to create a channel of followers. They do this by directing all the valuables to the groups they think will vote to them again when need arises, thus, living the other part of the nation dangling in poverty (Guest 33). The action is still going on to this period, and without shame the leaders continue to loot and cannibalize the economy. They pretend that they are helping those who are in need, however, the truth is that they are fighting for favor and fame from the few they think will support them back into the seat (Khan 76). The people to blame here are leaders; they have allowed themselves to be a curse to their own people and their own land, with their selfishness (Guest 45). The leaders have further allowed the foreign power to interrupt the expected development of the nation. In this way, they allow the foreign powers to continuously prop up into the DRC leaders detrimentally because they fully serve their interest. The thirty-two years, which dictator Mobutu plundered was facilitated prior to the politics of the cold war (Guest 34). On the other hand, Kabila is naturally incompetent as well as corrupt. In this way, he allows his regime to be facilitated since he has acknowledged the intensity and the power and the interest of the western on his land in the name of doing business. This business interest has made it worse since the Congolese leader has gone extra mile of selling the land to the westerners in the exchange of peanuts (Guest 78). It follows that the country has further absconded from any agenda that concerns the development. Due to the above, the country is currently experiencing one of the highest incidents of poverty in the world. According to the firms like the World Bank, the country’s ability to access clean water has dropped from twenty eight percent in two thousand and one to sixteen percent in the year 2007 (Guest 55). The poverty also affected the learning, since it is noted that the country witnessed only 62 percent of school enrolment. Poor leadership here has made the country live under poverty and insecurity. However, most concern and looming danger is poverty, where the Congolese are living on less than a dollar, per day per single person. According to statistics, it is noted that provinces as the Bandundu, Equator and south Kivu to mention but a few are living in poverty of almost 85 percent (Guest 66). This is not a situation to smile at, however, the leaders are not giving attention to this situation and that they have continued to be self centered all in the name of utilizing the country’s rich resources to them and their families. The country is facing poor governing system. This is according to research, where the experts illustrates that the judicial system takes only one dollar of the national budget. The act has forced the system to drag behind in implementing their mandate, and that is why up to now, almost seventy percent of the prisoners are still yet to be brought to trials (Guest 55). The system lack enough fund, and it is not because the country lacks enough funds, but because some few leaders are interested in getting the lion share of the country’s resources, and at the same time ignoring their duty. The country also faces illiteracy rate of almost 60 percent. This is another evidence of poor leadership (Guest 56). Leaders should always be concerned with education. However, in this “rich” country, the leaders are not concerned with education rather; they are interested with their well being. This is poor leadership, a thing that all leaders should be very much cautious of in order to boost the economy of their land. However, here the African leaders are very much interested in making their own lives better. Comparing the two countries y, it should be noted first, that the two countries are facing the same leadership challenge. It is of no offense to note that the leaders are interested in benefiting themselves and not their countries at large (Guest 78). In the both countries, the most leading aspects of poor leadership are corruption, insecurity and poverty just to mention but a few. Both countries are experiencing a governmental system where the above are not considered as the main issue of concern, and that is why when a leader gets into power, he tries at most to benefit himself and not the entire country. Both the country has valuable minerals for instance in Nigeria, they are proud of Oil while, in DRC, they are proud of things like copper, diamonds and Cobalt just to mention but a few. However, the natives of the country are living in poverty due to the fact that the foreigners have invaded their land (Guest 98). In Nigeria, a sense of corruption is highly appreciated, as seen in the sources that even school, children are talking about millions of naira, this is a clear indication that the country is suffering from the corruption. However, in DRC the most corrupt people are the leaders and that they have pinned down their natives in the name of serving them, but in reality they are up to benefitting themselves. Works Cited Guest, Robert. The shackled continent: power, corruption, and African lives. Washington [D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2004. Khan, Faiza A.. "Economic Convergence in the African Continent: Closing the Gap." South African Journal of Economics 10.4 (2013): n/a-n/a. Meredith, Martin. The state of Africa: a history of fifty years of independence. London: Free, 2005. Read More