Tapping into the Next Frontier: Leadership and the Imperatives of New Development Paradigm for Africa.

Being the Text of a Keynote Speech by Governor Alex C. Otti, OFR, at the 2024 Innovate Africa Conference 2024 on Friday, September 13, 2024, at the George Washington University, DC, United States.

Keynote Speech of Governor Otti at the 2024 Innovate Africa Conference Held at Washington University

Protocols,

There is a general consensus amongst development experts, scholars and investors that Africa offers two very strategic prospects for the future of our civilisation. Firstly, the vast deposits of highly-priced mineral resources buried in our soil are becoming increasingly critical in the continuing push to build a more sustainable future for the human race. Secondly, and more importantly, Africa’s expanding youth population offers an assurance of a steady market and labour supply to keep the wheels of global economic machinery in continuous motion.
Even then, every honest and realistic assessment of Africa must take cognisance of its many troubles, especially poverty, which presents a brutal affront to the dignity of our people. The ugly challenge of political instability also besets our continent as millions begin to lose faith in the promises of democracy after decades of failed expectations. In several parts of the continent, the crisis of national identity remains unresolved, making it difficult to build consensus on any development agenda for reasons of mutual suspicion and distrust.
Africa certainly is a land of endless opportunities. However, it is also a deeply troubled place with age-old political, economic, and cultural setbacks. These challenges impede its developmental aspirations. Our challenges cannot be divorced from a combination of internal and external factors. A seemingly intractable problem of corruption, abuse of public trust, and administrative incompetence have contributed extensively to keeping Africa unproductive and poor. One can also add that the dynamics of modern geopolitics expressed through the ravenous appetite for influence, resources, and ultimate control by the big global players have made Africa’s problems more complex in the modern era.
Multiple internal and external actors with genuine interest in the continent’s development have made several attempts to fix Africa. Still, it would be difficult to argue that such initiatives have yielded significantly tangible outcomes. From west to central Africa to the east and southern parts of the continent, not much has changed in the last six decades as we continue to witness crisis of poverty and unemployment, currency devaluation and inflationary pressures, insecurity and failure of critical institutions to serve the genuine needs of the people effectively. This chain of failures has forced some of our best and brightest minds to, sometimes at great personal risks, take their destiny in their own hands by just opting to go elsewhere.
It is a shame to see thousands of Africans trekking what can literally be described as the path of death to escape the harsh reality of our motherland. The sense of failure becomes more heart-wrenching when we think about the sacrifices many young people have to make before taking to the sands of the Sahara Desert or any of the other risk-laden channels to cross to other continents in pursuit of a better life.
Why, I often ask myself, would millions of young Africans travel through hell to find hope outside the African continent? Perhaps today’s event will offer us the opportunity to understand why, for several decades, we have not been able to build in Africa an environment that supports the dreams of millions of energetic, industrious and very determined Africans.
We have tried, albeit in vain, to explain away our failure to build a supportive environment for our people’s dreams. Since the mid-1970s, scholars and public commentators have blamed our woes on the unending impact of historical events like the Berlin Conference of 1885, the transatlantic slave trade, the incursion of colonial actors, and the continuing meddling of the former colonialists in Africa’s internal affairs.
In all these, one sees blame and finger-pointing. Intellectuals with interests in Africa love to regale their audience with fantastic explanations about the role of powerful interests at different epochs in subjugating Africa and exploiting its resources for development elsewhere. To these intellectuals, Africa’s unending setbacks on the political and economic fronts cannot be separated from the insatiable greed of those who control world politics and economic systems.
Even with changes in diplomacy’s tone and a new doctrine of engagement that encourages respect for every nation’s sovereignty, the cynics remain convinced that Africa has not actually been freed from the strings of the powerful global interests that, they allege, are strongly opposed to an economically viable and politically stable Africa.
Intellectual conversations around the development problems of post-independence Africa have been dominated by finger-pointing, blame trading, and, most recently, disillusionment. Strangely, one thing we often see very little of in these conversations is a resolute decision to take responsibility, look inward, and ask a few soul-searching questions about how our actions and inactions as Africans have contributed to the challenges.
On this note, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I am honoured to welcome you to the 2024 Innovate Africa Conference. May I seize this opportunity to thank the young, brilliant minds who have created this robust platform for leaders from various walks of life to come together, share ideas, and ultimately take responsibility for the future of our beautiful continent. Let me also appreciate fellow conference speakers with whom I will be privileged to share this extraordinary platform. Special commendations are due to everyone connected to this project for their demonstrable commitment to re-writing the story of our land through strategic repositioning, broader stakeholder engagement, and structured partnerships.
The significance of today’s gathering is in the opportunity it offers accomplished leaders in the public and private sector ecosystems across Africa to share their experiences with students, start-up entrepreneurs, activists and all who seek transformative changes in the continent’s fortunes. This gathering points to our collective hunger for true reawakening in our continent. I am very excited that this initiative is driven by young people who have elected to go beyond just rehearsing old defeatist pity-party tales but are instead taking the bull by the horn through robust engagements and exchanges that will ultimately bring about a new awareness of the powers that we have as Africans to drive the long term transformation of the continent.
My expectation at the end of this conference is that each of us will go home with a new conviction, a firm determination to fight for the future of our continent, and make our voices heard where it matters the most. The fruits of today’s interactions will hopefully provide us the leverage to make the most of the existing and emerging opportunities in technology and clean energy sectors to break old barriers and build new bridges. I am very optimistic that we shall return to our various stations tomorrow morning with a renewed commitment to pour ourselves into the work of building a new Africa where dreams are actualised and lived to the fullest.
Today, we shall be discussing the role of leadership in building a New Africa that speaks to our collective dreams. Our idea of leadership here is hardly about positions and offices, as we often restrict the term. We want to go in a different direction by broadening the concept to include every adult with some form of responsibility to others in formal and informal institutions.
The motivation is to create a new consciousness that places the community above the individual and instils in us the discipline to think beyond the hunger and the exigencies of the moment. It is about building a new character that places self-restraint over greed — that stubborn desire to suppress our consciences and appropriate what belongs to the community to ourselves.
The message is that we are all uniquely crucial in determining what images we want to see from Africa in the future. Do we want to keep seeing portraits of hungry, mal-nourished, disease-ravaged children or those in very conducive classroom environments, learning through practical, hands-on activities? Shall it remain images of women and children fleeing the scenes of war or those living peacefully in their communities? Will it be haunting pictures of teenagers in the trenches fighting guerrilla warfare in pursuit of religious and political ideologies they do not even understand or those working hard in conventional and informal training institutions to develop themselves in readiness for the opportunities of the future? Shall we keep seeing pictures of young people emptying into the streets in destructive protests or those working in tech hubs where world-class ICT solutions are developed? So today, we ask ourselves, what do we want to be in terms of the most dominant image of Africa in the next decade?
For me, I would like to see an Africa where the school teacher is treated with the same respect as a politician or a successful businessman. My idea of a working Africa is one where schools and hospitals are considered more important than expensive toys purchased at public expense for political office-holders. In the new Africa, the security and welfare of the citizens shall be considered more important than the perks for the political elites. Our dream Africa is a place where all of us, no matter where we live or the size of our bank accounts, are able to retire to a good night rest, certain that when we wake, concerns about the source of the next meal will not compel us to do what we should not do. We want an Africa where the average kid growing up in Aba or Oshodi can compete effectively with their peers from Shanghai or Oxford.
How do we go from where we are to where we wish to be? Again, the answer is in Leadership — taking responsibility for the outcomes we seek, how we interact with our environment and ultimately, the quality of decisions we make in our day-to-day activities. Leadership is about character, how we respond to opportunities, and the attitude we bring to what we do. It is in how we treat the weak and the vulnerable in our midst, how we respond to the challenges that each day brings, how we interpret reality and the message we transmit to others through what we say and do.
Leadership is also about upholding public trust and deploying public resources to achieve critical social outcomes. It is in our choices at the polls when we vote for our leaders. Are we often driven by ethno-religious sentiments, or do we objectively assess candidates when it is time to vote? Are you one of those who insist that only politicians who share the same ethnic or religious identity with you are worth supporting?
I often find it strange that we elect incompetent leaders at the polls and turn around to blame others for the woes of our countries. No society has ever risen beyond the quality of its leadership, and there is no proof that Africa will be different. We cannot elect provincial leaders and expect to play in the same league as nations that are very painstaking in their leadership selection process. The point must be made that no fundamental transformation can come from leaders who have not passed the integrity, competence and compassion test.
Across Africa, we find endless instances of leadership failure. The images of desperate young people taking impossible routes to escape the harsh realities at home offer a severe indictment of the quality of leadership we have had over the years. The same can be said of our alarming statistics on poverty, hunger, unemployment, inflation, balance of trade deficit, poor state of public infrastructure, and collapse of critical state institutions.
To begin the rebirth process in Africa, we must admit that we have not done so well as stakeholders, except, of course, the young people who have brought us here to paint a new portrait of the future. Even then, many young people, especially a few with great reach and influence, have also failed to live up to expectations. These are the ones who run dirty errands for politicians, unleashing violence on innocent citizens, spreading falsehood through media channels, and selling their conscience for money in the causes and characters they promote. It bears repeating that no progress can be made in a society where there is a price for everybody, opinions are for sale, and truth means little to those who shape public opinions. How about those who trade their votes for favours right at the polling unit? Shall we talk about the electoral administrators who manipulate figures to proclaim losers winners in elections? Do we also blame external forces for the unrest and upheavals caused by these unpatriotic individuals?
To be clear, it would be foolhardy to suggest that there are no foreign actors with vested interests in Africa. For this group, their biggest nightmare is Africa, where the leadership serves the broad interest of the majority of the local population. Coups have been planned and executed to remove certain leaders. At the same time, there has been foreign interference in our local elections in support of candidates whose loyalty may lie outside Africa. There are historical anecdotes to support the role of foreign actors in undermining Africa’s economic and political interests through various means that stretch from lop-sided mineral exploration deals to sponsorship of civil unrest.
However, these interferences occur only because there are willing local collaborators. It may not be very pleasing to the ears, but the truth is that the world runs on pragmatism, not sentiments. Global actors are always on the lookout for opportunities to advance their national interests, even if it means cheating, lying or presenting a false front. Morality is the last thing that is considered in the wheeling and dealing dynamics of international politics. Only interests count. Unfortunately, many of us in Africa are yet to understand how these games are played to be able to protect ourselves from being victims of the very dangerous schemes that often involve exploitation, extortion, and similar under-hand dealings.
My argument is that we need to wake up, get our acts together and come to terms with the fact that only Africans can save Africa. We are the only ones who have the genuine motivation to tackle Africa’s age-old challenges of poor resource mobilisation and utilisation. Today’s gathering has brought together leaders in various important ecosystems, including politics, finance, energy, academia, law and jurisprudence, amongst others. It is also exciting to see the desire of the African diaspora communities across the developed world to make an impact in our motherland. Our task at the end of today’s engagement is to come to a consensus on what we need to do in the months and years ahead to grow this new consciousness about the role of leadership in reshaping Africa’s future.
This brings me to the subject of democracy. Most of the time, we limit the more considerable import of democracy to mere voting and the routine events of winning or losing elections. This is a very parochial interpretation of democracy, partly why we have not made substantial progress, not minding the frequency of elections.
Democracy is about holding leaders to account, asking questions where necessary and insisting that those in leadership positions can only pursue causes that align with the genuine aspirations of the majority. Democracy has no room for docility because human beings, especially those in privileged positions, are often prone to complacency and hubris. The duty of citizens in a democratic society is to keep a constant eye on what the leader does and ring the alarm bell as soon as evidence of poor judgment in resource utilisation is established.
Technology has made the democratic space larger and given us the voice we never had before now. Through different media platforms, we can share our collective concerns and compel the political elites to be accountable. I believe that with a smart device, any of us can do so much good for the continent, whether it is calling out leaders for poor judgment, whistle-blowing or bringing the whole world’s attention to positive or negative developments in our communities. Yes, we can use our social media platforms to also tell the world about the good things happening in our communities because, ultimately, the responsibility of telling a balanced story of Africa falls on all of us. I must, however, observe that in some cases, these platforms have been used to churn out fake news, propaganda and falsehood which makes some people pay little attention to it.
Many across the continent are understandably losing faith in democracy and openly calling for other forms of government, including a military takeover of power. This, to say the least, is most unfortunate. It is an indictment on the leadership, but it also speaks to the anger and frustration of the ordinary people who have become victims of the greed of political elites. The people are no longer comfortable paying for the ostentations of the leaders, and no matter what anybody thinks or says, when human beings are desperate to meet their basic needs, any other option but what is available becomes worth trying.
There is, therefore, a growing need to save democracy in the continent, for that is the only way to guarantee inclusive growth and development. As I had hinted, we must think beyond winning and losing elections. It has become necessary to take the long view of our roles as citizens, the leadership selection process, the quality of individuals we promote for public offices, and our disposition to electoral outcomes. Violence has no place in a democracy, but such events can only be avoided by making the electoral process transparent through institutional mechanisms that are difficult to manipulate.
The fruits of development can only mature in an environment of trust — trust in institutions, processes and systems. The investments that will stimulate improved living conditions for Africans can only happen when investors believe that the system is transparent and supportive. We will only be deceiving ourselves if we imagine that anyone will put his money in a system that thrives on bribery and nepotism — where contract terms are violated at will without any clear path to justice.
The African diaspora community is already doing a lot through remittances and investments in social and economic sectors such as health, education and hospitality. However, one can say with certainty that our brothers and sisters in the diaspora have what it takes to independently fund the holistic transformation of the continent if we set up structures that offer better rewards for those who see Africa beyond the regular stereotypes of poverty and instability.
With over US$100 billion in remittances in 2023, I believe we can double this figure in the next five years by initiating new development projects that promise not just financial returns but also job creation, community support, and improved social outcomes for targeted groups such as young people and women. Renewable energy, housing and real estate, hospitality, finance for rural women, ICT, and agriculture are excellent prospects where we can attract generous diaspora capital by simply creating structured incentive systems.
Beyond investments in areas of high financial returns, one of the immediate action points I would recommend is a deliberate investment in civic education, a call to teach our young ones the duties, obligations and responsibilities of citizenship. We need leaders who are zealous about the development of all the countries in Africa and passionate individuals who are willing to make whatever sacrifices are required to build a better society. Our role as persons of influence is to look for promising young people to mentor and support them to become change agents in their communities.
Lastly, it has become imperative to reignite the Pan-African spirit. As individuals and groups, we must start thinking Africa and how to change how the world sees this beautiful continent. Our entertainers and story-tellers have taken the lead in projecting a new image of the continent, but we must be prepared to do a lot more. There is also good news coming from the tech ecosystem, from Lagos to Nairobi, Accra to Cairo and across our major cities. Something extraordinary is happening, and our young people are at the heart of it — building intelligent solutions that are changing how we interact with individuals and institutions. We shall do well to take an active interest in what is happening in the tech ecosystem at home and identify investment opportunities to create a larger pie for everyone.
In Abia State, where I have the privilege of serving as governor, we are working hard to create a model society that runs on the enterprise, energy and resilience of our people. In the last 15 months, we have made unprecedented investments in our critical infrastructure to improve the business environment and we will continue to so make.
We are determined to make Abia an investment destination in the region, creating new opportunity zones for dreamers across the continent. Our administration is very open to doing business with the African diaspora community because we share the same passion for seeing Africa work. As many in this auditorium know, Abia and its major city, Aba, mirror much of Africa, and whatever happens in the State is bound to reverberate across the continent.