Quora Answer: How Can African Leaders Make Their Countries Better?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What are some of the things that African leaders should be doing to make their countries better?”

The very first thing that the leaders of African nations need to do is to thing wider.  The problem with African nations is that most of its leaders think of themselves first, and then their family, and then their tribe, and maybe, just maybe, they think of the rest of the nation.   They think small.  They think wealth is what they can accumulate now, by any means, no matter how foul, selling their land, its resources, its future, so that they can have more now. 

How wealthy is a man, when he lives in an opulent palace, surrounded by plenty, when people just outside live in squalor, with no proper infrastructure?  No matter how beautiful the garden, the streets outside are ugly, and it reflects the ugliness of their thinking.  This is why many African nations have no future.  As long as there is obvious inequality and corruption, as long as leaders and those who empower them, only think of themselves, there will always be more conflicts, more instability.  People see no future in supporting a society that has disenfranchised them, and when they come to power, they continue that cycle of disenfranchisement. 

The moment one man can think beyond that, and gather together a group of leaders of like mind, and convince one generation to make sacrifices for future generations.  The moment that one man can sell his people a coherent vision of being part of something greater than themselves, we will see an African nation that rises from this, and be an example for others in the continent to emulate.  This means thinking in terms of a people, not tribes, not ethnic groups, not religion.