Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday described Africa as a rich
continent but poorly managed.
Obasanjo, who spoke at the launch of a book titled ‘Making Africa Work’
held at Radisson Blu Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos said there was urgent need
for job and wealth creation for the African youths. “Africa is not poor but
poorly managed, and if it would be corrected it has to be correctly managed.”
Greg Mills, Jeffery Herbst, Dickie Davis and the former president wrote
the book.
The authors mentioned that to save the continent from being overthrown by
aggressive youths who perceive that they have no future on it, governments need
to address the challenges.
According to them, it seems inevitable that the number of failed states
in Africa will increase if leaders do not move to address the challenges
presented by the large population increases that are projected with the
concomitant suffering and chaos that accompany institutional collapse.
The authors who are members of Brenthurst Foundation advocate tough
decisions to move the continent from backwardness.
“The Arab Spring, when youths who perceived that they had no future
overthrew leaders and destabilized countries in a matter of weeks, highlights
how quickly such tensions can spill over, even into political collapse. The
threat is particularly severe now that power is increasingly in the hands of
individual citizens enabled by the rapid spread of mobile communications.
“We are hopeful about the prospects of African countries, but only if
tough decisions are made now. The old ‘business as usual’ approach of
governments and leaders has to change if they are to cope with Africa’s pending
population boom.”
“Reform necessitates fundamentally changing the way in which African
economies work. It means being open to international trade and capital rather
than aid, being reliant on enterprise rather than personalized and
patronage-ridden systems, while the aim of government should be private- sector
growth rather than public sector redistribution,” the author wrote in the book
Guardian
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