The Absence of Good Leadership Can Be Very Costly.
The African Continent is highly endowed with resources, from natural mineral resources, big water bodies and rivers traversing the continent, wild life and great geographical diversity and beauty that present great opportunities for tourism, vast stretches of land with good climate that favors agriculture, opportunities for harnessing renewable energy, and more. The African continent also is the second biggest continent both in land mass of 11.7 million square miles, and population size of more 1.2 billion[1], with 54 United Nations recognized countries[2]. All these factors easily put Africa at a very big advantage if the countries were governed well and united as an economic block but this is hardly the case. Reading the book, Handbook for Leadership Theory and Practice, and the overarching theme of the need for more research in the discipline of Leadership, reignited my passion for the development of high caliber of leaders in Africa.
While there are many historical, cultural, economic and other reasons attributed to the poor general economic performance of the African continent as a whole and particularly for the individual countries, poor governance structures and leadership are key to this sorry state of the continent. Africa has been looted by western powers in exchange for arms at the hands of corrupt leaders; while many resources remain unexploited and great potential remain untapped, all because of poor leadership. Walter Rodney[3] points out how European imperialism and neo-colonialism led to the transfer of wealth from Africa to Europe but he aptly points to the fact that the time for Africans to take responsibility to reverse the situation is now, we cannot continue the blame game while doing nothing after decades of independence. Africa must own up to the fact that poor leadership is responsible for continued poor performance of African countries. The results and the cost of continued poor leadership in the form human suffering and financial losses is just too high for comfort. This is not unique to Africa only but it’s repeated across the globe, across organizations and even within the family units. The cost of poor leadership across the globe has been costly in human fatalities and other humanly caused suffering. If we are to draw from the recent history, there are examples to quote and learn from: Hitler was a despotic leader who literary oversaw the killing of millions of Jews and causing untold suffering to many more; Genocide in Rwanda resulted in a million deaths and untold suffering of survivors, all because of poor leadership.
A contrast in history has been documented in the family legacies of two individuals namely: Jonathan Edward, a godly man whose good family values and commitment resulted in such a remarkable family legacy of success and blessings in his family; while the ungodly character of Max Jukes and his neglect of his family responsibilities led to failure and suffering in his family. In a study that was done in 1900[4], Jonathan Edwards’ recorded descendants included: 1 vice president; 3 US senators; 3 governors; 3 mayors; 13 college presidents; 30 judges; 65 professors; 80 public office holders; 100 lawyers and 100 missionaries. In the same study, Max Jukes’ recorded descendants over the same period included: 7 murderers; 60 thieves; 50 women of debauchery; 130 other convicts; 310 paupers, who, combined spent 2,300 years in poorhouses, and 400 physically wrecked by indulgent living. The “Jukes” descendants cost the state more than $1,250,000. This contrast of these multi-generational family legacies is simply between good leadership and poor leadership at the family level and the cost of poor leadership, both humanly and financially is simply too much to be ignored. If for no other reasons, the sheer cost of poor leadership should be reason for more scholarly research in the leadership to improve on leadership theory and practice. While research on the contribution of leadership to performance is varied and would seem to suggest that the leader has limited impact on performance depending on the constraints[5] prevailing in respective context, the negative effect of lack of good leadership is enough reason for more research to be done.
[3] Walter Rodney. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. 1981. Howard University Press, Washington DC.
[4] A. E. Winship. A Study in Education and Hereditary. 1900.
[5] Norlia, Nitin & Rhurana, Rhakesh. Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice. January 26, 2010. Harvard Business Review Press, Boston.
About the Author
Wallace Kamau
Wallace is a believer in Christ, Married to Mary Kamau (Founder and Executive Director of Missions of Hope International) and father to 3 Wonderful children, Imani Kamau (Graduate student at London School of Economics, UK), Victory Kamau (Undergraduate student at Portland state University, Oregon, USA) and David Kamau ( Grade student at Rosslyn Academy). Founder and Director, Missions of Hope International (www.mohiafrica.org), CPA, BAchelor of Commerce (Accounting) from University of Nairobi, Masters of Arts (Leadership) from Pan African Christian University.6 responses to “The Absence of Good Leadership Can Be Very Costly.”
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Wallace,
I also think the European and North American (USA) continents need to seek reconciliation for their past and work with Africans in a supportive role to help with the goal you so passionately write about. Do you have an ideal model for how that can come about? My guess is it would need to be one in which the European and North American support is in a secondary/reinforcing role, but I could be wrong!
Thank you Jacob for your comments. I agree with you on the supportive role of the Europeans and North Americans will acknowledge and take responsibility for their contribution. However, we cannot count on that unless we take responsibility to do what is necessary to change the situation. I believe that Africans have to take responsibility first and realize that the solution to underdevelopment lies with confronting the problems and developing a concrete plan on the way forward. This is the only way that Europe and North America can come alongside in a supportive role. I believe this applies to all developing countries because the problem of imperialism and neocolonialism affected many countries across the Southern Hemisphere.
On another note, I’m wondering whether the resultant effects of imperialism and neocolonialism can be considered as constraints that have limited leaders in developing countries, according to Nohria and Khurana’s definition of constraints, Anyhow, I’m persuaded that we cannot hide behind this as an excuse for not taking responsibility to develop our countries.
Wallace, I understand what you are saying about bad leadership, but I also understand the West interferes in other countries elections and support leaders that are favorable to exploitation. I think leadership is important but I wonder if you believe there are other major factors which contribute as well.
Thank you mary, if we are to take the assumption that Leadership only makes a limited impact on performance, which degree of impact differs with industry and context, there are other factors other than bad leadership that have affected development in third world countries. These factors, I will call them external constraints that leaders in developing countries have to contend with and which limits them: The terms of world trade are skewed against the developing countries, most of which operate with deficit balances of trade; The Bretton Woods institutions, namely IMF and The World bank, and other western powers extend credit to the developing countries at unfavourable terms; political interference by the Western powers to impose their stooges in the developing countries, who favour their agenda, a good example is Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (where European powers supported rebels and supplied them with arms to distabilise the goverment, with the aim of siphoning out minerals from the rebels controlled Eastern DRC for many years.), Ivory Coast, Siera Leone, and Libya. The world stage is not fair but everyone faces different constraints in life and we have to take responsibility to chart the course of our destiny, no amount of blame games can safe. As leaders, we have to take responsibility and mobilise our people to chart our destiny, there is no country, organization or individual that does not face challenges, success belongs to those who are responsible and responsive to the call of leadership.
Wallace,
Thanks so much for sharing your perspective on the impact of bad leadership. I applaud your passion to develop high caliber leaders in Africa. While it may be difficult to quantify the impact of bad leadership on a country or a continent or a church, we all know the impact of a legacy of bad leadership. May the Lord bless your research and passion for raising up high caliber leaders in Africa! Blessings, H
I really appreciate how you traced the impact of a good family leader and a bad family leader. That was powerful! I join you in being hungry for healthy, indigenous leadership to grow up in Africa and pray that it would be a soon! I pray too that you might draw on the best of the leadership resources your continent has to do this. Your example inspires hope that if their are many people like you, your country and continent has a bright future! What are the strongest current attributes of Kenya’s political system that you would see as key building blocks for your nation and in turn your continent?