Economic migration remains the single largest erosion of leadership from the continent, the potential to stay and make a difference is negated by the perception of ineffective leadership maximising on the ignorance of the majority.
The opportunities in Africa exceeds every other place on the planet, however without leaders the pockets of change will emerge but will not be sustainable unless lead by Africans. China,or India for that matter would not have emerged as fast growing economies without indigenous leaders within their civilizations.Every flight to major destinations of opportunity are filled with foreign players in search of opportunities, however the african experts stay away in the worlds major markets. Perhaps, a best practise example is about how India's success venture. India succeeded when a sizeable team moved to the Silicon Valley and acquired expertise and knowledge to build India's booming Call centre industry. It was a deliberate strategy to learn from best practise and transfer appropriate technology and expertise to make a global difference. Africa is inclined to replicate this by sending 52 teams to the Silicon, which makes it an exercise in futility.
Africa needs to refocus and up its game to compete with other continents in a more co-rdinated and structured approach as a Union. Its polarised into 52 countries just like a football team with strikers all eager to score a hat-trick. To fix it, there is need to improve governance systems to be more co-ordinated and less selfish or ego-centric. Pooling resources to create an African Bond which is applied to create an enabling enviroment for growth, more like the set-up of theUSA governance system and remove trade barriers within Africa and negotiating for a common currency to create a uniform economic system. For example, the bond can be used to finance projects such as the Cape to Cairo Motorway and Rail Link to facilitate infrastructural development that has potential for economic growth across the continent, creating jobs and industries in the process, Financing giant power generation projects in the DRC where it is ideal capable of meeting power demands for at least 15 to 20 countries in the current set-up. Wild life in Southern Africa is moving in this direction but it has to co-rdinated with other key services for it to succceed. For now its an uphill struggle more like pushing toothpaste back into its tube, but its clear, its either that approach or Africa will always lag behind and rely on foreign aid because its not utilising its resources and potential effectively. Other economies have reformed over periods dating back 400 years and it has not been an easy ride at all.
Africa has been dominated by Multi National Corporations such as De Beers, Anglo-American, BP Shell to name but a few, who have expanded their influence on the continent due to its abundant potential. Any shift from the status qou means a cut in the slice of the cake and obvious long term threat to viability. Perhaps this is more of a structural problem in that clustering itself (Africa) into smaller clusters or countries leading to duplication of efforts resulting in Africa developing at a dimishing rate, no matter how good the leadership is. Africa needs to block itself into a Union or Unions, remove internal barriers designed to outdo each other within Africa itself. It has to rationalise key services across the continent and not have each country trying to compete with the likes of say India, China or the USA. It has to take a leaf from the EU and tackle its challenges as a block,
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