Where is the bright spot on African nations?

It is February, and African leaders will be trooping at the end of this week to Addis Ababa, the headquarters of the African Union, for their annual pilgrimage. The continent is hewn with challenges all over. One would hope that at these meetings, they would have progress reports to make.

As part of the global community, Africa is signed on to the United Nation’s 17 sustainable development goals. But the continent is nowhere close to meeting the goals. On its own, AU has Agenda 2063, but even on that one, there does not appear to be much progress being made.

Instead, the leaders will troop to the continental headquarter for the annual photo op. Some of them have made this annual trip since the SDGs were agreed upon, and every year, they agree that they have not made progress and promise to do better in the coming year and still do nothing. Reports from individual countries are providing worrying readings. South Africa is rolling from one crisis to another. Nigeria is gearing up for elections the last week of February for the umpteenth time since its independence in 1960, and still, there is no hope that Africa’s most populous nation will get it right. Ghana, for a while, touted as the economy and democracy to emulate in Africa, had been making the continent proud. When other African countries could not even hold elections, the country where Jerry Rawlings made his name, transitioning it from a military to a civilian democracy, made the process look so easy. It has remained a democracy since then.

Ghana’s media and freedom of expression seemed out of place in a continent where leaders are not held to account, and media freedom is an academic topic. Now, Ghana is on the brink of bankruptcy.  Other seemingly promising cases never get to the point of turning the corner. Kenya has been coming on all right with elections every five years and some restless transition. But there are danger signs that it may go the way of Ghana and fail to pay her debts unless the prayers of her leaders are quickly answered. Presently, the big worry is South Africa. A scene from its parliamentary proceedings appears like one made for the movies. Their speaker is forever shouting order, order, but no one is listening. The Economic Freedom Fighters, in their bright red uniforms, constantly disrupting proceedings, make one appreciate the wearing of formal suits in the August House. What is wrong with South Africa? It is supposed to be different. There is indeed a lot that is wrong. Not too long ago, the future of their president hanged on in the balance following the farmgate scandal. Thieves had broken into his home in Limpopo, where the president had stashed mounds of cash in millions of dollars. Somehow the thieves were arrested by presidential guards, interrogated, and the matter rested without a formal report filed with the police.

Now the EFF of Julius Malema is calling for a nationwide strike on March 20 to bring the country to a standstill. According to Malema, the strike will force President Ramaphosa to resign. South Africa is reeling from power cuts that are affecting its economy. It is a country where one corruption case seems to follow another easily. It is a corruption case that forced its former president Jacob Zuma out of office, and now another corruption case stares Ramaphosa in the face.

But other social maladies frequently make headline news in South Africa. The crime rate is considered high, women’s rights are regularly violated, gun violence is a constant, as is race violence, and the general feeling is that the country is yet to find its footing 30 years after her independence.

Where is the bright spot on the continent? What is the continent to show at the 36th ordinary session of the leaders’ meeting?

 — The writer is the Dean, School of Communication, Daystar University