Give me an African Leader who will admit that they have put their dirty fingers in the coffers after begging!!! So anti-corruption laws should be in place for your GREEDY LEADERS!!!

Let Africans be allowed to mess up. Europeans would not be what they are today had they not gone through worse mess.They later learn t how to get out of the murky waters.Soon,Africa will get tired of her own filth and clean up. Incidentally,I wonder what the fuss on poverty eradication is all about when two great gentlemen had it all figured out years ago.Tanzania's Julius Nyerere, on September13th, 1974 in a non-alignment meeting in Georgetown, Guyana had the solution,"... the real economic partners of the poor’’ said he, “are the other poor." ----------------------------------------------- And in 1972, the then Minister of Finance in Kenyatta Government, Hon. Mwai Kibaki, (now Kenya's President) while speaking at the Kenya Institute of Management had a self-help solution, ..''It is time poor nations realized that unless they take measures in the right direction to improve things for themselves” said he, “they will for a long time remain victims of big power decisions.'' Any wonder fellows in some quarters were uneasy when the self-help " tujitegemee" advocate became the occupant of the white mansion up the hill. These fellows were afraid Kibaki might actualize this self-help “nonsense”.

The title "African solutions for African problems"is an empty slogan; as much as "European solutions for European problems".

The lack of accountability to the public by politicians is the the cornerstone of most of our problems in Africa. By extension, the absence of relevant institutions to enforce accountability is what is seriously undermining Africa's development.

Imagine murderer Mugabe bribing judges with luxurious cars to enable them to visit their illegally acquired farms and a week thereafter his appeal to judges to read extensively case laws before making their judgements! Imagine Ethiopia calling desperately for food aid during famine while politicians own more than one luxurious cars that they drive on dilapidated roads!! Imagine a foreign investor who has to bribe politicians before being allowed to invest in a project that can give thousands of jobs to natives?

We do not need African solutions. We need just to respect basic rights of citizens to a transparent management of our countries, coupled with a separation of powers of the legislative, executive and judicail branches of governments.

Simple but very difficult to achieve because interest groups, national and foreign, ceaselessly poke their nose in trying to gain an upper hand in influencing matters behind the scene.

TIME will no doubt help improve our lot, but people are restless for immediate change. Pressure from the streets and organised groups should continue to harrass politicians all the time. That's where the NGOs play a very important scavenging job.

Unfortunately, in Zimbabwe, murderer Mugabe has undermined them all. For whose benefits? Lunatic Mugabe ha just printed a trillion Dollar note?? Wow!! Who could be more lunatic than criminal Mugabe? Is that an African solution to an African problem? Where else on earth there is a trillion Dollar note in circulation?

Yet this criminal Mugabe has an army of people praising him? Is that African mentality? No, I refuse to buy it. It is just greed of an animal nature!!

" .. The lack of accountability to the public by politicians is the the cornerstone of most of our problems in Africa. .. "

Beware of sweeping statements, my son. Pproblems are all over.

1) Obviously you don't blame your western friends for the destitution, starvation and deaths known to have been brought about or exacerbated by the west's imposition of economic sanctions on Iraq? Or Cuba? Or Zimbabwe?

Maybe not .

.

2) You'd rather blame the victims for their victimization. You'd blame the victim of rape for having been raped. You'd even blame the Africans for having been invaded by whites, colonized and sent into slavery in the west. And you would blame the Kenyans and South Africans for their lot - but not the whites who control them, their politics, their banking systems, their psychological conditioning in the education system, their manufacturing sectors, their social life (by way of the foreign-funded NGOs) - and squat on commandeered prime ancestral lands of the child of Mother Africa.

.

3) "the cornerstone of most of our problems in Africa."?

The lack of accountability is a problem all over - especially in western countries.

a) Note how president bush, ex-prime creep blair, the americans and the british are going about feigning innocence regarding the crimes against humanity that occurred in Iraq, Guantanamo and Afghanistan.

b) It has been said the the amount of corruption in USA government's defense department dwarfs the amount of corruption in all of Africa. And that is before we consider the scams in USA's health and insurance sectors. It seems as if that is a problem all over - especially in western countries. And the current financial meltdown and economic recession that has engulfed the world is a reminder that when it comes to corruption and accountability (regulation, oversight, monitoring, prosecution) and strict economic/financial management, the west - and its political and business leaders - is not THE shining example.

And neither is the east, nor the north nor the south.

And Africans, of the ancient kingdoms and the inheritors of the noble and veritable traditions of governance, need not look over their shoulders or take instructions from foreigners - just because the vicious foreign murderers have guns and do impose sanctions that kill natives.

This is a good subject!!! by chance i listened to a white MP complaining of a kenyan mp who drove a mercedes Benz to a dinner hosted for the visiting delegates still saying to the white visitng MP that the AID MONEY RECEIVED WAS NOT ENOUGH - WHAT A CHEEK

N/A, you make so many comments at once. You are essential talking to yourself. Is there room for people to comment about your comments or counter-points? A debate is always better than dictating to others. Could you try and debate issues in the future?

Give me an African leader whose children go to local schools they are flown abroad to study to secure the top positions when they come back and just fool the poor ones!!

I am just wondering if all these african forums have codes of conduct for corrupt practices amongst their member states - i really dont think they do when u just see how most of them became leaders and it has to come through educating their people about change for the better

" .. these african forums have codes of conduct for corrupt practices amongst their member states .. "

"THESE African forums"?

"corrupt practices"?

Interesting question. Well presented - perhaps from a supremacist white.

Let us make it more interesting: " ... Do these European forums have codes of conduct for corrupt practices amongst their member states .." If so, then why is 'corruption' and mismanagement so rampant in the west - even culminating in the current financial/economic meltdown in those economies - and especially the USA?

[Here is where you come up with those excuses and supremacist rationalization which we have heard over and over ...]

AND U MUST BE A SUPREMIST BLACK!!

'African Solutions for African Problems' For Africans leaders to able to find Solutions for African Problems they should first formulate Common African Goals. , goals meant to maximize health, happiness, freedom, security etc. of the individual. The path to achieve goals necessarily differs for different peoples and regions. Sometimes the same peoples in the same region may need to adopt different strategies to achieve the same goals from time to time. Therefore, the world is necessarily divided in different regions that formulate different goals and strategies to achieve regional goals: There are different geographical regions: Global or Universal: those that involve humanity at large and all other living organisms on the planet. Sub-global: East, West, Industrialized, Industrializing, Europe, Asia, etc. Continental goals can be African, European, Asian, etc. Sub-continental goals can be Sub-Sahara Africa, Arab-Africa, W Europe, E Europe, etc. Regional goals can be EEC. SADC, ASEA etc. National goals can be Kenyan, Canadian, Swedish, etc. Then there are Provincial, District, Group, Family, Individual goals. . The Goals can be about Governance, Defence, Health, Education, Culture etc. Then the Africa countries should first agree on common goals and formulate common strategies to achieve them. The countries that agree to cooperate towards common goals should sign treaties and contribute resources. The treaties should stipulate the conditions of cooperating and consequences for failing to cooperate. Some issues are by their very nature African and others Global. So the questions, debates, argument about weather Africans should find Solutions for African Problems become irrelevant and pure academic. Criticisms and accusations should therefore be based on infringements of Treaties for Cooperation, be they inter-governmental or non-governmental. The African states should formulate treaties for cooperation in solving African Problems, be they political, military, economic, cultural, education, health etc. African leaders have been mostly nationalists or statesmen rather than politicians because of recent colonialism. This has made it difficult for then to build viable political institutions and international co-operations or treaties. Most of the treaties that exist in Africa have been created by the former colonial powers and are based on colonial ideologies. Since the colonial powers were Western, rather that Eastern, African treaties have tended to be Western. Western treaties tend to be valid for a period of time or forever, “ad infinitum“, whereas Eastern treaties tend to be valid for as long as the circumstances under which they were agreed still sexist. A sovereign state cannot be accused of cooperating with another sovereign state to solve a problem unless there is a treaty restricting that kind of cooperation. The African leaders have to formulate clear goals and enact treaties for Africa before they can dream of finding Solutions for Continental African Problems. Africa needs good diplomats and international lawyers to formulate good goals and treaties, not nationalistic leaders! Africa must now move away from the Age of Nationalism to the Age of Enlightenment and Development in all areas of human endeavour!

This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.

Well said. I couldn't agree more with this writer and hope all African "Leaders" and the Led take note of some of their arbitrary interventions in Africa as if they have any interest in the Africa people unless their African economic interest is threatened - that is where their divide & conquer tactic comes to play - cases in point Liberia & Sierra Leone's recent Civil Wars in which both US & UK pretty much told Africans to get lost when we pleaded for their military logistical support. Whereas their economic sanctions including Cholera have pretty much ruined the lives of the poor Zimbabwean people in the UK’s desperate attempt to encourage "a coup" against that independent nation's popularly elected President that "disobeyed" UK's "Order" to give up power in favor of their stooge as it was done in the Congo when Mr. Lumumba was murdered in favor of Mobutu thereby condemning DRC into a failed state even b4 that poor country reached puberty - the effects we still see today in their 45 year unending wars. It is a fact that African leaders partner with Western "Powers" only for their own selfish goal to gain legitimacy while they neglect the demands of the people they were supposed to represent. It still baffles me how a Mr. Negroponte could divine his self-fulfilling “prophesy” in which he saw Nigeria disintegrating by 2015 unless Mr. Obasanjo returned the Presidency back to the North - a region that has Presided over the country for 38 ruinous years. If Mr. Negroponte is such a Seer that could see far into 2015 & beyond, how come his Oracle could not foresee near into 2008/2009 economic calamity we've found ourselves now? Unfortunately, the gullible Nigerians imbibed the fraud and removed the best leader they've ever had. Who should we blame now but the gullible Nigerians? It is mind boggling that Rwanda genocide occurred under the watch of the first black UN Secretary General and the first "black" US President, so what else is new. Oh Well, we have learned our lessons the hard way and hope we can collectively say NEVER AGAIN but I doubt it - it will happen again as it is currently in the Sudan. Good Luck to us all.

Kaparh, you comments are excellent. Intervation in Africa by the western nations has not always been that positive or great! The writer of the article wants to blame everything on African leaders and this may not be the case...They may be a reason to reject foolish and idiotic western nation.

But at times help should be accepted. I did not see any concrete help during the Rwanda genocide from the French, Belgium or even the USA. Even though their intelligency agencies knew what was going on.

I'm afraid to also say, that some white people in South Africa really do not know issues in Africa. They were heavily protected during aparthied.

We need writers on Africa from not just South Africa but Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya etc The "know it all South Africans" bother me!

Tsoeu Petlane, while I agree to some aspects of your comments, I find that you have not adequately addressed the fears why most Africans consider Indigenous solutions to African to be the only solution. One of the main fears is that Africans do not want to be used by the western world. You fail to note that western countries have their own selfish interests. You mention the DRC as failure by African nations, but you fail to mention that Mobutu was entirely supported and kept by the western world. The western world were prepared to destroy the people of Zaire (Congo) if their interested were violated. And oh…. You forget also that apartheid and dictatorship South Africa was very valuable to the western world. You also fail to note that Africans campaigned against SA at the UN and other forums around the world for the removal of apartheid racist dictators.

You also failure to frame the issues in a proper perspective. Is Sudan an African problem alone? Absolutely not, nor did Africans says only an indegination solution was the only answer. How can Genocide be an African problem alone? In fact Africans have helped stabilize Sudan, The real problem is that there are very few resources coming out of Africa (for good reason. Africa is a poor continent). You conveniently did not mention the success of Rwanda, through the help of Uganda. The international community failed to act. The USA, FRANCE and Belgium had intelligence information on what was going on! But again Belgium and France had their own special interests. Somali is not just an African problem, but an international one and Africans acknowledge that. Pirating ships is definitely international. Your problem is you are viewing Africa mostly through the rosy glasses of bad image. I also fear that most of you white, colorerd, Indian, or even African indigenous South Africa, were so isolated from the rest of Africa that you may be viewing Africa from rose colored glasses or thru your “barbed wire” fenced homes. This is a disappointing article.

thank you all for a most interesting discussion. I agree that many indigenous solutions have been most helpful, and that the way forward through many crises facing Africa today is by empowering local leaders. I am wondering what might be the impact of western nations funding African peacekeeping forces such as the AU forces and equipping African troops rather than sending in UN peacekeeping forces? What effect might this have on, for example, Sudan? I realize the west has made some very poor choices concerning which governments to support militarily (Mobutu, conflict in Angola, other Cold War conflicts - Eritrea etc) and there may be hostility against such peacekeeping forces as a result. But if the body were international (like the AU), might this be a better method of trying to decrease violence than direct western intervention?

Good questions n/a. AU has already provided the troops but for lack of the financial wherewithal to afford logistical and life support equipments like military planes and helicopters, tankers and rovers, helmets, bullet-proof vests, communication tools, etc, which we asked for the UN members' help. Almost two years into the request, we still await the needed support until last week when President Bush finally allow US transport planes to help ship some equipments to Darfur upon Sudanese VP's visit to the White House. Meanwhile, 9 defenseless Nigerian and one Senegalese peace-keeper were murdered in cold blood while they hunched defenseless by an ambush. Hence, the Senegalese withdrawal. Western nations always say they are willing to support AU's efforts but when the chips are down, turning their promise into action is always like pulling teeth - very painfully slow and by the time the needed help came it’s too late. It reminds me of former Nigerian President Obasanjo's frustration on getting US support for Liberia rescue effort during Taylor's murderous rampage wherein he likened US ship parked 200 miles off Liberia coast to a Fire Brigade parked in front of a burning house while the fire captain phoned in to the occupants of the burning house to call when the fire is out. Despite Nigeria's investment of billions of dollars of our scarce savings to the peacekeeping efforts, what did Nigerian get in return for their sacrifice but abuse from other UN members' leadership describing our soldiers as rapist and thieves. Is that good neighborliness?

Junior,

Long before your adored Neanderthals in Europe crawled hesitantly out of their cave to live with their neighbors, civilizations were flourishing on the African savanna - from the north to the south and west to east. Africans had their way of life and solutions to their problems - from the north to the south and west to east.

READ.

[AllAfrica seems to be teeming with pretentious idiots?]

I agree, the West should leave Africa alone, stop all forms of trade instead of just trying to target corrupt leaders with sanctions, offer no credit to anyone in Africa ever again, and just stand idly by while everything in Africa is solved by the "African solutions" of slavery and genocide.

Burned hand teaches best, as they say.

Read some more.

For your information, your murderous and rapacious whites - including the plundering IMF and World Bank - have not helped Africa.

Not 300 years ago.

Not today.

And numerous studies bear this out.

===

So, dear white hypocrite, may the door hit your backside as you exit Africa! And take your Africa's white farmer-plunderer trash with you.

==

And by the way, Africa is yet to talk to you and your fellow cursed breed about restitution and reparations. Prepare by reading on how Israel went about getting billions of dollars in reparations from the west each year.

But then, you don't like reading. Maybe your crazy white gods tell you that ignorance is bliss.

" .. your murderous and rapacious whites .. have not helped Africa. .. "

Ah. Do you remember Odinga who was parading around a few days ago pointing to his Kenya - and urging the world to invade Zimbabwe in another orgy of rape, torture, and slaughter?

The whites often showcase Kenya as the best example of why the natives need the supreme whites - and how good the whites have been to Africa - and how the whites' UN, IMF and World Bank and all their foreign-funded NGOs have come together to bring the white man's development and peace to African countries.

Gues what?

1) They expect us not to have noticed the ethnic cleansing that occurred in Kenya last year - and is due to be replayed early next year. So, what governance, peace and stability are whites showcasing in Kenya?

2) Now comes a report that 10 million Africans are facing starvation in Kenya. That is about half of the population. So, what development are the white colonialists showcasing in Kenya?

And yet Kenyans are going to the dogs - without being nudged in that direction by the whites and their devastating economic sanctions.

We do not expect a leader to know it all. But - like the ancient rulers of the African kingdoms - the leader must be able and willing to surround himself with able aides who can provide the necessary consultancy in all aspect of governance. If Odinga does not comprehend how foreign interference in a country's trade and financial systems can devastate a country, then he is not fit to be leader of a country.

Now, what was it that Odinga was saying about Cde Mugabe and the economic recession brought about by the economic sanctions impose byt he west?

I have not read a comment from Odinga regarding the current severe economic recession in the west and the devastating financial meltdown. Has he called for the violent overthrow of western governments?

I doubt that the treacherous coward would not dare.

". .... 1) They expect us not to have noticed the ethnic cleansing that occurred in Kenya last year - and is due to be replayed early next year. .."

Correctiomn: 1) They expect us not to have noticed the orgy of slaughter that occurred in Kenya early last year - and is due to be replayed in greater intensity (before, during nad after the next presidential elections) in 4 years' time. "

Just because you can intimidate your friends and family into smiling nervously and nodding whenever you start one of your rants, doesn't mean you are correct.

The real proof is simple: if you are right, then you will prosper. If you are wrong, you will starve and die. This will happen regardless of the armies, conspiracies, and technologies arrrayed against you, or working in your favor.

Israel is right, so it survives and prospers despite the entire world's effort to destroy it, and will continue to do so. Mugabe is wrong, so his country dies despite the entire world's effort to save it, and will continue to do so.

No belief can stop the laws of nature.