WAS the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) meant as a panacea for Africa's development problems or was it just another fad destined for the continent's development cemetery? This question has been posed since the inception of Nepad in 2001. The popular and/or political critique is that Nepad was a creation of a few African leaders, notably Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, with backing from the West. But all these leaders are no longer in the driving seats of their respective countries.
That critique was justified but there is the risk of throwing out the baby with the bath water. Ideas must be looked at from their own internal strength and coherence and not necessarily from where they originate. This, however, is not to disregard issues of democratic participation and the question of power in the generation of ideas. There should be a difference between setting an agenda for popular discussion and debate and pushing that agenda onto a passive populace. Agendas must ideally, become blueprints and visions only after an exhaustive public debate and some degree of consensus.
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