Lack of vision and corruption are killing Africa

It is amazing how things change but in a way never really change. In many ways the Ghana I left 30 years ago has undergone such a massive transformation it feels like a different country.

I’ve been back intermittently since I left in the early 80s but never had a chance to absorb the country as I have on this trip, and what I find astounds me. Everywhere you go in the capital especially, construction is booming, with gleaming towers, mostly by private individuals, reaching out into the skies. Sometimes, one can’t help wondering where people are finding all this money to finance such projects. The neighbourhoods I used to walk and play, the landmarks I used to know and frequent are no longer recognizable. I walk into offices looking for old friends only to be told they’ve long retired or passed on. It is weird.

The media landscape is hardly recognizable from the one I was part of decades ago. A new vibrant, irreverent, often reckless and partisan media are going at government and its institutions hammer and tongs. Democracy is thriving and how I wish we had that kind of freedom in my day! The other day, the official opposition brought out thousands of people into the streets to protest the government’s inability to deal with power outages that have turned life upside down for millions and ravaged businesses large and small. The demonstration went on with good humour and without incident, and as I watched, my mind went back to the days when police armoured vehicles stormed the University of Ghana campus and chased students out, following an antigovernment protest.

But some things never change. A young policewoman threatened the driver of a car we were in with reckless driving, after she made a sudden turn at an intersection. She rejected our apology, telling us that she and her colleagues “have to drink water.” She let us off after extracting 60 Ghana cedis (about $25) from us. I was horrified by her brazen demand for money.

This Friday, Ghana marks 58 years of independence from colonial rule, and Ghanaians treat March 6 with pride and reverence.

But such is the nature and effectiveness of successive governments that in six decades of independence, they cannot provide people with two of the most basic necessities of life: water and power. Potable water remains a scarce commodity, and most people still don’t have running water at home. One of the defining features of residential neighbourhoods in the cities is massive, black water tanks that the well-to-do buy to store water. One thing I’ve learned is that when visiting a friend, you should try your damnedest not to ask to go to the washroom. I did once with embarrassing consequences.

Power is so scarce it is rationed in a way that is disrupting everyday life. You get 12 hours of power, followed by 24 hours without, and there is no warning when the power goes off. I have already burned one AC adapter as a result of the constant power outages. The opposition rightly slams the current government for not providing something as basic as electricity, but then you realize that when they were in power the last time, they did little to solve the problem.

Just last week, the International Monetary Fund and the government agreed to a $1 billion bailout, underlining the weakness of the economy.

Poor planning, lack of vision and corruption are killing Africa. Newspapers are often full of tales of graft, and sometimes you think it is an exaggeration. But a couple of times I took a ride through some of the swanky neighbourhoods of Accra, and had taxi drivers pointing to plush homes and buildings belonging to high-ranking politicians. On their official salaries they could never afford such luxury property, but they are amassing them with abandon, and people can only look on in despair. You look at other examples such as Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan’s abject failure to rescue the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, and you wonder why we have governments in Africa.