My Beauty Best Teacher

Another rising star is the Nigerian Minister for Solid Minerals Obi Ezekwesili, described by Naija Blog as "...direct with a practical approach, communication skills etc..."In recent articles she comments on the potential of Nigeria's mineral sector "...It is largely not surprising that the contribution of the sector to the national economy has been quite disappointing. Many would shudder at the fact that despite our seeming huge endowments of solid minerals, revenues generated by the sector in 1999 was a paltry N80.9 million, which slowly grew to N309.2 million in 2002, and N298.5 million in 2004. I am very optimistic that, if properly developed, the sector has the potential to rival oil as a major revenue earner for the country..."

Times of India characterizes the countries Labour movement as 'Labour Aristocrats' a term that may well be appropriate for Labour Movements across Africa from Nigeria's NLC to South Africa's COSATU . "...India’s unionised labour is a tiny, entrenched labour aristocracy which when not forcing lock-outs and shutdowns, hikes pay and perks for their own members and makes it extremely tough for poorer, lower-wage workers to enter the job market.This raises costs and makes industry less competitive and jobs tougher to come by. Unions also militate against the interests of employees or job-seekers who are not members. India’s total workforce is about 500 million today..."
Via Indian Economy Blog

Dora Akunyili Director of Nigeria's NAFDAC "...has defied death threats and assasination attempts while tackling corrupt practices in the manufacturing, import and export of drugs, cosmetics and food products. Since taking up her position in April 2001, Dr Akunyili has earned nationwide respect for her persistence in prosecuting illegal drug traders and in imposing strict standards on multinational companies. In particular, she has pursued manufacturers and importers of counterfeit drugs, deemed to be a leading cause of deaths by stroke and heart failure in Nigeria...",Transparency.

A. M. Akiwumi analyses the independence of the judiciary in Africa and proffers solutions on acheiving this goal. "...Constitutional provisions may not .by themselves ensure the independence of the judiciary. The role of the Chief Justices and Presidents of Constitutional Courts is to ensure the independence of the judiciary. This role, however, requires someone who is eminently independent and who can put his mark on the image of the judiciary and the legal system...Generally, the position of judges of African Commonwealth countries, who are not treated as civil servants, and whose emoluments are protected by being charged on the Consolidated Fund, have been specifically safeguarded by the constitutions of some of these countries...so long as judges are appointed, paid, promoted, or removed from office by persons or institutions controlled directly or indirectly by the Executive, the judiciary's independence may be more theoretical than real...The lack of executive interference in the proceeding for the removal of a judge from office and which reinforces the doctrine of separation of powers, is more clearly expressed in the Constitution of Kenya. The President has no independent power to remove judges which can only be done by a tribunal composed of retired or active judges and senior legal practitioners, appointed by the President, and which the President can only do, if the Chief Justice represents to the President that the question of removing a judge from office, should be investigated..."

Wafula Okumu writes that any anti-corruption strategy must be bottom-up for it to have a chance of success "...Such a strategy would entail strengthening national legislation, tightening procedures and audit systems, improving public service performance, developing a culture of outrage, positively encouraging public service integrity, and strengthening institutions of governance.13 Good governance, based on effective mechanisms of public financial management and institutions of political accountability, would exterminate corruption by dismantling patron-client institutions in African political systems..."

Daniel Kauffman outlines 10 Myths About Governance and Corruption they include:
Myth #1: Governance and anticorruption are one and the same. We define governance as the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised for the common good. This includes the process by which those in authority are selected, monitored, and replaced (the political dimension); the government’s capacity to effectively manage its resources and implement sound policies (the economic dimension); and the respect of citizens and the state for the country’s institutions (the institutional respect dimension). By contrast, corruption is defined more narrowly as the "abuse of public office for private gain...
Myth #5: It takes generations for governance to improve. While it is true that institutions often change only gradually, in some countries there has been a sharp improvement in the short term. This defies the view that while governance may deteriorate quickly, improvements are always slow and incremental. For instance, there has been a significant improvement since 1996 in the "voice and accountability" indicator in countries ranging from Bosnia, Croatia, and Ghana, to Indonesia, Serbia, and Sierra Leone. And the improvements exhibited by some African countries in a short period of time challenge the "Afro-pessimists." Even so, it is sobering that, on average, there has not been a worldwide improvement in overall governance during this period—and in a number of countries, including the Ivory Coast, Nepal, and Zimbabwe, there has been a sharp deterioration..."

Johann Wingard writes "...East Africa is now actively shedding the yoke of their postcolonial nation statehood - they have experienced first hand that those artificial nation states would never survive without the social glue. For their own unique reasons it was impossible for colonies, arbitrarily lumped together, to survive the rigors of national statehood in a globalizing world, where states group together for economic survival and growth on a geographic basis...The current prospect of an African Union of nation states has an even smaller chance of survival as the real problem is not addressed. The world should now realize that the Africa project has failed and should be scrapped. The world community should join hands with the East African Federation and encourage the rest of Africa to follow their example soon.The philosophy of 'small is beautiful' is the common sense political model to pull the continent away from the abyss of famine, disease and violence it is currently facing...the truth lies in inherent structural faults. The real problem lies in the concept of artificial nation states where egotistical politicians try to convert the population into faceless social zombies and instill an artificial geographic patriotism for their nation state..."
Via The African Executive

Kabasubabu Katulondi writes "...The onus remains on African leaders at all levels. The “blame it on imperialists and colonisers” excuse has lost credibility. My deepest conviction is that democracy is a system and democratisation is a process: the way to build both is by using local ingenuity and drawing on the universal heritage, without altering the essence of democracy as a humanist project. Almost a half-century after independence, sub-Saharan Africans still face the tremendous challenge of building industrial societies and creating democracy as their superstructure..."

AllAfrica reported via the Champion the welcome establishment of Nigeria's 1st commodity exchange(The Abuja commodity exchange)."...ASCE which would trade in spot transactions for high quality grains such as white and yellow maize, soyabeans, cowpea, benniseed and millet, as well as cassava and sorghum.In the light of the development the exchange has invited commodity brokers and warehouse and assaying firms to partner with it in the areas of dealership and warehousing..."The Nigerian SEC should take note of the success deregulation has brought the derivatives industry in India .Broader based competition and demutualisation is needed in the exchange industry as a whole,private industry should be encouraged to step in and begin the process of establishing more regional exchanges in markets across the board. Whither the Aba stock exchange, Ibaden Cocoa exchange, Abakaliki Yam exchange et. al ?

Tostan News reports on the evolution of local democracy, "...Respondents very much wanted to expand on the issue of human rights and to examine the conditions, even the kind of society, in which these could be more durably ensured. The term “democracy” surfaced on a number of occasions, overheard from national political discourse, but no one was too sure exactly what it meant. Staff resolved therefore to try out a training sequence that would use “democracy” as a cover term for the kind of social arrangements under which human rights could be effectively guaranteed and people of all groups and ages could play an active role in determining their own destiny. The module that resulted from these months of effort included information, discussion, role-playing and applied activities all focusing on what human rights society must protect, how individual and group values are balanced, by what means those who have been deprived of rights can assert them, how conflict is healed, and the sort of governance strategies such goals require. Organizers found it worthwhile to go back to the root meaning of “democracy” (in Greek: government by the people) and to facilitate widespread discussion of just what this implied and how it related to the assertion of human rights and the resolution of conflict..."

"...UNESCO's UNISPAR-Africa programme, as part of the overall UNISPAR programme, supports the endogenous development of technologies that can readily be adopted in countries across the region. Industry in Africa consists mainly of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), so university-industry co-operation initiatives need to focus at this level...UNISPAR-Africa has been using interest from the Fund to support case studies in university-industry co-operation that develop sustainable technologies relevant to Africa's economic development..."

Newsweek reports on the emergence of Vietnam as a formidable competitor to China."...In many ways, Vietnam is a throwback to Asia's export-driven tiger economies, which thrived until China emerged as a world-beating manufacturer in the 1990s. Yet its emergence illustrates how China itself has become vulnerable to cut-rate competitors. Unlike other Asian economies, which sought to align themselves with the juggernaut in their midst, Vietnam has instead become a giant-killer. Much of its growth now comes in industries China still dominates, like textiles, footwear and toys. It competes against China in key Western markets but exports comparatively little to its northern neighbor..."African countries particularly with regard to textiles have thrown their hands up in horror and desperation at the onset of what they view as unstoppable Chinese competition. Vietnam's pugnacity illustrates the importance of a logically executed policy and the caliber of their nascent private sector. The victimist handwringing stance of African goverments when it comes to trade is a derivative of opaque and often clueless reactive thinking. The adoption of a constructive dynamic approach as evidenced by the success of the Vietnamese is something that needs to be embarked upon by the African private-public sector.

Commenting on the dearth of creative thinking in Africa Taban Lo Liyong stated "...In West Africa, the first age of African creativity also went away. We were brave in fighting against colonialism. You could be as brave as you wanted. But after independence, you would know that the African president was there. African writers had to find a new way of dealing with African issues. We need a new literary movement of extra-decolonisation of Africa from African dictators.Let’s produce that ideology first and it will have its activists. We have been running away from African culture into European culture for so long. No philosopher in Africa can claim to say “I am a philosopher of African philosophy..."

James Shikwati writes about Intellectual Property Rights "...The West have always sought systematic knowledge that can be replicated and refer to that knowledge as 'science'. It is for this reason that they have moved from focusing on natural resources such as 'land' to resources such as transistors, radios, fiber optic cables from sand. Most third world countries on the other hand have focused only on the 'visible wealth' and 'tribal organization'. This structure instead of fostering wealth, promotes war over resources.The list of inventions and innovations rarely indicates participation from Africa, falsely creating an impression that Africans are not creative and innovative. On the contrary however, long before the colonialist came to Africa, the African people had started ventures in medicine, iron smelting, arts, music, house building, and bead making and curving. The power of innovation was also exhibited in the way they preserved fire for later use, stored foodstuffs and the very fact that they could light a fire by rubbing two sticks together.
However the lack of systematic recording and beyond a collective level of property right recognition(PDF), robbed many innovators in Africa the ability to have their ideas improved upon and made economically viable. More so, the lack of a property rights regime that could measure to the countries that later colonized Africa made it easier for both physical and intellectual property to be seized by the occupying powers..."

Judi Wakhungu stated that"...the poor are actually a source of opportunity because they are often willing to work much harder than the rich, are more adaptable, physically often stronger, more resilient and often more industrious and innovative in the face of challenges. What they do lack is access to credit, technology and markets. They are the creative underclass waiting to burst out. Poor people too have talent and intelligence, and it is African society's responsibility to discover talents and develop them...We need to redesign products for poor countries around their needs. The poor need technologies to tap their unrecognised talents and convert their arid land to food-producing, the trash to art, and their voluminous labour to capital..."

Fredrik Erixon writes "...Countries are not poor because they lack roads, schools or health clinics. They lack these things because they are poor – and they are poor because they lack the institutions of the free society, which create the underlying conditions for economic development. Aid has it upside down... Botswana chose to empower its people with inclusive economic institutions instead of pursuing socialism like many of its African counterparts. As a result, it has experienced the world’s highest rates of economic growth in the past 30 years, and its people are far better off – with per capita incomes of around $8000 per year, compared with less than $1000 in many African countries..."
Via Global Growth

George Ayittey stated that "...the solutions to Africa’s problems lie in Africa itself. It involves Africa going back to its roots and building upon its own indigenous institutions. Indigenous institutions of freedom, free markets in Africa, free enterprise and free trade. Some of us may not know these indigenous institutions, and this is why people like us have to talk about it in this book(Indigenous African Institutions)..."

"...OSIWA is dedicated to supporting the creation of open societies in West Africa marked by functioning democracy, good governance, the rule of law, basic freedoms, and widespread civic participation. OSIWA believes that it best serves by sustaining catalytic and innovative initiatives that add value to the efforts of West Africa's civil society. OSIWA seeks to collaborate with advocacy groups, like-minded foundations, governments and donors..." OSIWA recently launched the West Africa Democracy Radio (WADR)"...conceived to be the hub of a West African network of public, private and community radio stations, creating an avenue for networking between the radio stations and a channel for dialogue among the peoples of the respective countries they serve...",Pambazuka.

The Timbuktu Educational Foundation was "...founded for the sole purpose of preserving, restoring, and disseminating the important intellectual contributions of the early African scholars from the famous Timbuktu Universities of Mali, West Africa...its goals include to restore preserve translate and publish the manuscripts of Timbuktu.Restore the historical buildings which house the University of Timbuktu and to reopen the University with its classical methods of teaching..."

Yebo Gogo writes about the critical nature of the Zuma trial "...This trial is important to South Africa for three main reasons. First, the country needs to show that no one public official is above the law. Second, it needs to promote a culture where corruption won't be tolerated. And three, it appears one of Zuma's tactics is to agitate tribal hatred, which could split the country...what would threaten South African democracy is Zuma getting off of his charges because he's popular. He might not be guilty, but South Africa needs to send a message that he'll be tried, just like any other citizen..."

Franklin Cudjoe writes "...Globalization can hardly be blamed for the fact that only 10 percent of Africa’s trade takes place among African countries themselves. With 750 million people living on the continent, the potential for the expansion of trade must be enormous. Very little trade has been allowed in this poorest of continents where tariffs are almost as high as 50 percent and where highway robbers dressed as customs officials block free exchange...Capital is a cowardly bird. It flies to safer places where it expects to earn better returns. 40 percent of Africa’s private investment takes place outside of the continent, while only 3 percent of Asia’s investment takes place overseas...If there is to be any hope for long term prosperity in Africa, Africans must be given the predictability that comes with the rule of law, the protection of private property and free markets, and decentralized management of resources. This will harness local knowledge along with the creativity, diligence, and thrift that is natural to Africans..."
Via PsdBlog

In a recent interview development expert William Easterly stated "...Securing pledges for more aid is not going to make poverty history. What we should be examining is the aid industry’s plans to spend this new money because it has a track record of failure dating back to the 1940s and 50s. There’s been numerous and diverse attempts to buy the poor out of poverty but none of them have been particularly successful. So in 2005 we found ourselves ostensibly throwing more good money after bad. Above all, this is tragic for the poor...“There might be one billion people living on a dollar day but they are not a political constituency - they have no voice. They are effectively customers of this multi-billion dollar aid industry but lack the ability to give feedback and influence the type of aid they receive...At the same time, aid industry investors – rich country tax payers and the politicians writing the cheques – are ill-informed and far removed from the lives and daily challenges of the world’s poor. Therefore the disconnect that resides at either end of the development supply chain mitigates against change and reform to deliver the type of development the poor so desperately want and need..."
Via NextBillion

The CS monitor comments on the rise of Africa's women."...In fact, Africa has long been "extremely progressive when it comes to women in politics," says Gisela Geisler, author of a book on the subject. And now there's a further "jelling" of women in power, she says, partly because 10 years after a major wave of democracy swept across Africa, voters see that "not much has changed in terms of corruption." These days, Dr. Geisler says, "people have greater hope in women..." The BBC reports "..."It's a historical phenomenon, which is going to be an example to other African countries... I could scream my heart out," Nigerian politician Sarah Jubril told the BBC's World Today programme. So is Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf's apparent victory the start of a trend?..."

Nigeria's Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is representative of a new type of African leader.A reformer and technocrat commenting on Nigeria's Oil based economy she stated "...The fact also that you have a natural resource-based economy that is highly dependent on one commodity - oil. I think that is not the best thing that has happened to us as a country because it is difficult to apply the resources that come from this natural resource in a way that takes into account this complexity or groups, religion and so on. And I don't think that the country can really move forward until a good formula is worked out to be able to apply the country's human and natural resources in the best way possible that can be accepted by everybody as being fair...any development in the country has to take into account the need to diversify from oil. I don't think the country can really move forward unless we are able to find a way to develop other sources of income or find other sources of growth for the economy apart from oil...Thus there are two issues - one, applying the resources that we have appropriately and secondly finding means to diversify the economy, which is very vital. And part of managing the resources that we have appropriately is also trying to deal with the enormous burden of debt which the country has, that amounts to $28 billion..."In a paper presented at the The Global Economic Governance Programme she listed the continuing challenges facing Nigeria they include Sustainability,Vested interests,Quick results and Globalization.

Abraham Mclaughlin of CSMonitor writes "...are 'donor darlings' stifling democracy?... In Africa's decade-plus experiment with multiparty democracy, there appears to be significant backsliding, ironically, among some heads of state once heralded as the next generation of great leaders on the continent. And the slippage, observers say, is sometimes being abetted by the US and other rich-nation donors - in part because of the war on terror.The most current example is Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who was a member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa and is an important partner in America's terror war. After a disputed election in May, he's mounted a brass-knuckles crackdown on opponents in which at least 76 people have died. He's also edging toward restarting one of Africa's most deadly wars..."
Via Friends of Ethiopia

Commenting on the African Diaspora Wangari Maathai stated "...I commend the African diaspora for believing in small and medium-sized enterprises, which are key to enabling Africans to fulfil their aspirations for jobs and economic security. The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) reports that 90% of all businesses in Africa are small and medium-sized. We must support this sector and ensure that it thrives.The diaspora can ensure that this sector grows in the home countries. Africans in the diaspora are estimated to send back some $200 billion to Africa each year. This money assists both their families and the national economy. We need to encourage and sustain this interest and commitment. We need initiatives that are simple, attainable and able to generate visible success in a short time. This creates momentum, trust, excitement and goodwill around solutions that ordinary people themselves own and believe in..."

John Mukum Mbaku writes that "...The real obstacle to development in Africa, then, is the absence of institutional arrangements that effectively constrain the state and prevent its agents (civil servants and politicians) from engaging in opportunism; enhance indigenous entrepreneurship and the creation of wealth; and improve the ability of all individuals within each country to participate fully and effectively in national development. In order to prepare each African country for sustainable development in the new century, citizens must engage in reconstruction of the state through proper constitution making to provide governance and resource allocation systems that minimize political opportunism; enhance indigenous entrepreneurship; maximize wealth creation; promote peaceful coexistence of population groups; and generally increase the national welfare. In the following sections, we take a more detailed look at parts of this transition program..."

"...The Barefoot College came up with the idea of a Children ’s Parliament so that children could learn how a democracy functions,the importance of the vote, standing up for your rights and not letting yourself be exploited because you are poor. The children elect their own Parliament and their own Ministers. They can make decisions about the running of their schools and dismiss teachers who neglect their duties. The children can also have their say in matters concerning their villages,such as the supply of water and electricity..."

Worldwrite has produced a "...film that will challenge the belief that fair trade is a panacea for poverty in the developing world. It claims that western consumers have been duped into thinking that fair trade is an effective poverty-alleviation tool, when in fact it does nothing to address the root causes of poverty...",ThirdSector."...The Bitter Aftertaste casts huge doubts on the capacity of chocoholics and shopaholics to transform the lives of farmers in the developing world through their supermarket trolleys. Shot in Ghana and the UK this hard-hitting documentary is sure to stir more than coffee and leave a bitter taste in the mouths of those who espouse fair trade as a mechanism for development. The film asks the questions often thought but never asked, does fair trade really change anything or just make Western consumers feel good? A must-see for everyone who believes the developing world deserves better..."
Via Loneliest Jukebox

"...Fahamu uses information communication technologies to conduct pan-African campaigns for human rights and social justice.Fahamu (a word meaning 'consciousness' or 'comprehension' in Kiswahili) fields digital publishing and communications -- CD-ROMs, the web, e-newsletters, and now, mobile phone text messaging -- in diverse ways that let the group, "pack a punch larger than our weight" to support progressive social change in Africa, empower Africans to control their own economies and political systems -- and stave off a repeat of the tragedies that hang over the heads of African social justice activists..."
Via Worldchanging

Eddie Cross of Zimbabwe Pundit speculates that Africa may well be experiencing an equivalent of the European Dark Ages. However within ""...any "Dark Age" you have your islands of enlightenment and hope. And so it is in Africa and in places like Zimbabwe. You can find such places by visiting our private schools where dedicated teachers and administrators are maintaining a small but effective system of education that continues to produce outstanding athletes, sportsmen and women and fine academics. Above all they produce achievers - men and women who go out into the world and succeed wherever they go. You can find them by visiting certain business organisations - I have a friend here who runs a globally competitive clothing factory - he exports the great majority of his output to the most sophisticated markets in the world. Another friend manufacturers fruit drinks and chemicals - walk through the doors of his business and you are in a clean, modern environment, which is comparable to any in the world. Staff are motivated and work hard and their product is expensive, but always good quality..."

John Lonsdale critiques the thinking of Africa as an enduring victim, he suggests the rebuilding of African higher education as a necessary first step.
"...How far are the professed “friends of Africa” – scholars, students, activists – to blame for the mix of everyday indifference and latent fear, tempered now and again by pity? What can we do to repair our failures in representation? Perhaps it would be to do what best serves our own professional interest: regard African colleagues as allies in a common cause, and repair the failures in African higher education that so diminish the African ability to speak to the rest of the world as intellectual equals, expert witnesses in their own cause, full citizens of our one world...Why do we need celebrities to enlist our attention? What Bob Geldof and Bono have done is marvellous (the Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen tells me that Geldof proved to be a sharp student of development economics in the telephone tutorials Sen gave at the popstar’s request in 2004). But there are also two dangers in the “celebritisation” of Africa’s needs:

• the sense of guilt that Geldof and Bono arouse in their audiences may prove fleeting and ineffective – when it is important that the G8 and the European Union need to be subjected to intellectually sustained and politically creative scrutiny
• the image of the secular saint flatters the self-regarding, even racist, European image as the heroic dragon-slayer riding to the rescue of a voiceless and helpless African continent, trapped by poverty, ignorance and disease