My Beauty Best Teacher

Tolu Ogunlesi in the Guardian:

Seventeen years after he left office, Babangida, now a 68-year-old widower, has become the first Nigerian to announce a presidential ambition for 2011. As you would expect, the disclosure has set Nigeria on fire – everyone is talking. Most of the voices are of anger, disbelief and surprise. How dare Babangida? A man who annulled the least controversial election Nigeria has had in its 50-year history, now turns around to say he wants to be elected into office?

Image via WikipediThe CareTaker at AfricanLoft states:

Many of those at the summit(AU) are just a different shade of Robert Mugabe! This is why Kikwete and other African heads of state could only offer muted response to the open expression of tyranny in Zimbabwe.How many of heads of state at the AU summit got elected under free and fair elections? How many are free of impunity and abuse of power? Who amongst them isn’t afflicted with imperialistic mentality, and driven by personal motives?

AfricanLoft poses the question, "Is Africa a case of Bad Leadership aided by complacent Followership?".Underlining the importance of an involved and responsible populace they posit that:

The business of democracy - as it’s been conducted by its originators in western societies - relies on an informed and active electorate, without which the concept has no meaning. It’s enormous weight of responsibilities is borne on the shoulders of ‘the people’ who are made up of the leaders- the elected, and the followers - the electorate. These people man the various components that constitute collective democratic society.

Atta A. Addo writes in AfricanLoft:

For Africa to start thinking about equitably sharing its pie it must first have a pie and a significant one at that. This is why the question of equitable distribution, though important, may be secondary to economic growth and capital accumulation.

Ethan Zuckerman writing about his recent visit to iHub Nairobi:

Kenya’s not just part of the narrative behind Ushahidi, a platform used globally but developed by Kenyans to respond to a domestic political crisis. Kenya matters because it’s one of the places where the future of technology is coming into focus, where a generation of creative people are building the future, one experiment at a time. iHub makes sense because it’s the physical manifestation of the creative collaboration that took Ushahidi from idea to project to platform within months. I had to go to Nairobi before I really got it. And now I don’t want to leave.

Ibukun Awosika founder of The Sokoa Chair Centre at Wharton:

“Africa … is highly diverse. It is [not] one country. It is 52 different countries.” She takes to task anyone who still clings to the Western business stereotypes that dog the continent. Not checking out business opportunities in such a vast and underdeveloped market is costing those people money…
“Those markets that CNN tells you are not the good markets are actually the hidden secret,”...The former chemist’s implication: Her enterprise serves as an example of the lucrative deals in African countries that savvy outside investors can encounter, if they know where to look...[continue reading]

Suleman H. Okech writes in the African Executive:

In Africa, Universities have the highest concentration of highly trained human resource capacity that should spearhead research, innovate, develop and transfer technologies. This potential has not been adequately exploited due to a number of factors… industrial investment in the country is spearheaded by international companies who are dependent on their parent companies’ research in the developed countries. Secondly, universities in Africa tend to work in isolation. Thirdly, there is lack of proper policies that encourage local research and participation of the universities in national development. Finally, low funding. High-level research is costly, and governments are reluctant to funds research.