Making African Solutions For Africa's Problems Work

Samson R. Akinola

Let’s discuss on how to solve our problems: Enough of Analysis of our problems. It is now clear that the solution to Africa’s problems is in the hands of Africans and not from the West. This has been my strong belief, passion and vision over the last 15 years. I believe strongly that our challenges and problems are likely to continue until we domesticate American democracy in Africa. Most of our attentions have been directed towards elections alone, whereas elections constitute a fractional part of democratization.

We need to have a rethink on our present democratic system. We have the opportunity to do this before it is too late. At the same time, all our efforts so far have been directed towards knowledge generation with little or no concern on knowledge application to real life situations. Who will solve our problems for us? How do we solve our problems? Whether we like it or not, our problems are likely to continue and get worse until a group of scholars and intellectuals rise to the challenge and show the way forward on the appropriate steps that need to be taken in connecting the stakeholders in development in all sectors of our economy. There are countless conferences, workshops and seminars being organised on Africa with brilliant ideas and communiqués but where are the impacts of their outcomes on the lives of Africans?

The time has come for African scholars and intellectuals in diverse disciplines to decide on what they, as individuals, can do if they are appointed into political offices to address specific problems. It is not enough to critique governmental system without having alternative ideas that can resolve the problem at hand. I believe that the acid test of scholarship is how it has positively or otherwise impacted on the welfare of citizens and the development of society generally. In my own view, emphasis on the importance and practicality of knowledge generated by African scholars is instructive in the quest for African development. The abc’s of how to concretely address African problems is the focus of my work. I believe that nothing short of this is expected simply because the future of Africa is in the hands of Africans and African scholars have a prominent role to play.

What most of us describe as problems - greed, selfishness, corruption, bad leadership, etc are the manifestations of the real problem, which is institutional crisis, disconnect and problem of parallelism. In problem-solving scholarship and solution-seeking intellectualism, problems should be addressed via their causes. That is why there is the need to design institutional mechanism that can synergise the efforts of the stakeholders through polycentric planning via the setting up of Self-governing Community Assembly that can help us fulfil the mission of check and balances. We must get one thing clear: corrupt leaders will never change except the people design systems that will curtail their excesses and personal aggrandizement. Let us learn from Americans. They raised puzzles in the 18th century and answers to the puzzles led to the design of institutions of collective action that gave birth to federalism, while federalism produced democracy.

We need to properly study and understand all these before raising our own puzzles in Africa. Raising puzzles requires us to engage in philosophical thinking research/study. Without raising questions and puzzles, there cannot be attempts at producing possible answers. What we need for the new government is to have an understanding on how to domesticate democracy, restructure the public sphere and political economy. Evidence confirms that elections are equated to democracy in Africa, a situation that is erroneous, misleading and calamitous as elected officers are not accountable to the electorate after elections.

The challenges and problems confronting Africa are beyond personalities in office. A cursory examination of African problems shows that our problems are beyond elections, winners, ruling/governing party and personalities in offices at various levels of government. It is institutional crisis that is engendered by the problem of disconnect and ‘parallelism.’ This requires domesticating the original blue print of American Great Experiment (democracy) in Africa.

The way forward for our country is to domesticate democracy, restructure the public sphere and political economy through polycentric planning and problem-solving strategy. This will produce inclusive Africa where everybody is reckoned with and citizens feel belonged for atmosphere of peace and security, which will guarantee social justice and economic prosperity. This is because the social crisis that engulfs Africa is predicated upon economic disappointment on the part of the large majority of the population that wallow in abject poverty. The high level of inequality is a precursor to several challenges and problems our continent is experiencing.

Until citizens are mainstreamed into developmental projects, governmental programmes will not be people-centred; and diverse peoples of Africa, regardless of their endowment and entrepreneurial capability, will continue to suffer, while violence, insecurity and poverty will be heightened. Domesticating democracy, and restructuring political economy and public sphere can be achieved through polycentric planning and error correcting potentials and institutional mechanism via the setting up of Self-Governing Community Assembly (SGCA) for practical experiment at all levels and layers – community, ward, LG, state and federal. SGCA will create the platform for deliberation and inclusion of minorities and the marginalised groups – the youth, women, retirees, etc. – to be mainstreamed and empowered through inclusive institutional mechanism.

Polycentric planning is a deliberate act of setting up multi-layered and multi-centred institutional mechanism that regards self-governing capabilities of local communities as foundation for reconstituting order from the bottom up. It can also be described as the process of ordering the use of physical, human and institutional resources as well as engaging the citizens in contractual relations with the public authority.