The US Boom That Never Was

Dean Baker

The Labor Department reported the U.S. economy created 126,000 jobs in March. This was a sharp slowdown from the 290,000 average over the prior three months. This relatively weak jobs report led many economic analysts to comment that the economy may not be as strong as they had believed.

This reassessment is welcome, but it really raises the question of why so many professional economists and economic reporters could be so badly mistaken about the strength of the economy. There never was much basis for claiming a boom in the U.S. economy and the people claiming otherwise were relying on a very selective reading of the data.

Just starting with the most basic measure, real GDP in the United States grew at just a 2.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2014. This is a pace roughly in line with most estimates of the economy’s potential rate of growth. This means that the economy was just keeping up with the growth in its potential, filling none of the large gap between potential GDP and actual GDP that still persists from the 2008–2009 recession.

Those pushing the boom view were prone to treat the modest fourth quarter growth number as an anomaly, pointing out that the economy had grown at an average rate of 4.8 percent in the prior two quarters. But this reasoning was obviously fallacious. The strong growth for the second and third quarters was just making up for negative growth in the first quarter of 2014.

As a result of a number of factors, most importantly weather and a brief government shutdown, the economy actually shrank at a 2.1 percent annual rate in the first quarter. With more normal weather and no further shutdowns in the rest of the year, the first quarter decline virtually guaranteed strong growth in subsequent quarters. The average growth rate for the first three quarters of 2014 was just 2.5 percent, not very different from the fourth quarter figure.

Other data also should have caused analysts to shy away from any boom view. Investment in plant and equipment has been running just slightly ahead of year ago levels. Home construction is on a slight upward path, but not enough to provide a major boost to the economy. The saving rate is already relatively low, meaning that any big uptick in consumption is implausible barring a surge in income. The trade deficit has been trending upward, partly in response to the rise of the dollar, putting a further drag on growth. And, the proponents of austerity are ensuring that there will be no major boost to demand from the government sector.

In this context, the relatively strong employment numbers had been an anomaly. In an economy with weak GDP growth, strong job growth implies low productivity growth and that is in fact what the U.S. has been experiencing. Productivity growth has averaged less than 1.0 percent annually in 2013 and 2014. This is far below almost anyone’s estimate of trend productivity growth.

The implication is that if there is not a pickup in GDP growth, employment growth will have to slow, as it did in March. There will always be erratic factors affecting a single month’s data, and the March numbers were almost certainly held down by bad weather, but the 126,000 number for March is almost certainly closer to the underlying trend than the 290,000 average originally reported for the prior three months. (These numbers were revised down in the March report.)

There is a lesson here that goes beyond the jobs numbers. The fact that such a wrongheaded view of the economy could get wide acceptance speaks to the nature of debate in economic policy circles. It remains the norm to repeat what more important economists are saying rather than do independent analysis. That is why economic policy types continually get surprised by the economy, as when they were surprised by the collapse of the housing bubble and the ensuing recession.

This lack of independent analysis stems from the nature of incentives in the profession. As we saw following the collapse of the housing bubble, no one ever suffers any career consequences from being wrong in the same way as the consensus. It would be difficult to identify anyone at the Federal Reserve Board, International Monetary Fund, or any other major economic policy or regulatory agency who lost their job because they failed to recognize the housing bubble and the risks it posed to the economy. It is unlikely anyone even missed a scheduled promotion.

This means that there were absolutely no negative consequences to being disastrously wrong on an issue where it really should not have been hard to be right. (There was no precedent for the massive run-up in house prices and it was not reflected in any remotely corresponding increase in rents.) On the other hand, standing outside the consensus will always carry risks. No one can ever be certain in their assessment of the economy and people in general are likely to be hesitant to conclude that the leading economists are wrong on major issues.

Given this structure of incentives, economic theory tells us that we should not expect much by way of independent thought on the economy. Most of what we read and hear continues to reflect the consensus view, just as was the case before the housing bubble burst. This is why it is possible for silly views, like the U.S. economic boom, to gain credibility in major news outlets.

Blowback in Kenya

David Zarembka

The old anti-war song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” has the refrain “When will they ever learn?” That’s what came to mind after al-Shabaab’s ghastly April 2 assault at Garissa University in northeastern Kenya, not too far from the Somali border. The attackers killed nearly 150 people.

This wasn’t just a security failure — in part, it was blowback. Sadly, innocent Kenyans are paying the price for their government’s actions in Somalia.

When the Kenyan military invaded the country back in 2011, there was almost no discussion or consideration of the possible consequences. Like the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, they seemed to think that as the stronger power, with superior training and resources, the fight would be all theirs.

But that’s not how al-Shabaab fights.

In July 2010, the group had killed at least 74 Ugandans in a bombing attack on people watching the World Cup soccer final in Kampala. The Kenyan government therefore should have been well aware that al-Shabaab would not engage them in frontal attacks on conventional forces, but rather on soft targets that allow a few armed men to create havoc.

Simplistic Responses

Since Kenya’s invasion of Somalia, there have been dozens of attacks in Kenya claimed by al-Shabaab. This has resulted in the deaths of over 600 Kenyans, the wounding of many more, and the rampant destruction of property. Foreign tourism has plummeted, leading to an economic slowdown — particularly in the beach tourism on Kenya’s famed eastern coast.

In turn, Kenya has tightened security. Now everyone, for example, is searched when they enter a supermarket. I’ve always grimly wondered what those security guards would do if someone really tried to storm a market with guns. At Garissa, the guards at the gate were easily killed by the attackers. Kenya is filled with such soft targets.

The response of the Kenyan government is to hire more policemen — by any means necessary.

Ten thousand recruits had gone through the hiring process, but the High Court ruled last year that too much corruption was involved in the hiring process. After Garissa, President Uhuru Kenyatta overruled the courts so that these tainted recruits can be brought aboard.

There’s an additional proposal circulating to build a wall on the border between Somalia and Kenya.

Kenya is also making a show of escalating its military response. A few days after the university attack, Kenya’s warplanes bombed two supposed al-Shabaab camps in northwestern Somalia. Witnesses said the chief casualties were civilians, livestock, and water wells — and denied that there was any al-Shabaab presence in the area. Such reports are quite common for Kenya’s bombing raids on the country.

These are simplistic responses to show that the government is “doing something.” Neither will address the fundamental insecurity posed by al-Shabaab.

Roots of the Problem

Echoing a familiar pattern, it was intervention by the United States that created al-Shabaab.

In 2006, most of Somalia was ruled by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). Deeming the ICU too Islamist for its taste, Washington arranged for Ethiopia to invade Somalia to overturn this government. This resulted in the most radical elements in the ICU creating al-Shabaab, which fumed against the hated Ethiopians and their American sponsors. The Ethiopians soon withdrew, leaving much of the country to al-Shabaab.

Kenyan troops invaded Somalia in 2011 and continue to occupy a southwestern section of the country. That occupation has prompted considerable criticism.

Since Kenya’s 6,000 or so soldiers are insufficient to govern the territory they control, they’ve made an alliance with the Ras Kamboni militia, which had formerly been part of the Islamic Courts Union. There are reports that the Kenyan military has benefited from the charcoal trade to the Middle East, including working with al-Shabaab itself for charcoal supplies from the hinterland. Other reports of corruption and human rights abuses by the Kenyan military have surfaced as well. As a result, the local Somali population has seen no improvement in their governance.

But Kenya has a Somali problem within its own borders as well. The 2009 Kenyan census listed nearly 2.4 million ethnic Somalis living in Kenya, which was then about 6 percent of the population. Many of these are Kenyan-born citizens. Others, though, are immigrants and refugees, and it’s almost impossible to tell the difference — fake documents, if needed, are easily obtained.

There’s considerable ethnic hostility and discrimination against Somalis in Kenya, including a dark history of pogroms and mass murders by Kenyan authorities. All this has led to fertile recruitment by al-Shabaab among the Somalis in Kenya. While the four attackers at Garissa University probably came across the porous border, some of the other terrorist attacks have originated from within.

Making Things Worse

Unfortunately, the Kenyan authorities’ response to these attacks has only worsened conditions for Kenyan Somalis.

In February 2013, the government rounded up 34,000 residents from the Somali area of Eastleigh, Nairobi and “housed” them in a football stadium. The major accomplishment of this exercise was further alienation of the Somali population. There have also been calls to close the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya and force the Somali refugees there into a new camp in the area of Somalia controlled by the Kenyan military.

Most recently, Kenya has cracked down on the remittances that Somalis in Kenya send to their relatives in Somalia, threatening to cut off some $70 million per month that many Somalis desperately rely on.

There needs to be two steps to solve the continuing terrorist threat in Kenya.

First, the Kenyan military needs to withdraw from southwest Somalia. Three-and-a-half years after the invasion of Somalia, some Kenyans have finally begun to question the wisdom of the invasion and consider the possibility of withdrawal. After the Garissa University massacre, opposition leader Raila Odinga recommended just that.

The second, much harder step is for all Kenyans — especially including those in the government — to listen to the concerns of the Somali people. Hostility and discrimination against Somalis must end and affirmative action policies should be put in place to counter their marginalization in the country. This should include the devotion of resources to develop the long-neglected area of northeastern Kenya where many Somalis live. It will also mean challenging prejudices and demanding accountability for past atrocities, such as the 1984 Wagalla massacre that killed thousands.

For now at least, peace in Kenya is a long way away. While many shortsighted responses are being implemented, no long-range strategy is even being discussed. Sadly, Garissa will likely not be the last tragedy of its kind.

Sierra Leone: Constitutional Flaw Plunges SLPP Party Into Infighting

Sulay Conteh

The SLPP Party was founded in 1951 and it is presumably assumed that the first version of the Party Constitution was also created about the time the Party came into being. Although the Party Constitution has gone through a series of amendments since then, none of the amendments have been rational enough to reflect the changing environment of the Party, the Country and the World. It is this huge constitutionally-driven generational gap (between the SLPP Party Constitution and times of today) that is the root cause of the ever-widening mistrust, infighting and disunity in the SLPP Party today.

Many pieces of the SLPP Party Constitution are so well written that one would not even want to raise an objection. But looking, for instance, at Clause 4 (which is actually about SLPP Party Structure), one gets suspicious. The SLPP Party Conference (which is the highest body responsible for electing not only the Party Executive but also the Party Flag-bearer) is hugely biased towards the so-call Party Councilors. One wonders who these Councilors are, where they come from and on which basis they vote in SLPP Party Executives and Flag-bearers. Putting straight this pivotal Electoral College is critical for not only keeping the SLPP Party pure and unblemished by sycophants, but also for upholding the so badly-needed unity in SLPP Party proclaimed in the “One Country, One People” Party Motto.

Based on the amended 1995 Party Constitution in 1998 and subsequently adopted in April 2010, Clause 4, Sub-clause A, Article 2, Sub-article c states as follows: “Four (4) councilors in SLPP-controlled Local Councils including the Mayor or Chairman. At least one of the four (4) councilors shall be a woman (where possible)” are per the Party Constitution allowed to attend and vote for the Party Executives and Flag-bearer. Then Clause 4, Sub-clause A, Article 2, Sub-article d states as follows: “Two (2) councilors or SLPP members from non-SLPP-controlled councils selected in collaboration with district executives” are per the Party Constitution allowed to attend and vote for the Party Executives and Flag-bearer. Sierra Leone is administratively divided into 3 Provinces and the Western Area, 12 Districts, 149 Chiefdoms and 112 Constituencies (some Chiefdoms consisting more than one Constituency and vice versa). SLPP then has 3 to 5 Wards in every Constituency.

It is not absolutely clear what is meant by the word “Council” in Clause 4 of the SLPP Party Constitution, but if we take it to be the equivalent of the word “Constituency” in the National Administrative Division, then the SLPP Councilors should be the heads of the SLPP Wards. Thus even in the unlikely event where the SLPP Party loses all the Constituencies in a general election in Sierra Leone, there will be (per the Party Constitution) at least some 224 Councilors in any given SLPP Party Conference. It then becomes very clear that over seventy percent of the Electoral College of any SLPP Party Conference will be made up of the so-called Party Councilors. This somehow makes the elections of the SLPP Party members into Top SLPP Party Positions the sole business of the Party Councilors. It then becomes incumbent upon us to take a closer look at who these SLPP Party Councilors really are.

The Party Councilors are supposed to come from the lowest Stratum of the SLPP Party Structure — the Wards, of which there could be three or five in a given Constituency. It is suspicious as to why the Party Councilors are given such a sweeping stake in the SLPP Electoral College which elects SLPP Party Executives and Flag-bearer. One would again argue that since the Party Councilors belong to the lowest Strum of the SLPP Party Structure, they could actually be the least educated and least committed to the Party. Least educated here does not in any way mean that the Party Councilors do not have good education, but that they can hardly be more educated and committed than the higher Strata members of the Party.

On this basis, one could say that the Party Councilors may not have any well thought-out yardstick (that is in line with the Party and National Constitutions) against which Party Executives and Flag-bearer are voted into office. Of course, the SLPP Party Constitution does not have any laid down guidelines for background checks of either aspiring SLPP Party members nor for aspiring SLPP Party Executives or Flag-bearer. Thus in a poverty-ravaged and highly-illiterate country like Sierra Leone, votes can be easily sold for personal financial gains at the expense of Party and National Interests. Assuming that the above supposition holds in the SLPP Party today, then the business of the Electoral College of the SLPP Party Conference very much well plays into the hands of Contender Parties like the ruling APC Party. This could be one of the reasons for the persistent infighting, animosity and disunity in the SLPP Party that is only getting worse with time.

There are so many deliberate ambiguities in the SLPP Party Constitution. All the predecessor leaders of the SLPP Party had only changed those Clauses of the Party Constitution that give the most advantage to the Executive Offices they hold, leaving the ambiguities unchanged in the hope for future manipulations. For instance, the only most visible change the former Chairman (John Benjamin) made to the Party Constitution during his tenure of office was fusing Titles of the Party Leader and Chairman into one Executive Post as “SLPP Party Chairman and Leader”; giving him all the power he needed to exploit the Party to his utmost advantage. In formal institutions like political parties, ambiguities should be fully clarified in Subsidiary Documents and not in any circumstance left to explanations based on common sense. People with ulterior motives will always tap into any such ambiguities to serve their utmost selfish ambitions. And when this happens, there is bound to develop enormous discord, infighting, disunity and even hatred and enmity that only lead to the demise of the institution.

Now, we take a close look at Clause 6 of the amended SLPP Constitution that spells out the criteria for qualification for election as an Executive or Flag-bearer. To actually drive the point home, we will have to reproduce here the entire Clause 6 of the SLPP Party Constitution in verbatim as follows:

CLAUSE 6: NATIONAL AND LOCAL ELECTIONS

1.The National Executive Council shall be responsible for ensuring that party candidate(s) is (are) chosen by each constituency to contest seats in the National Legislature and local councils both general, local and bye-elections.

2.The Party Conference shall nominate a candidate for the Presidential elections using the simple majority system.

3.The candidate nominated shall at future presidential elections be the Party’s Presidential Candidate with discretion to choose his/her running mate as his/her Vice President, in consultation with the National Executive Council. 

4.The National Chairman and Leader shall not vie for the post of Presidential Nominee.

5.Any national executive member (excluding the National Chairman and Leader) can vie to become the Presidential Nominee provided he/she resigns from office not less than six months before the date for the election of Presidential Nominee.

6.All such candidates shall be duly recognized as national and local council candidates of the party and shall be entitled to the support of the entire party organization.

7.Each party candidate shall be authorized by the National Executive Council to use the emblem and slogan in election publicity materials, posters and on all ballot boxes.

8.No person shall be nominated as a party candidate for the National Legislature unless:
1.He/she is an individual member of the party and is not a member of any organization which is in opposition to the party.

2.He/she agrees to accept and conform to the Constitution, Principles, Policies and Programs of the Party and shall sign a declaration to the effect.

3.He/she is a citizen of Sierra Leone.

4.He/she is not disqualified to be elected as a Member of Parliament under the Constitution of Sierra Leone, decree and/or by-law.

5.In the event that the Presidential Candidate of the Party loses the Presidential Election, both the Presidential Candidate and running mate shall become ex-officio-members of the National Executive Council. 

Here, in Clause 6, lies what  creating much mischief and havoc in SLPP Party today. With irrelevant exemptions, the qualification for any position in the SLPP Party is simply being a member of the Party. There is no set out criteria (such as length of Party membership, length/quality of service to the Party or meaningful contributions that foster the image of the Party) that an existing SLPP Party member needs to fulfill at any point in time before vying for any position in the Party rack and file (including the Chairman and Flag-bearer positions) apart from simply being a member of the Party. This literally implies that one can register with the SLPP Party while on the way to SLPP Party Convention and eventually hijack any key position in the Party during the course of the Party Convention. So it is not uncommon today to see even die-hard SLPP Party members wondering if this Jack or that Jill is a Party member; just so much uncertainty and confusion in the Party! That said, now here where the real hellish catch lies in Clause 2 of the SLPP Party Constitution regarding membership to the Party, also given in verbatim as follows:

CLAUSE 2

1.Membership

1. Classification of membership – There shall be two (2) kinds of membership

1. Individual membership
2. Organizational or Associate membership

2. Qualification for Membership

1. Any person who is a Sierra Leonean and is not less than eighteen (18) years of age is eligible for individual membership of the Party.
2. Organizational membership shall be open to all Trade Unions, Co-operative Societies, Professional, Social, Cultural and Sports Organizations or other Associations or Groups whose aims and objects are approved of by the National Executive Council of the Sierra Leone People’s Party.

3. Admission of Membership

1. A person who is eligible for membership may be admitted as a member by enrolment at the National Headquarters or at any constituency branch of the Party.

2. A party card shall be issued to every member on enrolment upon payment of the individual membership fee as determined from time to time by the Party Conference. The rightful possession of a party card by a person shall be presumed as evidence of membership.

3. An organization or group which is eligible for membership shall apply to the National Headquarters or to a regional, district or constituency branch, and shall submit a copy of its constitution and its aims and objectives.  On approval of such constitution by the National Executive Council of the Party, the organization may be enrolled upon payment of the organizational membership fee as determined from time to time by the Party Conference.

4.Obligations of Members

Each member, on admission, is deemed to have accepted the Principles, Programs and Constitution of the Party and have agreed to conform to the Constitution and Rules and Regulations of the Party.  Each member is obliged to obey all lawful directives from officials of the Party and to pay the prescribed dues promptly and regularly.

5.Discipline

Any member of the Party:

1.who disobeys or neglects to carry out a lawful instruction from the Party or any of its officials or,

2.who conducts himself/herself in any manner which is likely to bring ridicule, hatred or advocates any opinions contrary to those of the party or,

3.who contravenes any of the provisions of the Party’s Constitution, shall be liable to be dealt with as laid down in the rules and regulations of the Party.

As there are no conditions set out as yardstick to measure the commitment of SLPP Party Executive members and potential Flag-bearers, any “Jack and Jill” can register with the Party today and hijack any position in the Party rank and file tomorrow. In fact, as we all may know, the definition of the identity of a Sierra Leonean is very much at stake today. There is no unified National ID Card System and/or Passport System that is based on a strictly-monitored Birth Certificate System or anything of the sort to be used to determine who really is a Sierra Leonean. Apart from heavy daily influx of immigrants from the bordering countries of Liberia and Guinea (who generally speak languages commonly spoken in Sierra Leoneans), people from all over Africa and the World today lavishly possess valid Sierra Leone Passports. But even with this aside, genuine Sierra Leoneans who are sympathetic to rival political parties can readily hijack Executive and Flag-bearer positions in the SLPP Party. In a highly impoverished and illiterate nation like Sierra Leone, outsiders can smoothly buy their way through the top under fraudulent systems like the current SLPP Party Constitution. Also because contenders for (Executive and Flag-bearer) positions in the SLPP Party do not engage in any open debates from which at least snap Background Checks, Personality/Talent Measures and Service Dedication to the Party before, during and after the SLPP Party Conference are taken, any crook/mole in a strong financial position (either acquired through personal effort or given by rival parties for clandestine motives) can easily buy votes and win elections in SLPP Party as per the current Party Constitution (Kabbah?).
     
It is therefore safe to say that it was the flaws in the SLPP Party Constitution that made the less committed Late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to axe out the more committed Charles Francis Margai in the run-up for the 1996 Flag-bearer position of the SLPP Party. But, again, we are always inclined to put the blame squarely on Charles Margai for somehow digging his own political grave because being the lawyer we know him to be and then sole custodian of the SLPP Party throughout the long dark days of the Stevens-Momoh APC rule, Margai failed to plug up the hellish flaws in the SLPP Party Constitution. This eventually haunted Margai to his subdued loss to Kabbah, an event that has doomed him all the way down to the irrelevant mediocre he is today in Sierra Leone society. Verily, verily so, it is truly a unique “one drop” in the reverse direction for Charles Francis Margai — a crushing drop from the Holy Grail to Tatters. We had so much looked up to Margai to save not only the SLPP Party, but also to completely clean up the ailing nation with all the unpatriotic isms engulfing us today. But all this is now behind us and we once again have to look into an entirely different direction for an astute political messiah to lead our beloved and once valiant SLPP Party.
     
In the first place, Kabbah could not have qualified for the 1996 SLPP Flag-bearer race had the constitutional flaws been thoroughly plugged up under the hegemony of Charles Margai. Kabbah, over his ten-year rule, also made no efforts to fix up the loopholes in the SLPP Party Constitution. In fact, Kabbah instead used the flaws in the SLPP Party Constitution to further victimize Margai and trick in Solomon Berewa in the 2007 general elections. John Benjamin took over the Party and he, like his predecessors, failed to plug up the flaws in the Party Constitution — an even that now haunts him down in a embarrassing way. Of course we cannot expect Chief Somanon Kapen to do otherwise as he has valiantly shown a bold affinity and likeness for the ruling APC Party. The constitutional flaw is the hellish heck that is forcing even die-hard members to turn their back on the SLPP Party today. People are today increasingly taking the back seat and playing the wait-and-see game in the political happenings in the SLPP Party. For sure, no one is today certain about the direction into which the SLPP Party will head next. APC has gotten a firm grip on the SLPP “Business Of The Day” as SLPP is currently completely lost in the highly illusive political environment it finds itself in today’s Sierra Leone.
     
Political science, like boxing science, is a social science with unique old normalcies — an element that makes the science more complete, mature and hugely rewarding to relevant players and the society at large. For boxing science, the more brutal it gets, the sweeter it becomes. Then for political science, the more complex it gets, the more interest it draws among the people it serves. Thus continuing to hold on to such a flawed constitution in such a major Political Party with such a long political history in post-independence Sierra Leone is something tantamount to a political crusade towards an all-out political crucifixion of the SLPP Party. The constitutional flaws in the SLPP Party have brought so much uncertainty, confusion and controversy into the Party today that even the so-called Top Party members now wonder about the Party membership of certain contenders of key Party positions, including Executive and Flag-bearer positions. This has been the case all this while for Kandeh Yumkella and a few others, and all these people have done is just simply going on the air/media and forcefully declare themselves as SLPP Party members and so it comes to be upon us all. What a hellish political wilderness the SLPP Party has today found itself in!
     
This is the political gimmickry that the ruling APC Party has exploited by implanting a sizable ring of moles into the SLPP Party, some holding responsible positions in the Party. From time immemorial, SLPP has been branded as the “baby-boomer” party, even though it today remains to see the babies. Instead of coming together as one people and one party, what we have seen is epic desertion, infighting and the rise of APC moles to the top positions of the SLPP Party. With this, it is hard today for even the so-called die-hard Party members to give their heart out to the SLPP Party. People are giving lip-service treatments to the once noble and vibrant elite SLPP Party.
     
Now that we can clearly see the dangers of constitutional flaws to constitutionally-driven organizations, we must now address soul-searching questions. How much longer can we continue to endure as the very victims of our own creations before we take rational actions to rectify the system? It seems we are just setting the stage right for the ruling APC Government to continue to divide and dismantle this once valiant family of SLPP Party. It is high time to take radically rational steps to boldly overhaul the SLPP Party Constitution to such a depth that it fully reflects the political environment of Modern-age Sierra Leone.  Who is a Sierra Leonean? Who verifies who is a Sierra Leonean? What essential and mandatory criteria (background check, party membership type, length of party service, dedication/contribution to party course, personality/talent qualities, patriotism, etc., etc.) must be fulfilled before vying for whatever position in the SLPP Party? How can membership to the Electoral College of the SLPP Party Conference be radically and rationally reformed to ensure that SLPP Party Executives and Flag-bearers are not implicitly elected by the less-literate and less-critical Stratum of the SLPP Party? These and many more are the sorts of questions we need to address in rewriting the SLPP Party Constitution to ensure us the vibrant Party we had always been. This can once again make us the Party of choice for the vast majority of the Sierra Leone population.

Migration and Mobility Within Africa

African Union.

Africa is currently in an era of high mobility, spurred on by steady economic growth in many parts of Africa facilitated by global revolutions in transport and communication. As a result, migrants of African origin have increasingly spread across both the continent of Africa and the world at large. While emigration to countries in Europe and North America has attracted the most attention among both policy makers and researchers, these movements have been outpaced by sustained increases in shorter and circular patterns of intra-continental mobility. Migrants in Africa have been moving between rural and urban areas and across borders in substantial numbers, contributing to the rapid growth of sprawling cities and fostering new patterns of urban settlement.

Africa is a continent where a considerable part of the population leads a mobile way of life. Mobility and migration in Africa is a significant part of livelihoods, where not only working professionals but also nomadic pastoralists, hunters, gatherers, healers, religious persons, traders, artists are known to be mobile and ubiquitous on the continent. Evidence shows that large numbers of people have been uprooted from their place of origin and have become part of a peripatetic category of wandering persons and these people are difficult to classify because they do not fit into perceived notions of what is deemed 'normal' in the administrative and legal logic of the sedentary world. Movement is also motivated by African cities being viewed as places of attraction for international migrants and also used as zones of departure for long-distance migration. The African cities are also viewed as attractive spaces for migrants and mobile traders for creativity, connections and exchange.

Migration in Africa south of the Sahara, as in the rest of the world, has always been an essential element in the historical processes of social, political and economic change. Development and migration have always been intertwined in a set of complex, heterogeneous, and changing relationships in which causality is never one way. The experience of colonialism left an indelible mark on the political economy of Africa, shaping both the patterns of migration and their impact across the continent where the European powers created the boundaries of nearly all the modern States in Africa south of the Sahara, and these borders have had a profound effect on mobility. Moreover, in their attempts to marshal the labour of Africans to serve the colonial enterprises in the profit centres of plantations and mines while maintaining traditional ways of life in the rural areas, the colonialists established migration systems that remain important to this day; examples include the labour migrations to the coast of West Africa and the mines of Southern Africa. They also established an ideology of state control of mobility that continued after independence.

Across Africa, migration has always played an important role in sustaining and expanding people‘s livelihoods in many different ways. These include expansion into new areas to gain access to natural resources, such as land, minerals, water, game, and fish; the conquest of neighbouring groups to capture both their goods and their labour, either directly through slavery or indirectly through the payment of tribute; and the expansion of networks to gain access to new markets for both goods and labour.

Migration has also historically been driven by conflicts at different levels, ranging from family disputes to wars. Nineteenth-century travel literature abounds with examples of people moving around, miners in Southern Africa moved from country to country in search of jobs, poor people moved from city to city in search for charity in the West-African savannah states and pilgrims on their way from West Africa to Mecca.
Mobility and migration in the continent seem to be increasing and it is difficult to understand fully the processes underlying the phenomenon, partly due to problems with definitions and concepts and partly to a lack of reliable data.

Defining mobility (or migration) is not easy because of the many different types. The simple definition of migration is 'a change of residence, although this definition poses two problems: First, 'residence' implies a certain minimum length of stay. How long does a person have to stay in a certain place to be classified as a migrant, a sojourner or a non-migrant? Second, people who move regularly between two or more places may not even have a clearly identifiable 'place of residence.' This refers particularly to those for whom mobility can be considered as a way of life. Usually, 'migration' is also defined in terms of crossing a political or administrative boundary but questions arise about the nature and history of such boundaries. The word 'migration' covers a wide range of different types of mobility that could be broadly classified as follows:

(1) Based on a géo-administrative level, the usual distinction is between international (or inter-state) and intra-national migration,

(2) The rural-urban dichotomy, results in four types of migration: rural-rural, rural-urban, urban-rural and urban-urban,

(3) As with the previous criterion, a classification based on duration of migration can be put into a simple dichotomy: permanent versus temporary,
(4) The criterion of choice denotes whether migration is forced or voluntary,

(5) Based on the criterion of legality, it could be 'legal migration' and 'clandestine migration' , and

(6) the final classification criterion concerns the migrant's characteristics in relation to motivation: the reasons for migration differ as people differ, in particular in terms of gender, age and education.

Prevention of mobility is common in Africa and its focus is on the control of ―unwanted foreigners at international borders. It can take formal means where countries have many different interests in facilitating, frustrating, or (re) directing human mobility. These include stringent immigration policies, high expenditures on border controls, documentation systems, workplace inspections, and detention and deportation measures. While in most cases countries in Africa adhere to the international rights of citizens to leave their country of origin, many have also developed a range of policy mechanisms to prevent certain categories of nationals from leaving their countries, whether this is in the interest of preventing capital flight or of limiting “brain drain.” There are also informal means of preventing mobility, such as the rise of populist xenophobia and right-wing anti-immigration groups. However these interests are not always realized in practice, since mobile populations invariably have interests of their own, and are therefore determined not to be stopped. One of the main problems of such measures is that they tend to reduce human mobility to the status of a problem, threat, or risk to be managed or mitigated, thereby marginalizing the various opportunities and benefits that mobile populations routinely generate.

Like prevention, promotion of mobility and migration routinely take a variety of forms and these forms can be usefully located on a continuum that ranges from legal structural reforms to direct acts of capture and coercive transportation. At one end of the spectrum, we have indirect and long-term measures to facilitate and/or regulate otherwise largely independent movements. At the other end of the spectrum, we have brutal measures defined by sustained levels of violent coercion, where states (and other actors) force people into motion for example to pave way for developmental projects. When states take steps to promote, and thereby profit from, mobility, they do not necessarily ask those involved whether they want to move or whether movement is in their best interests. Consequently, promotion has been regularly defined by violence and abuse and should, therefore, not necessarily be regarded as being more favourable than prevention. Promoting mobility should in no way be confused with “free" movement, since promotion tends to be a highly selective exercise.

Promotion of mobility and migration is can be fostered in a non-coercive and mutually beneficial manner. This would help realise the benefits of mobility and migration in Africa and also help to illegal movements. Such actions have been taken at regional and inter-regional levels and they include:

• Establishment of an African Institute for Remittances (AIR) to provide for cheaper, more effective and safer remittances transfer systems;

• Implementation of the Human Trafficking Initiatives to strengthen protection, prevention and prosecution of trafficking in human beings;

• Creation of a network of researchers and research centres at the Observatory on Migration to gather reliable, harmonised data on migration;

• Launch of the Decent Work Initiative extending social protection coverage in particular in the informal economy;

• Launch of a labour market governance and capacity building initiative, for strengthening capacity of labour market institutions in Africa, and organisation of regional and sub-regional fora on employment, labour, social protection and labour migration;

• Implementation of the Nyerere Programme providing scholarships to African students, scholars and academic staff;

• Launch of the Pan-African University, a network of African higher education institutions;

• Review of progress on mutual recognition of qualifications in Africa through African Higher Education Harmonisation and Tuning.

Mobility and population migration should be promoted in Africa as they are important human processes affecting a broad range of social outcomes and previous World Development Reports, for instance, explored the positive development impact of population mobility resulting from both remittance flows and the concentration of skills in geographical areas with the greatest economic potential. Promotion should also focus on mitigating the perils of mobility/migration for example in case studies South African miners and East African truck drivers, where evidence shows links between HIV and mobility.

Nigeria Does Not Have Political Parties But Political Movements

Ejike E. Okpa

Political parties tend to stay the course; rise and ebb with elections. Nigeria practices the Politics of the Purse, whereby players swing from party to party; hedging their bet in order to make sure they are not losing. It is a winner takes all political environment, so a POLITICAL MOVEMENT. 
 
Nigeria’s politicians do not run on principles and values, it is mostly for convenience and comfort believing that once in the right party, winning an election is guaranteed. Add tribal lines, and one is exposed to a bunch of sheep looking for a shepherd. 
 
Obasanjo did not cause the failure of PDP. Anyone could come up with reasons Jonathan did not win. Assigning Obasanjo the undue power of having derailed PDP, is exaggerated. Obasanjo, a fox, probably saw the handwriting on the wall, and wanted to be part and on the side of history. He is an opportunist. Also, if the Igbo saying – ofu onye adi akali oha – a person should not be greater than the community -  is anything to go by, then giving Obasanjo credit negates the saying. 
 
Give Nigerians the credit: They got fed up and fired their president. Going forward, I hope this resonates so that anyone accorded the opportunity to serve takes to heart that it is an honor and not hand-up to abuse the people.
 
Nigerians just got wiser and elected to teach PDP party a lesson. Buhari’s winning was by default because people did not have another compelling choice. Again, if he can bring back the attitude of 1983-85, Nigerians will align and line up. PDP and its Zoologist turned president encouraged political indiscipline. 
 
Nigerians must be commended for standing up against a dysfunctional government. Jonathan liked being president but lacked the ability to be presidential. His cabinet looked like college faculty – doctors and doctorates, yet as the country got sicker and sickened, he acted like a zoo master – allowing the tamed and untamed animals run afoul of what makes sense. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Diezani Allison-Madueke should have been fired in 2012/2103 when the oil subsidy was a hot matter. Instead, the ladies in council who counseled Jonathan, were allowed to look like untouchables but the economy lifeline depends on oil and the finance ministries. 
 
The Naira lost more value during Jonathan’s term even as the oil price traded in 3-digits, and even as Jonathan inherited a period Nigeria foreign debts were either forgiven, written down or suspended. Instead, Ministers of Finance and Petroleum bungled the situation and Jonathan acting clueless and ineffectual kept quiet. 
 
Stella Oduah, buying bullet proof cars, should have called for instant dismissal, with demand to refund the money or have the cars auctioned.  No one should forget Patience, Madam First Lady, who accepted absentee job in Bayelsa. It comes a time one has to call their family members to order in service of the nation. Jonathan could not or did not. Everyone in Bayelsa claimed him as brother/father/uncle/cousin, all posturing as gatekeepers. Jonathan had more people claiming him as a relation than there are weeds in Bayelsa.
 
Touching on National Security, Boko Haram was another matter Jonathan did not know what to do. At the heat of the moment, he went to France to consult. Really!

Landmines: A Threat to Africa

El-Ghassim Wane

Anti-personnel landmines pose tremendous humanitarian and development problems and have serious and lasting social and economic consequences for the populations of affected countries. Not only does the impact of landmines continue after conflict but their victims far exceed those who come in contact with them.

Landmines remain scattered as hidden killers in several AU member States killing and severely maiming civilians, with children being disproportionately affected. In 2013, a hundred and eleven civilians were killed in Somalia and South Sudan alone. Sixty-two of those were children.

Despite this grim picture, there are many important and encouraging developments which have taken place on the continent towards realizing the core aims of the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. In terms of adherence, the continent’s commitment to the object and purpose of the Convention is unquestionable-98% of AU member States have ratified it between 1997 and 2012.

The city of Maputo in Mozambique is considered among the birthplaces of the anti-landmines movement and has hosted the First Meeting of the States Parties in 1999. The Continent also hosted two of the three Review Conferences of the Convention that have taken place to date. The first was hosted in Nairobi in 2004 and the third in Maputo last year.

With regard to clearing mined areas, and despite the serious challenges faced, the Implementation Support Unit of the Convention reports that 12 of the 26 AU member States that have reported areas known or suspected to contain anti-personnel mines have completed clearance activities. The remaining 14 AU Member States continue to work in a transparent and collaborative manner with the relevant oversight mechanisms established by the Convention as well as the international partners towards meeting their mine clearance obligations by the set deadlines.

Last but not least, assisting the victims remains at the core of the Convention and requires efforts that continue long after the destruction of stockpiles and clearance of mined areas. These efforts also correspond to AU member States’ obligations pursuant to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

In this regard, and over the past few years, member States have undertaken various steps to enhance victims’ access to healthcare and rehabilitation as well as to enable their participation in all aspects of life, including civic, social, economic and political activities.

I would like to take the opportunity to give an overview some of these commendable steps. In enhancing health care coverage, Sudan, Algeria and Senegal have introduced plans to extend coverage of national health insurance to include persons with disabilities.

In terms of rehabilitation, Angola initiated a nationally funded physical rehabilitation project to improve the quality of services and introduced basic physiotherapy and rehabilitation services in several referral hospitals. Mozambique on the other hand resumed production of prosthetic devices. Even in Somalia, orthopedic centers continued to provide services for persons with disabilities despite the multitude of challenges.

To further enhance access, Guinea Bissau and Sudan launched monthly outreach services for people living in rural areas while Ethiopia administered special rehabilitation programs for refugees with disabilities.

To ensure the participation of the victims and persons with disabilities in social and economic life, countries such as Angola, Sudan and Uganda introduced legislation, codes and guides on physical accessibility and construction regulation. Furthermore, and in order to
support the disabled rebuild their livelihoods, countries like Ethiopia, Angola and Senegal initiated adapted programs offering education, basic business skills training and career advice. This in addition to efforts by Algeria, Burundi and Ethiopia to facilitate access of disabled persons to grants and loans to start small businesses and other economic inclusion micro-projects, some of which are specifically targeted towards women with disabilities.

This progress would not have been possible without the support of a range of UN agencies, the ICRC, NGOs and Civil Society Organizations, aided by generous funding from the international partners, many of them with us here today. I would like to seize the opportunity to extend the AU’s thanks and appreciation for their partnership and commitment.

As we move forward, it is important that we work towards the smooth transition from international support to sustainable and nationally owned and led initiatives. Support from the international partners should therefore be geared towards building national capacities in the
development, finance and administration of national mine action strategies.

The explosive hazards that pose a danger to civilians living in conflict and post conflict setting is not only defined by landmines but include different types of threats, such as unexploded ordnances, unsecured weapons and ammunition, and Improvised Explosive Devices–or IEDs. This is why this year the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action is being held under the theme “More Than Mines.” This theme is very timely and appropriate, drawing attention to important issues we currently face on the continent.

Over the past three decades, a total of 76 unplanned explosions at munitions sites of varying severity were recorded in twenty-five Member States. We can still vividly recall the devastation caused by the Mpila munitions depot explosion in Brazzaville in 2012 which killed almost 240 people and injured another 2,300; leaving many more without shelter.

We also continue to witness the horrific scenes of death and destruction caused by IEDs employed by terrorist groups. In Mali, those have been responsible for the death of several UN peace keepers. In Nigeria, Boko Haram has committed some of its most despicable acts by strapping IEDs around children forcing them to become suicide bombers.In Kenya, they are used by Al-Shabaab to kill and terrorize the general population and dissuade the State from extending a helping hand to the rebuilding of the Somali State. In Somalia, IEDs continue to pose a serious threat to the operations of AMISOM and its troops’ mobility while vehicle borne IEDs are continually used to attack government buildings and officials in Mogadishu resulting in the death of tens of innocent civilians and those who work to bring peace and stability to the country.

The AU has remained cognizant of the threat posed by mines, unexploded ordnances and IEDs. Since 1995, the AU and its predecessor launched a number of initiatives aimed at addressing the scourge of anti-personnel landmines and other explosive remnants of war. These initiatives include the Kempton Park Plan of Action adopted in 1997 by the First Continental Conference of African Experts on Landmines. At last year’s commemoration of the Mine Action day, the Commission launched the Mine Action and Explosive Remnants of War Strategic Framework Project. The objective of the Strategic Framework is to support AU member States in reducing the threat posed by conventional weapons, mines, explosive remnants of war, cluster munitions and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in accordance with the relevant international instruments and best practices.

The Strategic Framework promotes the concept of national ownership and recognizes that while substantial regional and international support and assistance is required national governments hold the primary responsibility for developing and implementing mine act ion and explosive hazard management programs. This Strategic Framework consists of three components: The first is to advocate for universal participation in the legal regimes against landmines and explosives, raise awareness on explosive threats within member States and mobilize technical and financial assistance. This also includes advocacy for victims’ assistance and their physical rehabilitation and socio ‐economic reintegration.

The second component aims to assist Member States conduct explosive threat reduction activities such as demining, physical protection and management of conventional weapons and munitions stockpiles. Here, the AU will provide training to practitioners and de-miners as well as facilitate the delivery of demining and counter-IED equipment and expertise.

The third component focuses on delivering technical support to the AU Peace Support Operations to ensure that member states in which missions are deployed as well as the troops deployed are trained and equipped to respond to all types of explosive threats, including IEDs.The AU has already made significant progress in implementing the project. Activities in this regard include consultative and capacity building workshops on victims’ assistance and clearing mined areas. The AU also supported the training of practitioners from several affected countries in undergoing training on Explosive Ordinance Disposal. Moreover, the AU provided a number of affected states with de-mining equipment to meet their national training needs and mines clearance deadlines.

I wish to seize this opportunity to invite the international organizations and partners to collaborate with,and support, the AU in implementing this strategic framework which reflects our common objective in realizing the vision of a continent free of the threat of landmines and explosive hazards.

Removing a mine or disposing of an IED is an expensive task that carries with it significant dangers. Even with training, mine disposal experts expect that for every 5,000 mines cleared one worker will be killed and two workers will be injured by accidental explosions. I pay tribute to these brave men and women who continue to work anonymously and in the most difficult and dangerous conditions to save the lives of countless men, women and children and to clear our path to development.

NIGERIA: Goodluck’s Glorious Exit, Buhari’s Rugged Landscape

Qansy Salako

News coming out of Nigeria in recent years might have made anyone repeatedly wonder why Nigerians seem rather unique among the rest of humanity. Well, Nigeria is actually on this planet. Were Nigeria a dog, its constituting 250 ethnic nationalities would be its tail. The often jaw rubbing news from out of there are the results of the tail wagging and jerking the dog. Otherwise, the country could have grown into a wonder nation. But all is not lost. Nigeria is currently in a momentous time zone.

The outcome of the March 28, 2015 presidential elections suddenly ushers in fresh hopes that the country may survive after all. Former military dictator turned democrat, General Mohammadu Buhari, became the president elect with over 2 million more votes than the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan.

Serendipity hardly played any role in either man’s political fate. It was Mohammadu’s fourth attempt at the ballot. Neither was Goodluck’s defeat due to bad luck. Mr. Jonathan’s political life is quintessence of how not to screw up opportunities. If there was a presidential candidate who did not need to learn on the job, it was Goodluck Jonathan. By the time Jonathan became an elected president four years ago in 2011, he had acquired a resume that included two years each as a state deputy governor, state governor, Nigeria vice president and Nigeria acting president, making him far more experienced than even Mr. Barack Obama was at the time he was elected POTUS in 2008.

Unfortunately, the twelve years of Jonathan in the top echelon of the Nigerian leadership realm did not translate into quality years for Nigeria. All the goodwill Nigerians had bequeathed on Jonathan somehow got frittered away and converted into misfortunes that eventually became Buhari’s good luck in his fourth coming. Everything that could possibly go wrong in a democracy presidency went wrong under Mr. Jonathan, mostly avoidable. Nigeria became the largest Africa economy and most profligate, both at the same time.

Boko Haram Islamic extremists abducted citizens in hundreds at will, killed over 12,000, dispossessed and drove over 300,000 Nigerian downtrodden into refugee camps. At its peak, Boko Haram carved out and occupied a territory the size of Belgium which they ruled on a level of savagery previously unknown anywhere. National corruption rose into the stratospheres, as Naira, the national currency, tanked into mother earth. Purposeless appointments, unrepentant foreign travels with unnecessary large contingents and absurd fleet of presidential jets, insensitive and outlandish statements by the president and his associates, official incompetence, odious lies and embarrassing falsehood, all characterized the last four years of Jonathan at the helms.

Mr. Buhari’s baggage from his tyrannical military days dogged him through 12 years of his repeatedly unsuccessful democratic presidential candidacies. But, by the time the 2015 elections came around, the only way for Buhari to go in popularity was up with the same hitherto rejecting Nigerians who now have grown fed up with their out-of-touch Goodluck. Sai Buhari! (only Buhari) was the chant that echoed across the country in association with the yearning for “Change.” It was as if Nigerians were just beholding Mohammadu Buhari for the first time.

Jonathan’s ruling party, PDP, had clenched corrupt power tightly for 16 long suffering years by all means necessary including use of state apparatuses as tools for intimidating, killing, bribing and renting electorates. And if all else failed, PDP would simply declare election victories with voting figures pulled from thin air. This election was no different, PDP thoroughly bested itself. In one night of fundraising, PDP raised over N21.7 billion ($105 million) which included N1.5 billion donation from PDP state governors. Banks in the country were literally emptied of all available cash, including foreign currencies. Bales of cold cash were thrown at people in the streets in exchange for their votes for candidate Goodluck Jonathan, surpassing N50,000 per person per vote before the day of election. It nearly worked, for despite the palpable desire for change, some 13 million Nigerians still voted for Goodluck!

In the end, one of the finest spots in history for Jonathan and Nigeria was that the elections were held, a winner was declared and the results respected by both candidates. The elections concluded under much less violence and bloodshed than had been widely predicted. His PDP still reeling in bitterness and sourly weighing its decision to accept or not the results, Jonathan called and congratulated Buhari for winning the elections even before the results became official. That very act of humility and bravery at the hour of defeat effectively put a lid on a potentially dire state of strife that could have tilted teetered Nigeria off the brinks. Most probably, that 2-minute phone call is one purpose of life of Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan.

Apparently, without Jonathan achieving his purpose of life, Buhari’s own purpose of life could not begin. Now it has. One hundred seventy million pairs of eyes are now fastened on Mr. Buhari with such unimaginable expectation and hope. Nigeria has suffered so much cumulative damage. Nigerians currently do not have the privilege of the “pursuit of happiness” which, ironically, is actually guaranteed in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So, winning its elections could be a treacherous achievement. Like eating the foofoo from inside a keg, Buhari would have to first figure out how to scoop it out to reach the mouth.

Buhari has identified his first two priorities – Boko Haram and the Nigeria brand of corruption that constantly befuddles the watching world. However, a dozen other national issues can easily compete for the priority status. Nigerians live in the dark, literally and figuratively. Of about 40MW electricity load needed to power its homes and industry, Nigeria currently runs on less than 3MW from its lone national grid. Unacceptable youth unemployment, plummeting quality of education and endemic grinding poverty are the manure on which widespread insecurity and militant activisms have nurtured over the years, across the country. Most if not all of the 50 million voters would be satisfied if they could have just the basic standard of living with access to food, water and shelter. Health care, good roads, transportation, impunity of the political leadership, diversified economy are other debilitating challenges. No president can remove all of these roadblocks to development even in eight years of two terms, but Nigerians expect Buhari to genuinely try or die trying.

As this is not a military environment, it is not clear how Mr. Buhari will prosecute his change programs. Confronting the corruption demon alone is one sure shortcut to moving Nigeria forward. The scope of Buhari’s war against corruption should cover the totality of the nation’s corruption machine. That includes confronting the chicanery and gargantuan waste in its bicameral legislature.

Nigeria cannot afford its current political system of government. It is way too expensive with too many redundancies. The system is overworked with too many omnipotent governors and too many do-nothing legislators, all above the law. Nigeria cannot afford a legislator earning more than the annual salary of the president of the United States. Spending enormous public funds flying legislators abroad for medical check-ups is tantamount to having lawmakers making laws over a country in which they do not have vote of confidence. It does not make sense, certainly not with the impoverishing daily misery in which the citizens live, year on year.

These are what make the landscape that Buhari is entering rugged and unpredictable. Buhari will need to be wise and fearless if he wants to save and redirect Nigeria on the right course. The potential for failure is high. Like the lyrical tune of the agidigbo drums, only the sage understands it, the wise dances to it.

Brand Africa:The African People

Penelope Muzanenhamo

Some say Kim Kardashian's photo is worth at least a million USD and if you are Kim, it’s all about ‘looks.’ Nobody really cares what you actually do except looking good. Others say, but for Justin Bieber ‘looks’ alone are not enough. He should also produce the goods (the so called delicacies for the ears, that is). These are some rumours we read and hear about on the Internet everyday. But what does that have to do with brand Africa? one might justifiably ask.

Not much, except that these rumours are all about brands and branding. Brands are about perception and popularity, but there is also substance behind each competitive brand. Africa lacks competitiveness. It has neither the ‘looks’ nor the ‘goods.’ No, we are not talking about the Hollywood celebrity kind of looks or goods. It simply doesn’t make sense to compare Africa to American celebrities. But what if we juxtapose Africa with other mega places like USA, India or China? Still in that case, Africa does not have the looks and here we are thinking of quality infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, houses, schools, universities, science and technology hubs, farms, factories and industries.

Africa needs to get the looks and produce the goods. But doing so is not adequate. Looks are created and must be maintained on a daily basis. It takes money, skill and patience to look like Beyonce or George Clooney. Oh, let’s be fair; let’s compare place with place, and say it takes more than building quality infrastructure to look like USA and China. It takes the people and their collective actions to initiate, achieve and sustain that level of ‘progress.’

Places are made by people in so many fundamental ways. Imagine, a hypothetical relocation of all Americans to Africa, and all Africans to USA. What would happen to these two places? Do you see where this is argument is trying to go (yes, trying)? Places are built and maintained by people who live there. No, this is not to claim that people have supernatural powers over environmental dimensions such as climate or geography. Rather, evidence abounds that people who live in a given place have the capacity to significantly shape how a place develops and is perceived by outsiders.

People make places metaphorically through their actions. What people do together as a collective symbolizes what a place stands for. People also make places literally through what they do. They build and groom social infrastructure among other physical manifestations of development. In other words, sustainable development and place branding are people centric processes.

When most of us read about brand Africa, we tend to play the defensive game. We lay the blame on the media, charity organizations and colonial discourses on Africa. As a tendency, we invest energy and time in attacking the discourses as hegemonic, Eurocentric and financially motivated misrepresentations of the continent. Should we not rather question the actual role of the African in the formation of the image of Africa? What do Africans do locally as a collective, which is distinct from that which is undertaken by the Americans or the Chinese and which explains socio-economic disparities between these places?

Sometimes we embark on projects ‘telling Africa’s story.’ These are not less important activities, but we can only tell a truly compelling and credible story if it reflects the realities on the ground in a positive light. This requires the transformation of the less attractive components of brand Africa. There is need to engage with facts when looking at brand Africa.

The images of poverty and dependency that we extract from the mainstream discourses are based on our incapacity to grow sufficient food internally and ensure self-sustenance, as well as poor health and short lifespans. We need to address these acute problems before rebranding Africa, and completing the project by attacking the long gone Victorian explorers for calling us impoverished and helpless.

The change we are looking for does not come from outside, long hours of prayer and fasting. No, this is not to dismiss international collaboration and spiritual health or religious engagements as frivolous. Instead, the emphasis is on the viewpoint that socio-economic transformation is initiated and sustained by people on the ground. The Americans built America, the Chinese are building China, and at a smaller level of analysis, the Germans built Germany. How they did that is a question of strategy and possibly controversial in some instances. Nevertheless, the growth was (and still is) internally driven by the people living in these places.

This conception of sustainable development mandates an investment in Africans' capacities and instilling that sense of proactivity in them. Most of the African citizens lack knowledge, skills and competencies relevant for employment and entrepreneurship. Also, fragmentation among Africans at national and continental levels signifies a lack of ‘collective consciousnes’ of the paramount importance of joint effort in driving Africa's progress and that of the brand.

Just like any celebrity one can think of, Africa also needs committed representatives and sponsors. While the representatives are our political leaders, the sponsors are potential investors. Self-initiated internal organization is crucial to Africa’s sustainable development. We have to prove to prospective investors that we have what it takes. Our attractive qualities are facilitated by good, altruistic and visionary political leadership. Human capital development and integration are crucial factors that require African leadership’s intervention and long-term commitment. Non-conducive investment policies, lack of political transparency and democracy, short-term leadership orientation, misplaced priorities, misappropriation of public resources, corruption and self-serving leadership divert the process of transforming Africa and boosting brand Africa’s competitiveness.

Maybe next time when we see a map of Africa covered with the logos of Apple, Nike, Samsung, McDonalds and other multinational corporations with the caption ‘brand Africa’ on top of it, we will stop and ask: But where are the African people in all this, is this really brand Africa?