I recently went to collect our car from a service mechanic at a garage together with my wife. When we arrived, the mechanic asked us to give him some thirty minutes to give the car final touches.  I knew that meant at least one hour of waiting so instead of sitting down and getting bored with waiting, we decided to take a walk. After walking for sometime, we decided to buy a drink and rest in grocery because it was getting too dark as there was yet another electricity blackout again. At least there were some candles in the grocery.

After a short while, we got into a conversation with the grocer on leadership. He began talking about the frequency of blackouts and said as a man in his late sixty’s he is very worried about the future of the country and the continent as a whole; and more importantly that of my generation and our children. He wondered if anybody really cares about the future of Africa. His biggest disappointment was that everyone seems to have normalised mediocrity – like for example – people now think that electricity blackouts are normal and water taps that don’t run are normal.

I interjected and suggested that the failure of leadership could be because young people are not given chance – it’s the same old people who are clinging to power and closing out young people and new ideas. He looked at me and laughed. He convincingly showed me that new young leaders who have been tried or given a chance have not shown any difference. He pointed to me a few young and ‘brilliant’ NGO leaders, ministers and even presidents who have not demonstrated any difference from the ‘old guard’. He said if you look at the way parliaments and political parties behave you will see that there is no difference between those that went to school and those that did not. There is no difference between professors and ‘illiterates’. There is no difference between the old and the young. The biggest challenge, he said, was that today, Africa and indeed the whole world is lacking individuals who are critical and independent and are willing to go against the system no matter the cost – individuals who are willing to do the right thing no matter the sacrifice. These are individuals who are true leaders and not just rulers. We have too many rulers and too few leaders.

Today Africa is experiencing an unprecedented growth but most of the growth is externally driven mostly from China. With more infrastructural growth without investment in electricity and water supply, we should expect more water shortages and electricity blackouts for ordinary citizens. This will undermine the growth and make it unsustainable. Leadership is first and foremost about people and providing their basic needs like electricity and water, and as long as we don’t have leaders we should forget about real development.

Leadership begins as personal responsibility. “What are you and your wife personally going to do to exercise this responsibility in ensuring that your house and community have electricity and running water all day all night as you very well know that this is your right?” The grocer asked us. As I was thinking about an answer, I looked at my watch and it was time to go for the car.

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