The December 2010/January 2011 issue of the Africa Report, included an article on 11 Ideas for 2011 to make real change. I read through the ideas and thought that the idea that suggests, “Nobody can become President over the age of 69″ was the best for me. I found it to be a low cost solution enabling freedom of choice among Africans benefiting the majority. I truly agree with the sentiment that says we appreciate the goodness that comes with ‘old wine’ – that is wisdom, experience and perspective. Surely our much older leaders in Africa deserve a round of applause for exhibiting these characteristics. However, having them in leadership positions for too long brings major discomfort to citizens as promises made go undelivered. Also when a leader stays in power for too long citizens begin to see their imperfections more clearly.

The pursuit of African leaders to stay in power even when the populace is no longer comfortable with them has proven not to be a general thing of late. This is evident with the protests in Tunisia and Egypt.  The anger brewing in the hearts of these citizens in these countries has been put in the limelight for the whole world to see. And the possibility of having other protests rising in other African countries cannot be ruled out. As Cameroon, Egypt, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe go to vote in 2011 we hope to see a new age bracket of leaders govern our countries. Simply put, we want new faces in leadership positions.

We have to continue to pray and be patriotic towards our desired change in Africa. We truly desire to have selfless and visionary leaders at all levels of the government. There is a need also to have youths in leadership, as they are the future of tomorrow.

I conclude with a quote by Nelson Mandela, which says, “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”

Leaders will be more appreciated and recognized if they take steps towards these wise words.

This entry was posted on February 2nd, 2011 at 1:05 pm by Elizabeth Nyamuda and is filed under Governance, Inspiration, Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.