Lack of transparency and accountability, empathy, poor communication, close-mindedness and dismissive of others’ ideas are characteristic of bad leadership. They are exhibited by Presidents whose countries have been plagued by bad governance, abject poverty and under-development, according to a lecturer in political science and former Chairman of the defunct National Commission for Democracy, George Coldridge Taylor.
They are also tools for dictators who oppress their people and suck economies dry to satisfy their limitless and insatiable needs. No gainsaying that Presidents who have adopted such features have failed to deliver to their people while those who oppose them have succeeded in lifting the electorate from a state of penury.
These traits displayed by African Presidents in contemporary societies oppose the fundamental purpose of the state which is to provide the ‘greatest happiness for the greatest number of persons.’ Bad Presidents also oppose well-established democratic principles adored in most parts of the world.
Good Presidents on the other hand see these features as guidelines or template for sound leadership with a strong belief that they could deliver quality services to their people if they practise them. From the outset, leaders are chosen to perform two basic functions: to secure the people and provide for their welfare.
These functions are somewhat in line with the philosophy that the need for a government arises from the need for security and protection. The old political notion has pervaded the ages spanning from primitive societies to modern states.
In the early days, there were such title men as kings, queens, emperors and dukes. In today’s modern societies, there are presidents, prime ministers, ministers among others; despite the nomenclatures, the duty remains the same: to serve humanity.
Societies were less organised in centuries gone by with leaders enjoying absolute powers and privileged positions. An African king in the dark ages had the power to condemn a subject to death without trial as long as their whims and caprices had been satisfied and the best of everything belonged to the ruling or royal family.
Leadership in the decades is about master-servant relationship as subjects, for most of their life time, offer their energy for the comfort of the leader. Colonialism played a considerable role in stripping these absolute leaders of unlimited powers especially African kings who were reduced to paramount chiefs.
In such British colonies as Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and the Gambia, kingship nomenclatures were changed to paramount chiefs with their powers stopping only at collection of taxes for the British government and adjudication of minor disputes among their subjects.
The departure of the British colonialists in the mid-19th century saw the emergence of Presidents and Prime Ministers who appeared more dictatorial in their leadership style than former colonial powers.
Although they do not last long, brutal regimes have existed in Africa for years as seen in the Mano River basin close to home. The likes of Sekou Toure of Guinea, Willam Tolbert of Liberia and Albert Margai as well as Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone have all displayed dictatorship in the state governance project, but Idi Amin of Uganda appear to have led the most brutal regime in Africa.
Callous dictators have employed bad President qualities to have their ways in their tenures. They are also found in states that purport to be democratic by way of sham elections lending credence to Nick Cheeseman’s notion of dictators who hold elections tend to stay much longer in power than those who frown at the polls.
*Lack of Transparency and Accountability
Dictatorship is a strange bed fellow to transparency and accountability and their peaceful coexistence in state governance is hardly imagined.
African dictators hate to be transparent in all governance processes since they would not like to be questioned about their policies, programmes and actions and their shady deals.
Bad Presidents ride roughshod on legal and policy frameworks that ensure transparency and accountability. Institutions of accountability such as audit institutions, the press, judiciary and parliament are muzzled by the creation of police or military states amid laws that protect such institutions.
In Sierra Leone, in particular, a stiff and straightforward Auditor-General was removed from her office and subjected to trial in an ad hoc tribunal for alleged professional breaches. Her suspension was an eventual precursor to her dismissal although the Constitution of Sierra Leone, the highest law of the land, frowns at such practice.
Media institutions which are also protected by law also are weakened by petty bribes and subtle forms of censorship.
Relevant portions of the Constitution found in section 11 and 25 provide the conducive atmosphere for media agencies to operate.
Section 11 states that “the press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this constitution and to highlight the responsibility and accountability of government to the people.”
For the media to deliver on this mandate, section 25 confers freedom on the media as well as the people of Sierra Leone to freely express and impart their views, comments and opinions on others and vice versa.
Under the same provision, everyone also enjoys the right to own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information and ideas. In Some African countries, media practitioners are influenced by material gifts and sometimes political appointments, but in perfectly authoritarian states, journalists are incarcerated, tortured and killed in prison cells.
It was the prevailing game plan in the Gambia under President Yayah Jammeh who tortured and murdered media practitioners critical to his murderous regime. Judiciaries in countries that lack transparency are also muzzled with bloated salaries and allowances for rent, medication and travels.
Others are also awarded tough political appointments at the expense of competence. In such situations, it would be difficult for the courts to play a neutral role in matters that concern and touch on government’s interest.
Sierra Leone witnessed the arbitrary dismissal of a Vice President in clear violation of relevant laws of the land.
The courts were also manipulated to hand down judgements that saw the removal of 10 opposition parliamentarians, a move that infringed provisions of the Public Elections Act, 2022. Sierra Leone also saw the physical assault of law makers with an aim to impose a Speaker of parliament that will protect government business in the legislative house.
The move is to keep the people in fear and little wonder that law makers In Sierra Leone either criticise or reject a presidential nominee regardless of the level of incompetence. In other African countries like South Africa, parliament is most times a battlefield with opposition law makers at the wrong end.
Government knows that as long as these institutions are reduced to nothing, they become mere elephants, and the next to lord it over are the electorate. The people are also kept in perpetual fear for a long time until comes a day when they stage bloody revolutions, demonstrations and protests as was the case with the 2011 Arab Revolution also known as the Arab spring.
The revolutions swept away powerful dictators in the Maghreb seen in the likes of Husni Mubarak of Egypt, Ben Ali of Tunisia and lastly Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.
Libya, before this time, appeared to be the richest country on the continent, but much of its wealth was spent in the dark although conditions were good back home. The Arab leaders were chased out as the people complained that there was no transparency and accountability in the dispensation of the nation’s resources.
Basha Alhassad of Syria however survived the revolution owing to a military back up from Russia.
*No Empathy
Bad Presidents are not empathetic with the suffering masses as they care only for their wives, children and immediate family members and those who are closer to power. They build and nurture cabals before and after gaining power, and they are okay once the henchmen are alright.
Cabals even exist in political parties and those who fail to render moral or financial support to those groups are not allowed to tap the political largesse.
PAOPA group within the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) is a clear example as a sub-group within a party as only those who enlist their membership and support the movement in its embryonic stage yesterday get back the payback today. Traditional or mainstream SLPP however are left to fester in rough economic conditions.
One can dine and wine with them on condition of comportment which connotes turning a blind eye to their vices, vagaries and corruption. One’s usefulness to the group is reduced to nothing the day one decides to question the power holders, and definitely will be shown the exit door.
Yes-men are henchmen, hypocrites and parasites preferring a pig satisfied to a Socrates’ dissatisfied model of political existence. Regrettably, the electorate on whose backs the politician rose to prominence is abandoned in deep poverty without any remorse.
The leaders cart away huge amounts of money in foreign banks, put up in the most expensive mansions and hotels in faraway countries and merry while the people lack safe drinking water, sound health facilities and quality education.
No job opportunities for the jobless men and women means crime and disorder in several African countries, but the bad Presidents are comfortable and busy seeking solutions to maintain a permanent grip on power. It is however not the case for countries in other parts of the world especially in Europe and the United States which are welfare states.
In welfare states, the interest of the poor is at the centre of national policies and government agenda.
*Poor Communication
Effective political communication is a cardinal pillar of the state governance project as it brings leaders close to their subjects. In the absence of the communication model, propaganda machines are built up and its wheels oiled by spin doctors and propagandists.
Spin doctors paint a good image for government at home and abroad even when the masses are dying of hunger and starvation. In their bid to do a perfect government bidding, foreign media and public relations firms are hired to do good image projection and laundering for the bad Presidents. Weak governments in Africa are very much prone to lavish meager state-owned resources to PR firms abroad to carve goo image for them.
Sierra Leone, according to international news report, is one of those countries that have paid fabulous amounts to public relations companies in the United States to do an image laundering for the government while the political realities back home is nothing to write home about.
Why can’t governments in Africa work for their people and communicate well to them instead of washing battered images to foreign audiences.
A journal titled: ‘At the Heart of Change’ authored by Panos Institute in the UK goes a long way in espousing the importance of communication in governance, and warding off misunderstanding and corruption in the corridors of power is one of such great benefits.
In their metaphorical expression of ‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant,’ the authors believed that a country could be less corrupt if the channels of communication are opened at all layers. Several governments in Africa establish and operate ministries of information, strategic communication units and offices of government spokesmen to give out information to the public about government’s activities.
In their effort to communicate to the people, they give out information that thrills the electorate and reserve one that would invite critical questions on their governance system, a wrong notion as the language of political communication is about the utmost truth and not lies, deception and propaganda.
Several governments in Africa have fallen down as they fail to deliver the right information to their people. When dust is continuously thrown in the eyes of the people, they will remain in the dark for a long time but would stand up one day when they realised that their Presidents are liars.
*Inconsistency
Despots or bad Presidents are inconsistent with their policies and actions as they need to satisfy their needs matter more than anything else. They are quick to say one thing now and change within the next moment especially if the policy does not favour them, and care less about breaking laws, rules and regulations, contracts and agreements.
The current political situation in Senegal is one that depicts inconsistency in the state governance project as a President announced a particular policy and changed it again just few days. President Macky Sall who was on a visit to Sierra Leone to forestall a political crisis had been grappling with the same issue.
Elections had been scheduled to take place in February, this year, and later postponed to another date without the people’s consent. In Sierra Leone, government’s inconsistency is seen in its disrespect for contracts and agreements gone into by corporate entities in the country’s interest.
Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (Arise IIP), for instance, was left out in a trade deal that would have seen the company turning agricultural produce into finished goods if the deal would have gone ahead.
The new company which had engaged 1, 800 hectares of land in PortLoko district and also waiting to occupy and manage the Ferengbeya- Pepel rail and port scaled down operation after it became clear that government was no longer ready to cooperate with them.
Even Nigeria too is caught in the inconsistency during a boundary dispute with the French-speaking country of Cameroon. Africa’s populous country promised to pull out of Bakasi region after an international court handed down a judgement that favoured Cameroon, but later changed her stance.
However, Nigeria pulled out only when the court promised to go through the United Nations Security Council to enforce the order.
*Dismissal Of Others’ Ideas
No regard for people’s ideas is the main feature of bad Presidents in Africa and anywhere the world. They wanted their views, opinions and positions on matters of state importance always take centre stage, respected and honoured.
The laws of the state also made the Presidents extraordinarily important as the President is free to either accept or reject people’s advice. No legal checks and balances exist to curtail or regulate offices of the President, and in the presence of rubber-stamp parliaments, the Presidents could not be questioned about his ideas in the governing of the state.
Most times when opposition politicians want to stand their way they are quick to call in the police and the army to get rid of them, and the outcomes, most times, could be terrible. Even members sharing the same political party with a President could succumb to the barrel if they criticise the President’s policies.
Members and Supporters of political parties in Africa have been fatally hit by snipers whenever they disagreed with the President.
*Ego
After all, these qualities of bad presidency are not for the happiness of the people but to protect the Presidents’ ego and make a cult of personality for them. Most times, the egoist Presidents do not come to power to serve the people but to serve their interest, and they are everywhere in Africa including Sierra Leone.
Until, there are tighter criteria for the Office of President, Africa will never stop producing bad Presidents and political charlatans.