Africa: 'Leaders Need to Account for Actions'

At the ongoing Pan African Media conference in Nairobi, Kenya, which is being held as part of celebrations to mark Nation Media Group’s 50th anniversary, the eminent persons’ roundtable of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa and Nobel laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai gives an insight in what the leaders think about a range of issues. Below are excerpts of the exchanges.

 

Sibi-Okumu (moderator): Are you politicians too busy politicking, hogging the media headlines instead of engaging in development?

 

Raila: Politics and development go hand in hand. Like a previous president said, “siasa mbaya, maisha mbaya.” Politicians talk about development but the media prefer to focus on politics. That is what sells papers. I am on record urging the media and country not to start campaigning. We have three years to go and we should not be politicking about 2012 now. However, we politicians are not in the newsrooms. We are not there to make decisions on what goes on Page 1. That is the work of the editors.

 

Kagame: In Rwanda, we are not making so much noise because we have had so many years of making noise and a big section of our people were killed and we are now on serious business.

 

Sibi-Okumu: Define “serious business.”

 

Kagame: We have learnt our lessons and moved on. People died. The people of Rwanda have discussed what went on, what caused the situation. Now we are building institutions that will outlive individuals.

 

Sibi-Okumu (To Mkapa): You’re a journalist clothed in presidential clothes. You were a journalist before you went into politics. What is the Tanzanian experience? Language and the media were used to create a cohesive society.

 

Mkapa: We are not as perfect as you put it. Why are we successful? Because the political leaders realised that the primary task was to build the nation. The politicians, the media and NGOs agreed on the common language, making diversity simple.

 

Sibi-Okumu: Professor Maathai, you went through terrible times. Were the media and politicians your friends?

 

Maathai: I think the politicians and press are important in any nation. Nations that have developed people get out of that oppression and fight for themselves. Politicians, left to themselves, can misuse power. It’s not possible to know what politicians are doing hence it’s important to have press to give information with which the public can hold them to account. The press opened their voices in Karura and exposed the grabbing of land.

 

Sibi-Okumu: Do you feel the media was there to tell your story?

 

Maathai: On the allocation of public land to individuals the press helped to bring the information to the public, both locally and internationally. Without the press we would not have managed to point out that the people of Kenya wanted to grab forests. We saved Uhuru Park. The media was very important. Politicians were on the defense and as they realised that the international society was opposed and the public and the media helped.

 

Sibi-Okumu: Western leaders hold regular press briefings. Is this a culture that we are too young to adopt?

 

Kagame: Yes, we hold presss briefings on a monthly basis and this has been going on for 4 years and has continued up to this day and we are not too young with our experience.

Raila: Information is power and a public informed has power. This is something recognised. We do have a governm ent spokesman who briefs the media every week. I do hold meetings with the press regularly where the press can ask questions and raise matters of interest.

 

Mkapa: It was a condition during my tenure that the people who come to my newsrooms must be well versed with the issues we are going to talk about. They must be prepared and must have done their research. That is why I have a reputation of talking to the foreign media rather than local media.

Sibi-Okumu: Muammar Gaddafi talks about a united Arica and everybody looks away. Is Pan Africanism a pipe dream? What are you as leaders doing to speed up African integration?

 

Kagame: We have to be realistic. From the very beginning the dream of African unity was premised on putting together the basic building blocks. Those building blocks like the East African Community are still being put together.

 

Raila: I am a Pan Africanist as opposed to Afro-pessimist. This subject is very divisive right from our founding fathers. For Africa to be able to harness its resources for social economic development, there is a paradox that Africa is the richest with resources, yet it’s the poorest. If you talk about Anglophone and Francophone, why should language bring barriers here yet it’s not done in Europe. There is one passport in Europe yet in Africa if you want to go to Nigeria, you must have several visa. It’s time for those who want a united Africa to go on and leave the conservatives to join later.

 

Maathai: I look forward to when Africa will have one state and one president and not 53. Compare that to one state in the US. The rest of the world is not going to wait so African leaders must wake up and save Africans from this exploitation that is already happening.

 

Sibi-Okumu: If we are taking until 2015 for the Millenium Development Goals and Kenya is looking to 2030 to achieve these goals, are we going to wait to achieve our goals?

 

Maathai: I am still hoping that Africa will produce visionary leaders, and I am not saying that the leaders we have are not visionary but they are challenged. We tend to live in Africa as if there is no tomorrow. I call upon all African leaders to be visionary, to provide visionary leadership to be selfless, to be like other countries.

 

Mkapa: We really need to think of our position in this world; we, rulers, need to account for our actions so that we can move forward.

 

Raila: Lack of visionary leadership has been the problem. Most African countries are poor because of money that went into people’s pockets. Now in Kenya we have come up with Vision 2030 to move this economy forward. It is achievable; we must move together, empower the civil society and allow the media to exercise its freedom. The Aga Khan, 50 years ago, had a vision. The NMG has been with us as we carry out fundamental reforms in this country. I am confident that we will arrive.

 

Kagame: We should move away from rhetoric to doing things that give results because we can have visions that remain visions. I think today we need to move to practical realities. We have had our own Vision 2020, where Rwanda should become a middle income country. As long as we don’t lay out the road map we will stay where we are.

 

 - March 21, 2010 by

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Source: www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/-/689844/883424/-/n7sou5/-/index.html ( accessed on 22.03.10)