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This morning for me was a study in how countries, like individuals, are called to be resilient. I walked and drove through Addis Ababa and kept shaking my head in bewilderment, wondering how a country that was on the brink of starvation in 1984 (sparking the enduring “We Are The World” superstar charity recording) can have such a rapid change of fortunes. Today, Ethiopia has the fastest growing economy on the continent (averaging at 10% GDP growth over the last 10 years, versus 5% for the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa) and is pushing a narrative of breakneck development with infrastructure projects that make the rest of us look like circus clowns out on the town, running for exercise. To put it in proper context, like the rest of us, Ethiopia has problems: the worst forex deficit in recent times, red tape and regulation that pretty much stifles business, and a looming famine not seen in the last 30 years, only this time they have USD 200 Million set aside. To the bafflement of all and sundry, with not a single international bank, and defying “advise” from the usual suspects (where else but at the Bretton Woods institutions), the will-to-do and sheer tenacity of the powers that be in this town are palpable. Major roads are commissioned and built in staggering lead times. And am not talking about the “patch-me-up-quick” type roads that we have been sold, and in equal measure bought into – hook, line and sinker. It’s the kind like the Thika Superhighway in Kenya and remotely, the Northern By-Pass in Kampala; whenever it will get completed. The highway (and accompanying road furniture) in the picture was constructed in a record 3 months. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River, once completed, with a generation capacity of 6000MW, will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa, as well as the 11th largest in the world. When talk of building the Light Rail started circulating, cynics raised their eyebrows, scorners sneered and mockers jeered. And that included Addis’ own townspeople. Talk about doubters! But when the first 34-Kilometer Tramway, with a daily capacity to carry 60,000 passengers was inaugurated last September, they swallowed hard. Really hard.

Visionary leadership that delivers on such results is uncommon in Africa. That, notwithstanding that ours is the richest continent, even after many centuries of pillage and the continuing hemorrhage of our resources by marauding bands of suited robbers who have turned our leaders, content in their hedged palaces, into run-of-the-mill collaborators against their own people.

Africa’s #1 problem is Leadership. Sound familiar?! We didn’t even need aid in the first place; almost 2 Trillion US Dollars has left Africa illicitly in the last 50+ years, starting from the time most African nations were unshackled from the bonds of colonialism. This is far more than the external aid the continent received in the same period, and almost 5 times its current external debt. Part of the problem that has made Somalia ungovernable, for example, is the continued illegal fishing by foreign cartels on it’s territorial waters. And the cost to Somalia: 1 Billion US Dollars every year! Little wonder the pirates of Puntland feel justified going about “correcting” this injustice “Robin Hood” style. For as long as we have leaders who are looking out for themselves and their cronies, income distribution will only get more skewed, threatening not only economic but political instability, as President Obama (on his recent African tour) rightly argued. But we hold on to hope; we are a resilient people!

Consider this also:

Besides being the wealthiest continent on earth in terms of natural resources, Africa has 1/4 of the world’s arable land but contributes only 10% to global agricultural output.

The bigger picture doesn’t look any glossier; Africa imported 83% of its food in 2013 despite more than 1/2 of it’s population being farmers.

Africa’s share of world trade today stands at a paltry 1.17%. Now you understand why talk of privatizing entire countries makes sense on paper!

It’s about time we calibrated. We need new momentum.

So I dropped by the African Union Headquarters and asked if I could pray. Until our mindsets are altered significantly, Africans will always be a superstitious lot. I always know that even the tough-as-nails brother will never say no to a request in the direction of the sacred! A couple of the folks sheepishly closed their eyes and even said a resounding “Amen” when I raised my head.

I prayed that God would rid Africa of un-leaders and bestow on us statesman who will look beyond their bank balances and the next election; leaders who are not about weaving and spurning petty webs around themselves and their cronies, and personalizing entire nations. I asked that our eyes would be opened to see that, far from the donor aid we have come to accept as a way of life, there are acres of diamonds in our backyards that God would have us mine to turn the tide of destruction, exploitation and despondency that we have gotten so used to.

I prayed for the budding entrepreneurs across the continent who constitute the next engine of growth for Africa; I prayed that God would cause us to rise beyond the prevalent vices of Mediocrity, “Arrivism,” playing it safe and not speaking up when we have been given the soapbox to do just that, and to be delivered from thinking life begins and ends in the bounds of our air-conditioned cars and club fraternities. I prayed that God’s will shall be done, and His kingdom come, and that Africa would become a beacon of hope and light in our time. Oh, and for Magufuli! That he would finish strong. The end of the matter is always better than the beginning. The Book affirms that.