An opinion piece written by Bank of Botswana Governor Linah Moholho and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo on African transformation. In a well thoughout and articiculated opinion piece (see Page 5) they encounter the demands that a new Africa places on its leadership. The North African uprisings were not an aberration at all, in fact the 'material conditions' as Marxists would call them, for the so-called Arab Spirng were there for all to see.
Those who had ears and eyes open could see that sooner rather than later something would have to give. The level of frustration at the autocratic of North African leadership leading up to the uprisings simply could not be kept in check any longer. A new generation of North Africans - perhaps not even born during the liberation movement wanted answers to their immediate problems of unemployment, hunger and dehumanising social conditions. In a way the North African uprisings were a local extension to the political, social and economic status quo at the time. Mohohlo and Obasanjo warn the leaders of the rest of Africa - outside of the Northern region to ponder these unassailable truths of the Arab Spring. They advise that opportunities have availed themselves for a new African leadership to rise to the occasion and provide incisive leadership. They also warn about the potential implications of a failure on this front. "If we can raise the bar and achieve new heights of exemplary leadership, there is no end to the immense opportunities to transform our beloved continent" they state. On page 1 we also publish an article on the findings of a group of Botswana foremost thinkers on the state of our democracy.
