Friday, July 6, 2012

ONLY IN AFRICA: ACADEMIC TITLES VS. GOOD LEADERSHIP.


ONLY IN AFRICA: ACADEMIC TITLES VS. GOOD LEADERSHIP.
Recently, Kenyan members of parliament passed a bill that will see any candidate vying for the top office in the coming general election ­ (senator, governor, mp, president) hold a mandatory degree. Parliamentary candidates will be required by law to hold a degree for them to vie.
But do academic titles really guarantee good leadership? Comrade Dr. Robert Mugabe, who has misruled Zimbabwe for 30 odd years, has a bunch of real degrees. Infact, he is the most learned and decorated (in terms of academic degrees) president in Africa with 7 degrees to his name.
That to say the least hasn’t stopped him from messing about with Zimbabwe so bad that his citizens have been reduced to boiling leaves for food.
The late Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika, an economist so accomplished that World Bank hired him, did not let his PhD in Economics stop him from destroying Malawi’s economy to the point of penury.
Yet Africa’s most effective president, ironically, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, holds a mere diploma- by distance education! But see where Rwanda is today in terms of leadership, economic development, need I say more?

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