The Chia Report

Holding Parents Accountable: A New Paradigm for African Development?

Innocent Chia

It is déjà vu all over again in Africa: A public official is appointed or promoted today and the public knows that it is just a matter of time before their rags become riches. As a matter of fact, the public has become so cynical of this fact; it is not only an expectation, it is an imperative. Family members, including the spouse and kids, feel the moment and take appropriate steps to adapt to the nouveau riche lifestyle of decadence and opulence. Close and distant relatives, friends and foe, community and village know that salvation has come to one of theirs.

The Law of "Diminishing Returns" and African Leadership

By Innocent Chia

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, former President of South Africa and its first to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections, may have been the one leader that the world and his people would have readily forgiven if he had chosen the transgression of holding on to power. After all, it was before the eyes of the world that the anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African NationalCongress (ANC) served 27 years of his life sentence in prison, much of it in a cell in Robben Island, for sabotage after he went underground and began the ANC's armed struggle. But after five years of presidency, 1994 to 1999, the cultural icon of freedom and equality knew he had given enough of himself and passed the relay baton for someone else (Thabo Mbeki) with a fresh set of eyes to either change or continue with the same trajectory.