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NDUNG�U GATHINJI, CHAIRMAN OF THE NAIROBI STOCK African Leadership is bankrupt Posted Thu, 03 Mar 2005
Africa is a continent that generates differing emotions,
with its major contradictions and potential.
But the corporate sector has come to be bandied
together with those who would prefer the continent
remains a prisoner of itself. Recognition has finally dawned that
the critical ingredient missing from the African development
mix is leadership. And some of their views are as radical as they
come.
Ndung�u Gathinji, the chairman of the Nairobi Stock
Exchange, is a trained lawyer and accountant. He has been in
both the public and private sectors for over 26 years. His quali-
fied audit opinion of African Leadership comes with several
reservations. �I fear that much of African leadership currently
is steeped in the colonial leadership mode,� he says. He notes
that whereas it was important that Africa liberated itself from
colonialism, the continent faced a new set of issues immediately
thereafter, the major one being the need to craft a
nation.
�This is where Africa has failed. I cannot help thinking that
the reasons for this is because the leadership required to bring
about political independence is not necessarily the leadership
required to bring about nation building,� he says. African leaders,
he says, must recognise what kind of leaders they are and
the kind of leadership required at various times.
He is emphatic that to turn Africa around, it will take a �different
set of leaders.�
At 58, Mr Gathinji is a man who does not offer his opinions
lightly. But, having spent a considerable part of his life in boardrooms
in the world of high finance, where the everyday concerns
of ordinary Africans scarcely permeate, has hardly tempered his
strongly held views.
He has a good grasp of the many issues confronting the continent
and believes the solutions are internal. �Only Africans can
save Africa,� he states. He says that the strategy for subjugating
Africa by outsiders
recognises the centrality of the issue of leadership
in resolving the continent�s problems, and consequently
focuses on involvement with the process of choosing future
leaders. �Whether you are talking about Parliament or corporate
boardrooms, the interference is widespread and glaring,� he
declares.
To turn the continent round will require that everybody effectively
plays their role at every level to bring about the desired
changes, says Mr Gathinji. The sum total of such changes must
be to raise the dignity of the African. Mr Gathinji says that even
in the failed African states, there is hope, but only if they�re willing
to pay the price of realising that hope.
He emphasises, however, that Africa�s problems largely
emanate from its potential. It is consequently desired by many
people and can be exploited for many years before the effect
becomes intolerable. It is this potential that guarantees Africa�s
future emergence, assuming it is not left to
only benefit others.
He sees hope in the current initiatives like New Partnership
for African Development (NEPAD). He cautions however, that
to the extent that they depend on other people�s goodwill, their
chances of success will be limited.
Mr Gathinji is no stranger to leadership. He studied law at the
University of Nairobi, but it was in accountancy that he pursued
a career. He retired as vice-chairman of Ernst and Young Africa
in 1997. He is also the chairman of Francis Drummond and
Company Limited, Kenya�s oldest stock brokerage firm. He also
serves as chief executive of the Eastern, Central and Southern
Africa Federation of Accountants, an organisation he helped
found in 1989.
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