only three. first is the issue of leadership. leadership is so important that no institution or country can prosper without effective leadership. effective leadership requires that leaders are prepared to serve others as opposed to being served by others ; leaders who put others ahead of their own agendas ; leaders who are not too concerned about self - promotion ; leaders who have the courage to take unpopular but correct decisions. what martin luther king ll said about leadership is revealing. he said “ the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy ”. in my view, the continent has had a number of leaders who have mismanaged their economies and therefore contributed to the african economies to be in bondage we find ourselves today. we have had leaders who were more interested in accumulating personal wealth at the expense of their citizens. we have had leaders who promoted divisive policies that more often than not led to political instability and civil wars. most of our african leaders, at that time, concentrated more on political leadership at the expense of economic leadership. it is gratifying, however, to note that this is changing. if you follow the agenda of the african union today, the african leaders are well aware that the promotion of economic development should be a priority. there are also encouraging signs that show that things are changing for the better. for example, over the past three years africa ’ s economic growth has averaged 4. 4 percent compared to 3. 5 percent in the 1990s. if the continent is able to sustain these growth rates at this level, we might see a difference in the high incidence of poverty on the continent. the second factor that in my view has contributed to the lack of economic development on the continent is the legacy of colonialism. most countries on the continent became independent in the 1960s and 1970s. the unfortunate thing is, however, that after the colonial powers departed, they continued to dominate the african economies. what is bad about this is not so much the fact that the departed colonial powers continued to be involved in the african economies, but rather the fact that they did so at the expense of the africans. the colonial powers continued to exploit the african raw materials to build their economies at the expense of the african economies. what is astonishing, though, is the fact that we allowed them free passage to do so, and we still do allow them to do so. to date we still continue to behave as if

we cannot manage our own economic affairs without the departed colonial powers ’ assistance. it is astonishing to know that many an african country will still prefer a european consultant to advice on economic matters. this is in spite of the fact that over the years, africa has spent enormous amounts of financial resources on education and training. unfortunately, we are still reluctant to practically demonstrate our skills. we still want to think that we are less experienced to be experts in economic matters. as a result, we continually believe that we need to build new capacities or we need assistance from the departed colonial powers. what we forget is that expertise comes with practice and if we fail to practice what we have learned, we will never become experts at anything. i am not advocating a position where africa should not have any economic ties with other continents. on the contrary, what i am advocating is economic ties with other continents that are mutually beneficial. for too long africans have been hoodwinked by non - africans where, in our desperation to gain their acceptance, we agreed to non - beneficial economic deals. the lesson we must have learned from these experiences should be that, as a general rule, no nation helps another nation unless it is in its self interest. it is therefore time that as africans we must start believing that we have the capabilities and the expertise to run our economic affairs to our benefit. the third factor i would like to mention briefly is that of culture and tradition. while i firmly believe that a nation without culture and tradition will be a lost nation, we should also recognize the fact that all cultures do evolve. a particular culture or tradition that was cultivated at a particular period of time may hinder our economic development if we were to continue to practice such a tradition without any adaptation. for example, i am told of an african tradition where when a man dies, all his cattle are slaughtered at the time of his burial. in most african countries, we still continue to practice communal land tenure system. these are some of the practices that have the potential to hold us back to achieve our full economic potential. what is then the way forward to emancipate africa economically? it can be done and all what we need to do is to re - focus our mind on what is important for our economic development and less on what is convenient. i believe that we can create the necessary momentum for our economic emancipation if we continue to address those issues that are important to africa ’ s economic development. following are some of the issues that we need