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Stepping stones, quagmires and capacity

Published on Apr 19 2014 // Around Africa, Business, Featured, News, Special Reports

indeksThe most powerful man in Africa’s second-richest country is establishing new depths of ineptitude. How he expects to be taken seriously at the great international summits of 2014 is the stuff of bemused speculation.

Faced with desertions from his party at the senate and state governor level, along with an ‘Islamist’ insurrection that is partly fanned by non-Islamist agendas – as party and other political barons use atrocious proxies to jostle for position and power – President Goodluck Jonathan responded to the world’s concern by suspending Nigeria’s internationally respected and celebrated central bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, for whistle-blowing on $20bn of missing oil revenue in February.

Sanusi asked the key questions rather than pointing fingers, but the sums involved were massive. Jonathan, in suspending Sanusi – probably unconstitutionally – did not even try to counter the claims or to assure his remaining constituency that he was tackling the problem of corruption.

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The Sanusi case demonstrates that the problem in Africa is not one of capacity. There is an entire industry, emanating from donor countries, of ‘capacity building.’ The capacity is there. Governor Sanusi could govern the Bank of England just as well as Canada’s Mark Carney, who is currently doing the job.

The problem in Africa is a political refusal to deploy that capacity or to sack it when it embarrasses the political class. In Jonathan’s case, there is also the need to anchor such support as he can still command. He needs the security sector and the oligarchs to stay onside.

Read the original article on Theafricareport.com : Stepping stones, quagmires and capacity | North Africa

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