Africa is cursed with the Big Man sYndrome. We elect leaders who end up being the BIG MAN. These are people who will go to any length to buy their way into leadership. First, they make sure that they make us poor by stealing all the property around us. Then the make sure they are elected to positions of leadership to protect what they have stolen from us

They will hire thugs to kill and maim. They will hire thugs who will actually steal votes and even ballot boxes just to ensure that they are voted in. Being poor, we have no option but to accept the handouts they give us so that we can kill each other and ensure that they are in office. Then they will continue to steal some more.

Truth be said, we hate honest people. In fact, honest people cannot be elected in Africa. They would stand in the way of the crooks. In any case, honest people are poor and will not be able to bribe voters, and if you cannot bribe a viter, he/she will not vote for you.

Nijacutie, that is exactly what I am saying. We have a big problem in Africa, and it has a lot to do with leadership. The more you steal, the more you are respected. If you hold a high position, and reture a poor man, everyone will laugh at you. So you must steal because that is what everybody expects us to do.

It is a problem that I feel it is engraved in us. Only time will tell if we ever see beyond this type of "syndrome".

naijacutee:

True to the power 1 million. It's not just our leaders - the problem is with all of us. Everybody wants to work in oil companies and in banks. Nobody wants to work on the farm - we see it as "backwardness". The truth is that if any of us with these "bigman on smaller levels" is selected to be president, I can guarantee you that we will do the same or even worse than the people there now.

True.

I once told my people back home that I spend Bleep amount on Bicycle to ride, and they thing it is a bad thing because I drive. So switching to bicycle is considered going back. The fact of the matter is that I cannot drive into the city everyday for work, and there is no parking space. Also all the charges one have to pay here and there. It makes sense therefore to ride a bicycle, but my people do not see this.

All human societies are faced with the issue of leadership, it has stirred up some of the biggest conflicts with generational impacts, the French revolution. That is where democracy comes in. The people, that is those not involved in actual governance and to whom the benefits accrue to; have the power to pick who how leaders will be.

In Africa, this power is hijacked by the elite, the privileged few with the means to secure power; aided by poverty, illiteracy and to so extent religion. the first for democracy, is often a violent step of snatching back power. It is right taken, not one given. One cannot go to the voting centre and not expect rigging, someone has something on line, maybe his fortune. We fail to realize that the power to do and undo is the greater power.

As in all developed democratic countries, the people often have this potential to violently guard their rights and that is what Africa is missing. I feel we have to cultivate these attitudes, before any thing can change for better.

We are all accountable for this situation of the Big man syndrome in Africa. The Government is the innocent mirror of the nation. The quality of government and its leaders, is simply a reflection of the collective consciousness of all the people in Africa. In some instances, leaders who came to power as the champions of anti-corruption have themselves been charged with being involved with levels of corruption even more serious than those of their predecessors. If the collective consciousness in Africa is disintegrated and negative, and people are not behaving in accord with Natural Law, then problems and corruption will be an unavoidable phenomenon of governments. If, on the other hand, the collective consciousness in Africa is positive, integrated, and coherent, then governments will not be influenced by any negativity. If the people in Africa wish to be protected from corruption in governments, then they must create an integrated collective consciousness. Positivity and harmony should be so strong and dense in national consciousness that negative influences cannot penetrate it.

At the end of it all, the problem lies with the voters. We put these people in place