ABSTRACT
As noted earlier, the view of Africa as a “problem to be solved” is linked in part to the political challenges that confronted the continent in the first few decades after independence. The grounds for Afro-pessimism in the 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s, are legion. With issues like high levels of political violence, the absence of representative democracy, acrimonious inter-group relations, rigged elections and an enormous leadership deficit, among others, dominating its affairs, no reputation other than being a problem could have been justifiably allocated to the continent. Some of the world’s most brutal dictators, including Idi Amin of Uganda and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, also held sway on the continent, sometimes with the connivance of the then prevailing Cold War politics, and inflicted enormous hardship on their people. Furthermore, the Cold War period also experienced military incursions into politics, witnessing up to 50 successful military coups and several other alleged and unsuccessful ones. In short, at different stages, considerable manifestations of bad governance in Africa.
