What Ghana, Liberia and other Poor African Countries can Learn From Britain’s Political Structure
- Alex Jones
- Nov 1, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 27, 2022
by Chu-Chu (Alex) Jones
Houston, TX - Britain’s dire political debacle and recent economic snags have forced it to elect an young and remarkable prime minister, Rishi Sunak, 41, the Kingdom’s third Prime Minister in 9 months: “The challenges facing U.K.'s this year are enormous, Therefore, Sunak must try to shore up an economy sliding toward recession and reeling after a disastrous experiment in libertarian economics, while also attempting to unite a demoralized and divided party that trails far behind the opposition in opinion polls.” New Tribute
While Sunak may not avert the ensuing global recession, or more specifically, dodge UK’s eminent financial slowdown-and to be cleared, not even the Great William Buffet would be able to do that for Great Britain, and he made even be replaced as prime minister in the not too distant future like those before him, what we can learn from his selection is that the “White Man” is more capable of seeing and identifying his nation’s inadequacies and at least choosing the most suitable candidate to resolve it, even if that mains picking a “Brown Man” of a Hindu Faith. That is, economic survival trumps age, tradition, faith, culture, color, and other stereotypes.
Unfortunately, and shamefully, I can not say the same for my own Country, Liberia that is 175 years old but still acts like a toddler nation, like much of Africa.
Liberia is considering electing an old-aged, traditionist former Vice President Joseph Boakai, 78, as president in 2023 with little to no proven technology or financial skills or track record, and a naïve hope of him being able to rescue Liberia’s failing and declining economy that has relegated much of its people to living on less than $2 per day in the 21st century.
Liberia’s current president, George Weah, 56, and many of its popular candidates, Alex Cummings, 65; Taiwan Gongloe, 66, lack the requisite entrepreneurial and technological skills and have provided no sensible idea or proposal how they would help move over 2.5 million Liberians or 45% of its people out of extreme poverty if elected.
To understand the ramification, please oblige me to take you back to Ghana’s 2020 Presidential elections between the incumbent Nana Akufo Addo, 66, and former President John Mahama, 63, and its ramification which is now being felt by millions of unemployed and suffering Ghanaians today despite the high mineral and commodity prices the world has enjoyed of the last two year, and which Ghana possess in abundance.
Ghana, like most African countries enjoys something else in abundance, a technologically capable and vibrant youth population. Ghanaians in Ghana, and especially around the world have illustrious high tech, financial, engineering careers, some at major global fortune 500 companies that could be encourage to run as President, Members of Parliament and/or other ministerial positions that could have transformed Ghana into a thriving financial and technological nation by now-but instead, and due to the old political tradition and order of Ghana, like many African nations, are stuck with these old politicians that never seem to want to retire or leave the stage, even at age 65, the optimum retirement age. Meanwhile, the average age in many of these African countries is 19 years old. They have created a political hegemony that makes it impossible for any newcomer or better yet a young innovative person to lead their nations and bring the needed innovative changes and reforms.
For Africa to catch up with the world it needs its most agile, brilliant, and innovative young people serving at the highest order of government, and unfortunately, that is not happening anytime soon in Africa.
Often than not, these young people have little options of running their nations and bringing their ideas to bear, except for in the military, and when that happens, they get so frustrated sometime and topple the government in military coups as in the recent case of Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso. While unfortunate and tragic, this is one of the few ways a young vibrant person will actually come to leadership of his country in Africa.
It seems, in Africa’s backward political system, only the old, tired, and antiquated individuals, who should be advising and mentoring younger leaders are themselves being schooled and mentored on global technology, modern finance and geopolitics unlike much of the modern world including Finland’s leader Sanna Mirella Marin, 33; El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, 41; French's Emmanuel Macron, 44; New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, 37, to name a few.
Political parties in many of these countries seek younger candidates for leadership who are knowledgeable in modern business, technology, finance, etc. to head their parties, and eventually their nations in the 21st century. Britain has once again, after the successful leadership of Tony Blair and David Cameron, age 42 when they became prime minister of Britain has joined that club of nations with the youngest leaders with Rishi Sunak’s election of his party and nation; and now is leading the second most powerful economy in Europe, and some will argue in the world, and that is a good thing and the way forward.
About the Author:
Chu-Chu (Alex) Jones is the business and economic editor of Globe Afrique and African Action Network (2a RadioTV). He is the founder and CEO of GlobalAfrica.net and Alex Jones Investments.
He has worked as a finance and technology (FinTech) Analyst and consulted for leading International banks and global financial institutions, including JP Morgan, Bank of New York Mellon, and Citibank.
Alex is also a social and economic activist, 2023 Liberian Presidential Aspirant, and an independent derivative and equity trader and analyst. He lives in Houston, TX and Florida and enjoys tennis, golf, chess, reading, and writing Western Literature, Religion, and Global Economics History.
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