African leaders have led the continent backwards – Prof. Ayittey

Ghanaian Economist, Professor George Ayittey, has shared his optimism in the young African saying “the new and young Africans coming up” are the ones who can take the continent back and solve its problems “one village at a time”.

He made this intimation after he expressed his frustration in his generation which includes the current African leaders who he said have failed the continent.

According to him, the current African leaders who he described as ‘cheaters’, have succumbed to western demands and the demands of donors to mislead and drive the continent in a hole.

He told the BBC in an interview that there ought to be a paradigm shift in Africa’s development process.

“The reason why things went so wrong is that after independence we set up two defective systems. First is the political system which is an imitation of the one party state socialist system borrowed from the east.”

The second defective system he says “is the economic ‘statesism’, an economic module dominated by the state - a peculiar form of Swiss bank socialism that allows the head of state and his cohorts in ministries to break and plunder Africa’s treasury for deposits in Switzerland”.

These systems although have evolved according to Prof. Ayittey are an epitome of faulty foundations.

Professor Ayittey added that Africa’s foreign donor partners have, also on several occasions, misdirected their investment in Africa therefore propounding the woes of the continent.

He challenged the upcoming generation to take up the task of growing the African.