African leaders using COVID-19 to cover up inefficiencies – Adib Saani

Foreign Policy and Security Analyst, Adib Saani says African leaders are just using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to not uphold their duties to the citizenry.

To him, Western Europe and America have been hardest hit by the pandemic globally but they are doing better than all African countries which validates his assertion.

“The thing is I don’t understand the mantra that COVID-19 has affected economies being used by African leaders. They are just using this excuse of COVID-19 to cover up their inefficiencies. Look at Western Europe and America, COVID-19 has hit them harder than other countries and more than Africa. It hit them very hard yet their gov’t’s stood on their feet and supported the citizens to pull through.”

In as much as Adib Saani is concerned about the ramification of COVID-19 he believes it is not enough to use it as a justification for the suffering and economic hardships going on in Africa.

He believes current economic hardships in Africa has to do more with corruption, misappropriation of resources, greed, abuse of power and authority. “And that is what we are suffering.”

The Security Analysts shares in the view of the late Kofi Annan who said, if African countries are able to take the right taxes, especially from foreign business owners and some local businesses, “then there will be no need to take a cedi or dollar from the IMF.”

Adib Saani attributed suffering of the Guinean people as the major reason behind their coup and believes the continent is likely to suffer more coups. “Of course there is the likelihood of more coups on the continent. This is because the constitutional regimes of most countries make them susceptible to coups.”

According to him, Ghana is the exception in these possible scenarios as the executive have a lot of power and that ensures stability.

To him, these coups can be avoided if African governments start listening to its people.