The Role of Education in Fostering Social Justice for Good Governance in African
Choobe Maambo
- INTRODUCTION
Good governance is a key pathway to a nation’s socio-economic development and its people’s self-actualization. For any country and its people to realize its full potential, a system of good governance; devoid of oppression and intimidation must be pursued. This is because good governance is a recipe, and it provides a platform upon which a nation and its people can exert their democratic rights freely and without fear. Therefore, good governance is not merely outlined principles or good ideologies, nor is it even about carefully crafted laws. Instead, good governance is the ability of a nation and its people acting as a collective to ensure that human rights are upheld; the rule of law is respected; leaders and public institutions are held accountable; public participation is promoted; the voiceless and weak are defended; corruption is fought; coexistence, tolerance, equality, and transparency are admired; social justice is pursued; and the collective good is the end game. The ultimate goal of good governance is the wellbeing of the human person: his or her happiness and self-fulfillment in a political community.
Reflecting on governance in Africa, primarily through the spectrum of what we described above, as the concept of good governance, one is left with a lot of big questions related to pervasive corruption, violation of human rights, intolerance of divergence view, dictatorial tendencies, disregarding of the rule of law, suppression of freedom of association, violence, injustices, poverty, etc. In short, a short synopsis of good governance in Africa will reveal that good governance is an endangered species. However, we must begin this conversation by pointing out the fact that for the past decade or so, Africa has shown moderate improvement in some key areas of good governance. According to the 2018 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, “governance on our continent, on average, is slowly improving. Approximately three out of four African citizens live in a country where governance has improved over the last ten years.”[1] We give credit to this finding, but we believe that the pace at which good governance is progressing is very slow. The report acknowledges this fact that “key governance areas are not progressing fast enough to keep up with rising demands, and more specifically to answer the growing expectations of Africa’s youth.”[2]
It is our conviction that governance in African has not performed well enough to the satisfaction of the majority Africans. In as much as there is a slight improvement in some key governance areas, there is still a lot more that needs to be done to address good governance. We agree with a common saying that “Rome was not built in a day.” But, about fifty years down the line of independence, one would expect to see at least great signs of massive progress towards achieving good governance. But! Alas, the continent is still at large, grappling with issues of governance. The continent is failing to produce quality and right leadership that can drive this continent towards sustainable development. To this end, we want to argue in this study that the current political and socio-economic turbulences faced by Africa are primarily as a result of bad governance coupled with bad leadership. We argue that for Africa to enjoy her endowed abundant resources, both natural and human, we need to embrace good governance. Not until we settle for good governance, the socio-economic benefits and lucrative enjoyed by a few elite Africans will not be disseminated equally to all citizens. Good governance is key to many problems that Africa is facing. We agree with Professor Eddy Maloka’s analysis of the need for good governance on our continent. He says:
It’s clearly that good governance is the solution to the problems that we have on our continent. Peace and security challenges are largely the manifestation of governance challenges, such as how we manage our elections. Even issues relating to terrorism, management of diversity, development, and others are all about governance. Good governance in Africa is an enabler; there is a bottleneck if it’s not there. So, governance is key! Governance is the route for Africa to claim the century.[3]
This paper builds on this claim that for Africa to prosper and fully realize her full potential, we need to work on governance issues. On top of that, we need a normative and transformative leadership that will stir and establish good governance on the continent. The question before us is, how do we nurture good governance and a normative and transformative leadership? We propose the way of social justice through education. We believe in the effectiveness of education and social justice in transforming the hearts of people. The more people are aware of social justice, the more they are likely to become social justice responsive and conscious.
[1] Mo Ibrahim Foundation. 2018 Ibrahim Index of African Governance Report. Accessed October 19, 2019, http://s.mo.ibrahim.foundation/u/2018/11/27173840/2018-Index-Report.pdf?_ga=2.91277018.1989544098.1548941645-1329949972.1548941645
[2] Ibid.
[3] Eddy Maloka, “Good Governance is the Solution to African Countries,” Africa Renewal, August – November 2018, https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/august-november-2018/good-governance-solution-africa%E2%80%99s-problems