SCOLDING Africa to look beyond colonialism, the United Nations Secretary-General yesterday laid out a manifesto for democratisation and economic reform on the troubled continent.
Kofi Annan, the first black African to head the world organisation, presented the report on Africa's ills requested by the UN Security Council as part of the effort by the United States to revamp international policy towards the continent.
In his prescriptions, Mr Annan, an American-educated Ghanaian, implicitly aligned himself with the new generation of African leaders, led by President Museveni of Uganda, who argue that Africa must stop blaming its colonial past and solve its own problems.
"Today more than ever, Africa must look at itself," he wrote. "The nature of political power in many African states, together with the real and perceived consequences of capturing and maintaining power, is a key source of conflict across the continent.
"It is frequently the case that political victory assumes a winner-takes-all form with respect to wealth and resources, patronage, and the prestige and prerogatives of office," he said.
"Where there is insufficient accountability of leaders, lack of transparency in regimes, inadequate checks and balances, non-adherence to the rule of law, absence of peaceful means to change or replace leadership, or lack of respect for human rights, political control becomes excessively important, and the stakes become dangerously high," the UN chief said.
Mr Annan's recommendations will no doubt please American policymakers seeking to follow up President Clinton's recent tour of the continent with a new drive to promote democracy and free markets in Africa.
In what is likely to be one of his most controversial proposals, the UN chief accused many African states of being too ready to resort to military force, and called on them to cap their military spending at 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product and to commit themselves to zero growth in their defence budgets for ten years.
He also urged African countries to abandon the command economy and embrace economic liberalisation. The Secretary-General counselled them "without delay" to deregulate their economies and to privatise state-owned industries and to seek integration with the world economy, relying on the private sector as the engine of growth.
"Despite the broad consensus on how development and economic growth should be pursued, in Africa it has been difficult to achieve rapid progress, partly because of the failed policies pursued in the past by many African countries and the difficult international economic environment."
Mr Annan emphasised the need for "good governance" - a new United Nations buzz-word - and said that the continent's governments should stamp out corruption and show respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
UN officials underlined the uncharacteristic candour of the report, but it still failed to single out for criticism particular African countries, such as the military rulers of Nigeria.
Mr Annan emphasised that the rest of the world must also do its part to revive the struggling continent by reducing its foreign debt, restructuring development aid and allowing market access for African goods.
He proposed that the Security Council should hold further ministerial sessions on Africa every six months, culminating in a heads-of-state summit meeting in five years' time.
