Majority of African leaders are not thinkers – Dr. Nii Kotei Dzani

President of Groupe Ideal, Dr. Nii Kotei Dzani has said the current state of the African continent is testament of the fact that majority of its leaders fail to think and act effectively to facilitate the economic growth of their respective countries.

“Our governments keep on failing us. Today I had the opportunity to speak at AUCC and I said African leaders are not thinkers,” he said while addressing an audience at this year’s Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) Presidential Ball.

The President of Groupe Ideal who was honoured by CIMG group as a fellow member, during his acceptance speech noted that Africa was alarmingly behind with the rapid growth of the global economy and blamed the situation on majority of African leaders, saying they have failed the continent.

“Africa is behind with the new economic growth across the globe. And some of us are concerned that what we do in order to move our continent from poverty. Our governments keep on failing us. Today I had the opportunity to speak at AUCC and I said African leaders are not thinkers, “he said.

“I get thousands of calls asking why I say African leaders are not thinkers, but I did not say all African leaders are not thinkers. I said African leaders are not thinkers because majority of African Leaders are not thinkers, “he added.

He explained his claim, indicating that, leaders who syphon state funds for personal gains and leaders who hold on to power till they are forced out are examples of authorities in governance who don’t think about their nation’s growth.

“If African leaders are thinkers they will not steal our money and go and put it in Swiss accounts. And if African leaders are thinkers, they will not be in power until we use guns to remove them and in the process destroy state asserts,” he explained.

He noted, that with a continent full of vast natural resources enough to facilitate rapid growth, it is very odd that there is still poverty thriving in most parts of the continent.



He expressed great worry how some politicians raise hopes of citizens with ambitious promises just to win votes and forget they have a people to serve once in power, adding that the back and forth minority and majority in governance entertain only promotes economic stagnation.

“You look at our continent and the kind of resources we have as a continent we should not be experiencing this level of poverty but what do we do, what do we see? But what do we see? African leaders unfortunately take decisions that will make then win an election rather than improve the lives of the people and then those who find themselves at minority also oppose decisions of governments that will make the government win an election,” he noted.

Dr. Dzani questioned the integrity of most African leaders and wondered if they really wanted to see their nations develop. He urged stakeholders to be more concerned about working collectively to develop the continent and discouraged individualism of developmental projects.



“So ask yourselves that are these people honest with us, across the continent. It saddens me. We need to know where we are moving to and what we want to achieve, rather than everybody coming and deciding what they want to do. We cannot develop like that. Somebody has started a road and the person is not in power and then somebody comes and says I am not interested in that road,” he mentioned.