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Abstract
According to the International Monetary Fund’s Millennium Development Goals Reports, Sub- Saharan Africa lags behind other regions on development indicators (IMF, 2011) because the region still faces many challenges (United Nations, 2011). Such challenges include but are not limited to: weak infrastructure, violent conflicts and internecine wars, heavy debt burden, declining investments, capital flight, leadership crisis, etc. (Okereke, 2009). The following is an exploratory study of the performances of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Congo since independence along with sporadic references to other countries in the region compared to countries in other parts of the world in an effort to shade more light as to why the region continues to lag behind. Paper reveals that people who seek public and political offices in the region do so mainly because of economic enrichment opportunities that accompany such offices; holders of public and political offices in the region are mostly interested in what they and their supporters can steal while in office in the short run. The paper concludes that the greatest impediment to social and economic development in the region is absence of good governance by committed leaders and suggests that people who hold public and political offices in the region should be held accountable for their actions.