Institutional weakness is Africa’s trouble
Apr 26, 2005
SIR — Recently, Bob Geldof kicked up a political storm when he declared that President Yoweri Museveni’s time was up. Some of us supported him, or at least gave him the benefit of the doubt, while others questioned his knowledge and moral authority.
SIR — Recently, Bob Geldof kicked up a political storm when he declared that President Yoweri Museveni’s time was up. Some of us supported him, or at least gave him the benefit of the doubt, while others questioned his knowledge and moral authority.
Seezi Cheeye, for example, pointed to Geldof’s private life — his wife left him for another man — and wondered how the pop star who had failed to keep his wife could now presume to tell Ugandans how to govern themselves. I believe a person’s private life may influence a person’s public life and even signal whether they can be trusted or not.
However, I do not believe that personal morality or private life is necessarily indicative of who can make a good leader.
The prominent American ethicist, Reinhold Niebuhr spelt this out in a famous book Moral Man and Immoral Society (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960).
Morality that may apply in the personal sphere may not apply in the public realm. He had in mind Christian personal morality. The conduct of public life depends on putting in place structures for delivering certain intended outcomes.
Politics in Africa did not fail because the people are immoral but due to institutional weakness.
The Rev Amos Kasibante
Leicester, UK
Seezi Cheeye, for example, pointed to Geldof’s private life — his wife left him for another man — and wondered how the pop star who had failed to keep his wife could now presume to tell Ugandans how to govern themselves. I believe a person’s private life may influence a person’s public life and even signal whether they can be trusted or not.
However, I do not believe that personal morality or private life is necessarily indicative of who can make a good leader.
The prominent American ethicist, Reinhold Niebuhr spelt this out in a famous book Moral Man and Immoral Society (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960).
Morality that may apply in the personal sphere may not apply in the public realm. He had in mind Christian personal morality. The conduct of public life depends on putting in place structures for delivering certain intended outcomes.
Politics in Africa did not fail because the people are immoral but due to institutional weakness.
The Rev Amos Kasibante
Leicester, UK