African leaders have elected Robert Mugabe as chairman of the African Union (AU). His election was received with mixed reactions; some hailed it as the right decision, while others called it a step backward for Africa.

A few years ago Mugabe, who is the first president of independent Zimbabwe, decided that almost half of Zimbabwe’s farmland, which was owned by less than five thousand white settlers, be redistributed among the black majority. The policy was well received by many African nationalists across Africa. In a sense, the policy itself was good; however, the strategy was either not there or poorly executed.

Many new black farmers, with their newly given farmland, lacked adequate knowledge in modern farming. There was no training provided by Mugabe’s government to ensure the new farmers continued to produce the same amount of food as the former white farmers.

Initially the black farmers failed to produce enough food for Zimbabweans, consequentially; the market was hit by food shortages. The West, especially the UK, which still has more interest in its former colony, was angered by Mugabe’s actions. Western countries imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe and barred Mugabe from entering the West, which is still effective today.

The fallout between Mugabe and the West resulted in a catastrophic economic meltdown. Zimbabwe suffered hyperinflation, the Zimbabwean dollar became useless, and eventually they had to throw it away and use the US dollar instead. Subsequently, Zimbabwe became an own-currency-less economy. Despite the country’s disastrous economic consequences, resulting from his fallout with the West over his controversial land reforms and lack of democracy, Mugabe stood firm and continued with his rhetoric against the West.

Mugabe is an African nationalist. He is one of the few ailing elderly leaders left of his era. He has seen it all and the memories of colonialism harden him. Mugabe believes that Africa needs more than just token independence. He believes that economic independence is yet to be realised by Africans. He echoed this in his AU chairmanship acceptance speech in which he said: “African resources should belong to Africa and to no one else, except to those we invite as friends. Friends we shall have, yes, but imperialists and colonialists no more.” This is why many Africans, especially the naïve youth, applaud him as a “hero”.

As Africans, we need to ask ourselves this question: Do we need a leader who can fight the West and isolate African states from globalisation or do we need a leader who can bravely and expertly fight poverty and corruption?

Mugabe’s anti-Western rhetoric is outmoded and harmful to African economies. Put simply, Africa needs the West far, far more than the West needs Africa. Africa needs more global integration; globalisation can facilitate the flow of trade between African nations and beyond and provide us with channels in which Western countries can share their advanced ways of producing products and the technological know-how with us.

Mugabe’s assertions that, “African resources should belong to Africa and to no one else, except to those we invite as friends,” is a dreadful business philosophy. Yes, Africa is super rich with natural resources; however, we don’t have the means to extract these resources ourselves. Meanwhile, developed countries need raw materials to fuel their economic growth. They have the machinery and technological know-how to extract these resources. With their industrial might, developed nations transform these raw materials into finished products and sell them back to us at a higher cost.

The disparity is there for all to see; nevertheless, we need cash to build our infrastructure, hence we have no choice but to continue exporting our vast natural resources/raw materials to developed nations, as we Africans have no capacity to transform these raw materials into finished goods. In this cycle, there is no real growth in the economies of Africa; in fact, our economies are either static or declining.

The above issues are what really need solving by an organisation like the AU. To solve these issues, the head of the AU must be an active thinker and expert negotiator. Such a leader should also be free to travel to every country in the world as he is representing an entire continent. Is Mugabe that type of a leader? Hardly.

Another contributing factor to the stagnation of African economies is agricultural trade imbalance. As Africans, we lack the industrial edge that the developed world has, thus we can only modestly compete in the agricultural sector. Therefore, the head of the AU should be someone who can initiate a conversation with the West and all developed nations who heavily subsidise their agricultural businesses.

As part of the international community, Africa can argue that developed economies should stop subsidising their agricultural businesses or at least reduced it from the current schemes. Trade liberalisation is supposed to make the economies of the nations that opened up to globalisation more competitive, thus reducing the inequality within them. Free trade can also create more jobs in agriculture and manufacturing, which could raise the income of African countries.

In the developed world subsidising the agricultural sector makes agricultural products, especially food items, more affordable, helping reduce prices in favour of consumers. Inversely, the unsubsidised African agricultural businesses can no longer hold on to the only area where they have a comparative advantage. The result is a detrimental loss of jobs in African nations, which can only increase the level of poverty. Unsubsidised African farmers will find it hard to compete on the global market. This means that poverty reduction in African nations has been and continues to be negatively impacted by this very idea.

Is Mugabe the type of the leader who can engage the West to reduce their agricultural subsidies, encourage his African counterparts to start subsidising their own agricultural businesses and achieve food security and create more jobs in Africa? Hardly.

* Agok Takpiny is a concerned African who lives in Melbourne, Australia. He has a bachelor's degree in Commerce, specialising in accounting and international trade.

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