Abstracts

Africa’s Economic Growth and Development Dilemma:  Dysfunctional Leadership Oluwole Owoye, Ph.D.* and Olugbenga A. Onafowora, Ph.D.** 

This paper examines the impact of leadership on economic growth and development in all African countries. The historical records of leadership changes in African countries since independence show a dichotomous pattern.  In 23 countries, the changes in leadership occurred more frequently, which indicated a “scramble” for leadership. In 30 countries, the changes in leadership were infrequent, which fit the “strongman-sit-tight” leadership syndrome.  Based on the historical data of leadership changes, we construct the ideal leadership bounds for each country and compute the indices of dysfunctional leadership. We find that the index is positive in countries with more frequent leadership changes and negative in countries with infrequent leadership changes. More importantly, our empirical evidence which shows that both groups of countries have poor economic growth performance supports our contention that dysfunctional leadership is the fundamental cause of Africa’s economic growth and development dilemma over the past five decades.1        *Oluwole Owoye, Ph.D., Professor of Economics Department of Social Sciences/Economics Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT 

 **Olugbenga A. Onafowora, Ph.D. Professor of Economics, Department of Economics Susquehanna University Selinsgrove, PA 17870 

The lack of Access to Quality Healthcare Delivery in Nigeria:  Its Implications for the Nigerian Citizens  Tonyesima Furro, Ph. D* 

This study examines the lack of access to quality healthcare delivery for the broad majority of Nigerians using Primary Healthcare Centers (PHC) in Rivers State as a case study. The paper argues that corruption and mismanagement are the linchpins for the lack of access and the provision of quality healthcare delivery for the citizens of Nigeria.  In spite of the nation’s abundant resources and financial solvency due largely to oil revenues, there is very little awareness by successive leaderships both military and civilian rule of the need to confront the pressing problem of healthcare.  As a consequence, today, a child born in Nigeria lives to be only 44 years old, which is 3.3 years less than a child born in the United States at the beginning of 20th century before any breakthrough in drugs to prolong life and other advances made in medical science and technology.  Most of the illnesses of the vast majority of citizens are not diagnosed early during treatable phase due to the lack of access to quality healthcare.  The primary method employed in this study is secondary source along with in-depth personal interviews using a purposeful sampling process. The study findings identified five broad areas as the reasons for the lack of access coupled with poor service delivery in a public healthcare system, namely: (a) poor funding; (b) lack of equipment: (c) personnel;  (d) absence of health promoting public education; and (e) lack of awareness and access to available services.  The study major implications are the fact that owing to poor healthcare funding, the huge economy burden of healthcare expenditure rests on the shoulders of individuals particularly, in a society where a sizeable number of citizens are abjectly poor.  This state of affairs results in needless untimely deaths of untold number of peoples who cannot access healthcare services

Tonyesima Furro, Ph. D. is Associate Professor of Social Work, Department of Social Work, Albany State University, Albany, GA

Methodological Analysis of the Guinea Bissau Nationalist Movement 1963-1974: Amilcar Cabral-Marxist or Pragmatist Revolutionary? Aliou Ly*

 On 24 September 1973, the former Portuguese colony of West Africa, Guinea Bissau, under the leadership of Amilcar Cabral and the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands), declared its independence after fighting a national liberation war against their Portuguese colonialists. This was the first and the only war for independence in West Africa, with the complete defeat of a European colonial army. During and after the Guinea Bissau Liberation war; 1963-1974, many social scientists, particularly those using the Marxist framework analyzed this African nationalist struggle as a successful Marxist revolution in West Africa. However, representing the fight in this manner, presents at least three problems. First, it denies the African originality of Amilcar Cabral and his followers. Second, it removes or ignores the voices of local individuals and varied “non-Marxist participants’’. Finally, it creates a new kind of colonization of the same territory, one that is intellectual, rather than physical. I argue some of the reasons to resist the Marxist calling are Amilcar Cabral never called himself a Marxist and was known to have a perspective of “whatever formula works”. By painting the Guinea Bissau national war as Marxist, these scholars present the struggle as part of a western evolution, rather than an African event; thus, erasing at the same time the voices of local, non-Marxist participants, such as women and youth.

 * Aliou Ly is Assistant Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University,  Murfreesboro, TN, USA, 37132