In the midst of so much African misery, as one dares to say along the diplomatic corridors and other spheres of great Western influence, for us Africans, there is still an Africa that makes us proud and gives us some hope. We still have hope, despite those common and cross-cutting problems that prevent the cradle-continent from leveraging itself, today as in the past, with most of its brains having to emigrate and ironically settle in the old metropolises – a betrayal of anti-colonial struggles of our ancestors, who will certainly have understood and forgiven.
*Paulo de Jesus
Our heroic ancestors "understood" (and therefore forgave), that, let us be clear, one of the reasons for the flight of so precious and rich African human capital to, above all, Western Europe and North America (United States and Canada) is because the recruitment and selection of staff for the civil service, for example, are still based on values that run counter to meritocracy, ethnicity and public transparency.
In other words, whether in the Democratic Congo or Brazzaville, Zimbabwe, Angola and/or other East or West African capitals, partisan “lambe-botismo” still reigns. And this makes it impossible for the “Public Administration” institution to be strong and credible, although we recognize the efforts to make it credible and active. However, the infestation of “yes-men”, “licensed” never to contradict the chief or point him to the true path, is one of the evils that we urgently need to combat.
On the other hand, the existence of sufficient legislation did not prevent the centralizing and bureaucratized culture from remaining evident, revealing attitudes that are expressed through formalism, through control of procedures and not results, contrary to the recommendations of the new public management.
In Western style, some “agencies” were created, with public-private partnerships, but they maintained the traditional control mechanisms, so the necessary administrative, financial and technical autonomy is almost nil.
From what you can see, there is no room for autonomous decision making by civil servants, directors and public managers. The decision, already prepared, comes from the top.
Likewise, the structure of its human resources does not allow public services to reach levels of development and performance demanded by the new economic, political and social realities.
It is notable that Public Administration in Africa, in general, is still heavily influenced by cultural, sociological, historical and political factors, and this hinders the pursuit of the degrees of efficiency, effectiveness, equity and ethnicity that most of the countries are endowed with. developed countries.
In addition to historical factors derived from post-colonization, today there is a shortage of infrastructure and highly qualified human resources, without prejudice to the existence of political regimes that are slow to democratize, which is a high-risk impediment.
Rich in natural resources capable of transforming Africa into the world's greatest economic power, the factors described above can no longer justify practices that contradict principles such as public service (in which officials are at the exclusive service of the community and citizens, always prevailing the interest over private or group interests), as well as those of legality, justice and impartiality, equality, proportionality, collaboration and good faith, integrity and competence and responsibility, under penalty of the desired development living devoid of these principles , which would mean in practice “delay” or “retreat”.
From a universally accepted point of view, it is almost impossible to impose the same level of demand in a country where corruption, in certain aspects, is culturally seen as a necessity, with the consequence of becoming a norm, problematic that the State (in) consciously, he also feels tied down, without the means to detach himself from it, resulting from a power that is still very poorly “interventionist”, tending to trample on practices of independence, equity, equality and autonomy.
In the almost similar contexts of most African States, some of these countries try to recognize and study an “African Public Administration” - they believe that the typical African phenomena and contextualization make a difference from the new public administration designed from/in the West. It would be an African Public Administration, without, however, closing itself to the western world, since, for them, the difficulty of moving from theory to practice is a dilemma that does not affect only developing countries, not least because several endogenous factors greatly influence that the designs of the new public administration are still a mirage in Africa.
In my point of view, this Africanist conception finds some support in what one of the renowned European scholars of the science of Public Administration, João Bilhim (2016), evokes: “Each country chooses what, at the moment, it is capable of doing successfully on reform”.
Hence, it makes sense that adaptability to contexts, especially political ones, has been incorporated and made a norm in public administration in developing countries, in this case, African countries.
For all these reasons, it is complex for us to make a forecast, even if imaginable, of what Public Administration could be in the cradle continent and its terms of comparability.
The issue goes beyond comparing different entities. Quoting Bilhim again, “public management reform is not just a matter of shuffling pieces of different shapes, like a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces have their own meanings, which vary from one country to another (or even from one sector to another)”.
In conclusion, if there is no doubt about the theoretical interpretation of the administrative legislation, it comes up against its practical action, since access to public office, for example, despite already being based on public tenders, is unfortunately riddled with suspicions.
Access to public office prevails depending on party colors - militants and supporters of the governing party enjoy a kind of right of preference to the detriment of other citizens who, constitutionally, even have the choice of remaining apolitical. The independence and selection criteria of the recruiting bodies are also questionable.
For these and other reasons, we have a lot of African gray matter moving out of the cradle continent, due to an inoperative Public Administration.
And that can't be like that!!!
* Paulo de Jesus, lawyer, journalist, football agent registered with FIFA and consultant in international business related to Africa. He is a doctoral student in Public Administration and has a Master's in Public Policy Management; Bachelor of Law and Political Science/International Relations. Among other specializations, he also holds a post-graduate degree in Public Procurement and Sports Law.
