One of Africa’s insidious governance failures is the obsession with white elephant projects (WEPs), which are big, flashy, and often unsuccessful construction projects that add little value but drain national resources.
Take Nigeria’s “white elephant airports”. A Premium Times investigation details how a ₦15 billion airport in Nasarawa State, commissioned in 2015, remains incomplete and dormant. Contracts were awarded, canceled, and re-awarded. Administrations changed. More money flowed. Yet the project remains moribund. And when journalists requested contract and funding details under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, officials had the audacity to brazenly ignore them.
WEPs are not real development, but a clever way for many officials to look productive, inflate costs, and steal public money.
Nigeria has 32 airports, but a Nairametrics report reveal that in 2022, five airports carried nearly 90% of Nigeria’s 16 million passengers, while the remaining 27 airports carried only 10%. Such failure of governance shows an unpardonable incompetence and sinister greed.
But this problem is deeper than corruption. It reveals a flawed developmental mindset and even an insecurity complex. Leaders are obsessed with “showy projects” that emulate more developed countries to “prove” Africa is advancing. All while ignoring the basics: clean water and distribution, waste management, reliable roads, stable energy, self-sufficient agriculture, public health, quality public education.
Most African countries have not mastered the basics, yet the people (and diaspora) fantasize about tech revolution, dramatic projects, and fancy silicon valley apps far removed from the immediate needs of the people.
An African nation-builder thinks: Tech relies on energy (plus education). Tech without energy is like harvesting an egg without a chicken. Therefore, energy (and education) FIRST.
Many Africans are in a dreamland, and this delusion reflects in the attitude of their leaders with white elephant projects. So the people get the leadership they deserve. Many African government officials today have not only proven themselves to be useless for nation-building, but are now also pestilential and should be compelled out of office.
Yet there is hope. Across the continent, a new class of earnest Africans are awakening who are committed to real change, who understand that a functioning society is built on basics first, and only then can other advancements be layered on top. It is high time such Builders of the African future step forward, unite, and contest to take over African leadership. Real change will only come when visionaries lead by first focusing on the “boring basics” that support the progress of the African people.
That is the task before us: reject the wasteful delusion of white elephants, and build, brick by brick, the solid foundations of African nation-building.
Onward & Upward!
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D., MBA
Builder of the African Future
Nation Upbuilding 