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Tony Blair talks to Newstime Africa about the work of his Africa Governance Initiative

The following interview appeared on the Newstime Africa website:

During the tenure of Tony Blair as British Prime Minister, Africa was at the center of British Foreign policy. A Commission for Africa was established by Tony Blair to recommend solutions that will improve the economic and social conditions of the continent. Little did the world knew that this was a master plan for the former Prime Minister’s vision that after leaving office he would play a significant role in helping introduce and establish good governance in some of the continent’s failing states. Blair had seen the potential Africa has and was keen to help get the continent out of dependence on aid towards the path of self-sustenance, political stability and economic growth. The former Prime Minister was fully aware of the fact that the solutions to Africa’s problems was in the hands of African’s themselves. He then embarked on the creation of the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), with the aim of equipping visionary African leaders with the capacity to deliver on their reform agendas, tackle poverty and attract sustainable investment. The initiative is underpinned by two key principles: First, that without progress on governance – and in particular the development of effective government systems and visionary political leadership – all other reforms will have limited effect in reducing poverty across the continent; Second, that developing a thriving private sector through investment and reform is the only way to creating sustainable development that will move Africa “beyond aid”.

As Newstime Africa’s Managing Editor, I have followed Tony Blair’s amazing contribution and work in the African Continent – and I have nothing but admiration and respect for a man who despite his enormous workload as the Quartet’s Middle East Envoy and his numerous other work engagements, has made Africa a priority and there is success already for the former Prime Minister as Sierra Leone and Rwanda, both countries having embraced the AGI, have seen dramatic improvements in their system of governance. The AGI has officials on the ground in these two countries with hands-on assistance in helping these government achieve sustainable development and  internationally acceptable standards of governance. Recently, Newstime Africa was given unprecedented access to the former British Prime Minister; and Managing Editor Ahmed M Kamara  along with Business Manager Loise Mukuna, met with Tony Blair at his Grosvenor Square office in Central London to talk with him about the AGI’s progress and his future plans for Africa.

This was Ahmed Kamara’s interview with the former British Prime Minister:

NTA:  Since you became Prime Minister of this country, Africa has been a priority  – you created the Commission for Africa bringing together a high-level group of politicians and economists, representing thirteen industrialized and developing nations to analyze the problems of underdevelopment in the continent  and to recommend new solutions to improve the economic and social conditions of the continent  – what created this passion in you for Africa?

Blair:  The two things that really motivated me in respect to Africa, first of all there’s the suffering of so many people, I mean if I go through malaria alone a million deaths preventable a year in sub Saharan Africa and also because my father had taught in Africa; in Sierra Leone in  the 1960’s…. I’ve had some sense of this possibility . But I think the second thing that really motivated me was the people I met as well the African people, particularly the younger people and there’s so much potential, so much energy, and dynamism and…. you know,  my passion became the absurdity and futility… and really wickedness of a rich continent with so many poor people. So that’s where it all came from and I then in government,  you know, wanted to put Africa on the agenda and on the agenda also for another reason which is ….. I think if globalisation is to work I am a fan of globalisation but it’s only going work if people seen is just and its benefit spread justly in other words that’s everybody gets a chance to get into this new world and you know where I go and visit you know parts of Africa and the kids can’t get a proper education, there’s no lighting in the schools, they can’t learn  properly you realise there is probably immense talent  there which is never going be fulfilled. So those are the reasons and we decided to put Africa on the forefront on the what we did, we travelled over Africa, we set up the commission for Africa and then in 2005 at Glen Eagles we took the step of really putting Africa at centre stage for the global…. for the main global body at that time. We invited African leaders then at the G8 summit. So that’s really where it comes from.

NTA:  After you established the commission you then went on to  set an agenda for its future discussions, including conflict resolution and peace One of the commission’s  focus was on global trade and financial policies  like rolling back agricultural subsidies in developed nations, offering development bonds through the international capital markets, and expanding debt relief to get Africa on track to meet its anti-poverty targets. Looking back from May 2004 when you chaired the first meeting of the commission here in London – what do you think has been achieved and how has African governments embraced the commission’s work?

Blair: I think we have achieved a certain amount obviously in debt cancellation i was  in Liberia recently they got debt cancellation of $4 billion dollars.. and i think we haven’t gone as far as we need on the conflict resolution part , i want to see the standing force that’s able to keep the peace, because i think many African countries they need that stability, I have just been in Liberia recently without the stability that comes from the UN force been there it’s going to be hard for them to make progress …..  i think on governance there has been progress, there is many more democratic changes of power today in Africa  than before, but the whole essence of it, it’s only works by partnership. My ambition for Africa is that for each African country, their moment of fulfilling their potential is when they waive the donor community goodbye,  so i see  the destiny of Africa being in African hands, that’s the only way its ever going to work. The leaders that are deciding today, we are going to make the best priorities for the country, are the ones that are succeeding. So i still think we’ve got more to do on trade, we should be reforming the agricultural subsidies in the West, in the USA and the EU, we introduced free trade measures, but i think there’s lots more that Africans can do to see there are no trade barriers within African nations.

NTA: Corruption is still a threat to good governance in Africa – taking into consideration your experience as a world class leader and your dealings with African governments when you were Prime Minister and now in a much different capacity – what do you think needs to happen for corruption to be eliminated from African governance?

Blair: I think it requires strong leaders at the top prepared to come down hard against corruption … and it requires the people to say we want transition from a system where politics is about bits buying bits of groups of people so on… and it’s actually what the government can do as a proper government. And my point about corruption is it’s not just wrong, its inefficient, you know, if you take countries with major resources today, the world investment community is looking at Africa in  a new way and there are people prepared to invest and you could get the best top quality management and companies – multinationals of the world into African countries today, that’s what should happen, what you don’t want  is someone whose paying off people. So that’s the point about corruption, it’s not just its obliviously wrong as you can say is that it’s really bad for the future of the country because decisions are not taken on basis of whose is the most effective person but who pays who.

NTA: Mr. Blair you have established a new way of working with African countries, equipping visionary African leaders with the capacity to deliver on their reform agendas, tackle poverty and attract sustainable investment. Are you equally getting the necessary enthusiasm to match your governance initiative from those African leaders that have embraced the AGI like President Koroma of Sierra Leone?

Blair:  Well am really lucky that partly we choose leaders that we believe are committed to changing their countries in the right way, so President  Koroma, President  Kagame, President Johnson Sirleaf. These are three leaders who in my view are able, dynamic and absolutely determined to change their countries in the right way. As a result of that our team, because what we do is we put our team …….of you know, we hire people from all round who have a massive Africans the quality of this team is superb, but I also interact politically with the Presidents, because the problem with consultancy  that come in and try and help in my view is twofold; one, what happens is they try and get the country to do their priorities not the country’s priorities, which doesn’t work. The second thing is they often tell them to do something completely politically unrealistic, you can give someone a grey intellectual theories  to what their country can do but it’s not located in the politics as well. So the benefit of my involvement and also other politicians, Alan Milburn for example has done with me and others is we combine the politics with the technical work  and we have the team in and alongside supporting the presidents in their priorities. Now as a result of that and these three presidents am working with, we are absolutely delighted with them, know we are absolutely delighted with them, and their response is am a great fan of all three.

NTA:  Prime Minister, you are quoted as saying that without progress on governance – and in particular the development of effective government systems and visionary political leadership – all other reforms will have limited effect in reducing poverty across the Africa. In those country where you are currently helping shape a new approach to good governance what has been the realisation – do you think that a country like Sierra Leone is prepared to implement policies that will bring a dynamic change into the way the people are governed?

Blair: Yes, I thing they are. It’s difficult when it’s been for years people have not had that proper capacity  and effectiveness in government, but once people see things happening ……One of the things I will say to those that work with me is, let’s not try and do three hundred things let’s do three, but let’s make sure those three happen.  And if they happen then people start to get faith in government. When President Koroma got the lights on in Bumbuna and the lights on in Freetown people said the government did something. Then people get greater faith in it, and that’s what I think is necessary.

NTA: Apart from helping with governance issues – you are also at the forefront in the fight to eradicate malaria – this is indeed remarkable as malaria is a serious threat on the social structure of African society nearly a million deaths per year in Africa among children under the age of five, and that number could be considerably higher many adults  lose their lives as well to malaria – Your inter-faith foundation has embarked on an initiative to mobilise people of faith to work together on issues of health – what do you hope to achieve on this?

Blair: We just launched this in Nigeria, the point is this, we know malaria kills people , many people, we know it is preventable, we know what prevents it bed nets medicines, proper and can trained health workers but for many countries because of their poverty the health clinics and hospitals are long way apart,  but in every community there is a church and a mosque. So the idea is to use them and use the infrastructure in the faith community, for example Nigeria has probably half a million Pastors and Imams across the country there different churches and mosques, we use the infrastructure to as distribution centres of mosquito nets and medicines, places of education where people know how to use them properly,  and that also serves another purpose which is to try and show people that even though someone has a different faith from you they are equal human being and by the faiths working together we can also present faith in a positive and constructive not negative and divisive way.

NTA: At the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, leaders focused on Africa and climate change. They agreed to double aid to Africa and to eliminate outstanding debts of the poorest countries. As outlined in the Gleneagles communiqué the G8 nations will together increase aid to developing countries by around $50 billion a year by this year 2010. Of this, at least $25 billion will go to Africa – Do you think this has been achieved?

Blair:  Not all of it, but a very significant amount of it. You know each individual countries meet their commitment – Britain has met it commitments and there has been a big ramping up of Aid… and I think that aid …… particularly in fighting disease can work well it’s just I do think in the end its governance that will make a difference. Because once African country’s build those purposes of governance their natural talent, resources ,human and others is so great they will lift off and  they can take care of their own problems … which is really what they want to do.

NTA:  As you may be aware, I am a Sierra Leonean by birth – my country is faced with enormous challenges The people are still recovering from the experience of a brutal war that that saw many lose their lives and families torn apart and others scarred for life – If it was not for your timely intervention only God knows what could have happened – With your African Governance initiative – your work is now present in 3 countries mainly Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia all of whom have experienced their share of human tragedy – what lessons can be drawn from these three countries – by other African nations whose democratic institutions are currently under threat as a result of military intervention and ethnic conflict?

Blair: Well, first of all conflict is just; conflict doesn’t simply kill people it kills progress, that’s why it’s so important for countries to maintain their stability and their order and their security. And then the lesson that can really be learned from the three countries that we are in, is that when you get leaders that are committed to taking their country forward that are prepared to focus and prioritised …. and are prepared to help build those institution of governance, you can get things done. You know, and what a lot of this is about in my view there is always a tipping point in a country when you change the psychology of the people. When people think that their democracy and their governance is fragile and may crumble at any time and this is not just about Africa, I see this in Palestine, I see this across the middle east, I see this elsewhere – people think its fragile maybe about to crumble, they don’t really engage in the political process, because they are never sure how different it’s going to turn out or someone is going to come round and tell them what to do … but once you start to show that proper government yields benefits for people then at a certain point the psychology of the nation changes and then they think, hey it’s not about this militia or this gang is where my future is. it’s by hard work and merit that I will do well. And that psychological change is that you aim for. And  the single most important thing we still have a long way to go, and I think across Africa today I meet and see a new generation of younger people in business in government in the society who are absolutely determined to take the future in their own hands in a proper and straight forward way. When that happens you know change happens, there are countries is South America, Asia, that twenty  thirty years back people you would have written off as hopeless but they are  not like that today.

NTA: Mr. Prime Minister its really been a pleasure. I thank you so much for the privilege and opportunity.