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By Chinenye Anuforo
A Nigerian development scholar, Evans Woherem, has argued that Africa’s development challenges stem largely from weak institutions, poor governance systems and entrenched cultural practices rather than any limitation in the capabilities of its people.
Woherem made the assertion in an article titled “Institutions, Culture, and the African Development Question: Why Systems Matter, and How Africa Can Leapfrog Development,” where he maintained that prosperity across nations is shaped primarily by institutional strength and not by race or geography.
According to him, people across the world are broadly similar in biological and intellectual potential, while the key distinction between developed and struggling societies lies in the quality of their institutions, systems, incentives and historical environments.
He pointed to the behaviour of Africans living abroad as evidence that strong systems influence social conduct.
According to Woherem, individuals who may tolerate disorder, patronage or corruption in some African environments often become law-abiding and highly efficient when they relocate to countries with stronger institutions such as the United States, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Canada.
“They obey traffic regulations, respect public infrastructure, pay taxes and function efficiently within merit-based systems. The human material did not suddenly change. The surrounding institutional architecture did,” he stated.
Woherem, a former Executive Director of First Bank Plc and Unity Bank Plc, criticised what he described as Africa’s “project-based conception of development,” arguing that many governments prioritise visible projects while neglecting the systems needed to sustain long-term progress.
He observed that governance debates across the continent often revolve around roads, bridges, schools and empowerment programmes without sufficient attention to institutional reforms.
“What institutions have been strengthened? What systems have been redesigned to outlive the present administration? What governance mechanisms now function automatically regardless of who occupies office?” he asked.
The scholar maintained that sustainable development should be judged not merely by completed projects but by whether countries are creating durable institutions capable of delivering results irrespective of political transitions.
“A nation does not become advanced merely because it constructs roads. It becomes advanced when it builds systems capable of continuously producing, maintaining, financing, regulating and improving those roads across generations regardless of changes in leadership,” he said.
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Woherem attributed part of Africa’s institutional weakness to colonial administrative structures which, he argued, were designed mainly for extraction rather than development.
According to him, many post-independence governments inherited centralised but weakly accountable systems and merely “localized the machinery of extraction” instead of transforming the state into an engine of development.
The author of “Building a New Africa” and “Information Technology in Africa” also expressed concern over what he called the absence of “developmental consciousness” in many African societies.
He noted that issues such as industrial policy, bureaucratic reform, technological sovereignty, manufacturing competitiveness and state capacity rarely dominate mainstream public discourse.
Drawing lessons from Japan, Singapore, South Korea and China, Woherem argued that successful industrialisation was built on strong institutions, disciplined bureaucracies, quality education and long-term planning.
“Their rise was not accidental, nor merely infrastructural. It was deeply institutional and civilizational,” he wrote.
He further challenged African media organisations to go beyond reporting project commissioning ceremonies and instead interrogate the structural reforms underpinning governance.
Rather than celebrating the number of roads constructed, he urged journalists to examine whether procurement systems are transparent, regulatory agencies function independently, educational outcomes are improving and industrial policies are expanding manufacturing capacity.
Woherem also highlighted the role of “developmental industrialists,” citing Aliko Dangote as an example of entrepreneurs whose impact extends beyond wealth accumulation to building industrial ecosystems and strengthening national productivity.
He stressed that Africa’s future depends on stronger bureaucracies, impartial legal systems, technology-driven governance, industrial strategy, educational reform and civic cultures that reward competence over patronage.
“Roads alone do not produce civilization. Systems do,” Woherem declared.
He concluded that Africa’s greatest challenge is not a shortage of human potential but the absence of institutions strong enough to consistently bring out the best in its people.
“And until systems become the centre of African developmental thinking,” he warned, “progress will remain slower, more fragile and more reversible than it ought to be.”
