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World leaders gathered at a sports stadium in Johannesburg yesterday, to eulogise the memory of Nelson Mandela, in my opinion, the greatest human being who ever lived. The BBC African Service voted our own Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who led Ghana to independence in 1957 and virtually lit the torch for liberation struggle throughout Africa, as the African of the Millennium. I do not dispute the findings of BBC African Service. For me though, no personality in our contemporary world has influenced global politics more than the man who survived 27 years in prison to defeat apartheid in South Africa, and led from the front as President of the Orange nation. At a time Madiba had the leadership of the new South Africa in his laps for good, he decided, after only one term, that it would be better for him to leave the leadership of the new nation to those who had learned the art of statecraft from his noble example. Among the 100 or so heads of state and governments at the funeral, there were a number of African leaders who have merely been running their individual nations to the ground. Mixing with the likes of US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair were the likes of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, father to son successor, Joseph Kabila, Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, and many African dictators. At the office of The Chronicle, Mr. Andrew William Parker, a Graphic Designer, complained that he had not seen Ghanaian leader John Mahama among the mourners in Soweto, even though state media had reported that the Ghanaian Head of State had arrived in South Africa. In his tribute to Madiba before emplaning for South Africa, President Mahama said President Mandela�s life represented Africa�s long struggle, and that as a result of the activities of the former South African Head of State, �the indignation that once permeated our continent has been replaced by inspiration. The undercurrent of pessimism, resulting from the onslaught of maladies, � wars, coups, disease, poverty and oppression � has given way to a steady increasing sense of possibility.� At the time the President of Ghana was leaving for South Africa, the nation was engaged in a heated debate over his role in circumstances leading to the strange take-over of Merchant Bank by a company floated by people believe d to be leading members of the governing National Democratic Congress. In societies, where cronyism is punished, the President would be facing impeachment following a series of allegations involving his brother (Ibrahim), who has refused to service a bank loan of US$38 million taken from the bank, and which has not been paid for. We are told that Engineers and Planners appealed to the Presidency over the matter, and that President Mahama sat in what was understood to be arbitration in 2010. What is interesting about the whole transaction leading to the take-over by Fortis Ghana, a company floated purposely to acquire Merchant Bank, after the failure of the Rand Bank of South Africa, following a Presidential declaration that he would never allow the bank to be sold. In all the controversy, most Ghanaians appear to have glossed over the significance of certain happenings. We are told that Tony Lithur, President Mahama�s lead counsel in the 2012 presidential electoral petition brought by three leading members of the New Patriotic Party, is the attorney for Engineers and Planners, the company in the controversy owned by President Mahama�s brother. It is important to note that it is the same Tony Lithur, the Presidential lead counsel, who fired the petition to the Presidency and invited Mr. Mahama to sit in judgment. The lawyer whose antics in the petition trial was captured by good old Ghana Television and beamed to people�s living rooms, offices and bars, is also the lead attorney for Fortis Ghana, the new company which is said to have taken over Merchant Bank. No amount of protestations from spin doctors at the Presidency would exonerate President Mahama from blame. I am aware how hard Presidential spin-doctors are at work, but this particular transaction cannot be devoid of cronyism. Some of us are getting frustrated with monetary dealings in this administration, in which Presidential cover appears to have been provided to raid the state treasury to enrich a few cronies. From GH�15 million spent on guinea fowls, through GH�33 million on tree planting to the pre-election one lap-top a child syndrome, under which state resources were passed on to one businessman, identified as a close associate of President Mahama, transparency appears to have been truly compromised. That is one reason some of us are not sure about what lessons the President of Ghana would take home from his participation in the funeral in Soweto, celebrating the life of the world�s leading icon, who has passed away, aged 95. For me, most African leaders in South Africa to mourn Mandela are merely shedding crocodile tears. There is no way that the trials and tribulations of Madiba would rub off on them. I cannot fathom how the presence of veteran President Robert Mugabe, for instance, in the Soweto funeral grounds, could influence the way politics are executed in Zimbabwe. �Once the breadbasket of Southern Africa, the country�s 12 million population is now living in a beggar state. Famine looms over half the country. 500,000 people are internally displaced, while 70 percent of the population is reported to be unemployed. �There are shortages of all commodities. In addition, freedom of speech has been trampled upon �political opposition repressed� the press is muzzled, and food in many parts of the country has become a political weapon,� according to the world-wide web, Wikipedia. One reporter complained recently: �There is, at least, one Robert Mugabe Avenue in every city and town in Zimbabwe.� It is said that when Mr. Mugabe travels in his $900,000 black Mercedes Benz with puncture-proof tires, he does so with the siren blaring in a 24-car motorcade of armoured 4x4s, motorcycles and military vehicles. Zimbabweans have nicknamed his motorcade �Bob and the Wailers.� He has his cheerleaders of women who attend to his arrivals and departures, �thrilling and dancing in dresses made of fabric emblazoned with his face,� according to one reporter. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the retired Anglican Bishop of Cape Town, once described Mugabe as �a caricature of an African tyrant.� When President Yoweri Museveni took over as Head of State 27 years ago, he correctly identified the problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular, as not the people, but leaders who want to overstay in power. Since then, Uganda has known only one leader. Museveni has even abolished the presidential term limits in the Constitution. The conventional wisdom in down town Kampala is that Museveni is preparing his son, Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerrugaba, to succeed him. His wife sits in the Cabinet. Museveni has promulgated a new Public Order Management Bill, which is as draconian as any codified by the Obote regime. �Whoever tries to cause problems, we finish them. Bisigye (opposition leader) tried to disorganise Kampala, and we gave him a little tear gas, and he calmed down. He didn�t need a bullet, just a little gas,� President Museveni was reported boasting of how he deals with his political opponents. Corruption is rife in the East African nation. The 2012 US Human Rights Report on Uganda said, among others, �The World Bank�s most recent world-wide Governance Indicators reflected corruption was a problem. The country annually loses 769.9 billion shillings ($268.9 million) to corruption. Uganda is currently ranked 140 out of 176 nations on the Global Corruption Perception table. In Yaounde, 80 year-old Paul Biya has celebrated 31 years as Head of State. He moved to Government House in November 1982, when Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned, handing over to his Prime Minister. A two-term clause in the 1996 Constitution should have prevented Biya from running again, but the Head of State revised the Constitution in 2008 to eliminate the presidential time limit. There is the growing concern in Yaounde that if Biya�s health holds up, he will run for another seven year term in 2018. Cameroon is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a GDP of $2,257, GDP per capita as at 2011, with 48 percent of its population below the poverty line. Paul Biya was widely criticised for renting a villa for 30,000 Euros a day, in 2009. In Ouagadougou, critics are finding it difficult to make a case for Blaise Campaore who has joined the mourners in Johannesburg. His lifestyle and the kind of government he is administering in tiny Burkina Faso have no semblance with Mandela�s life and administrative style. Campaore came to power in October 1987, following a coup d�etat, during which his friend and mentor, Thomas Sankara, was killed. He is said to give no room for dissent. �Disagreement with or questioning the Campaore regime routinely leads to dismissal, jailing, torture or killing,� according to political observers in Ouagadougou. �In 1998, the bullet-ridden body of Nobert Zongo was found near Ouagadougou. The riddle remains unsolved till now,� according to close observers. Reporters Without Borders complained in a 2007 report that a challenge to the President and his allies is a �high risk exercise.� According to an official report, in spite of US$13 billion in international development aid, the country ranks 181 out of 187 countries, in terms of human development. �Blaise Campaore is the only Africa Head of State who has managed to dramatically limit development of his country without declaring outright war,� a commentator said of events in Ouagadougou. I dare state that African heads of state in Soweto are mourning Mandela because it is fashionable to do so. It is not out of any lessons learnt from the man who spent 27 years of his productive life in prison, became the ultimate leader of South Africa, and gave up the throne after only four years as President. As one political observer observed, Madiba had the Presidency trust to him for life. Like the wise man that he was, Mandela declined the temptation to hang on and gave up after only four years. The conventional wisdom in Africa is for leaders to hang on past their sell-by date, during which they loot the state treasury and invite nationals to resort to arms, during which they destroy the very basis of their existence in the fight to take back what rightly belongs to the people.