A culture of ridiculous corruption among the elites. People sometimes fail to realize that African countries are often destroyed by its elites the most educated people in the country. You do have some countries where uneducated people get elected to office and are just ignorant.
But back to the point I was making. My friend had an interesting theory. He is from Kenya. He told that the reason why a lot of corruption goes on in many of these African countries is that the elites have no compassion or connection to the country. A lot of the elites send their wives abroad US or Europe to give birth in order for that child not only get the best pre natal care but also gain some type of citizenship from Western countries. One of the theories is that the elites realize that they will have a short time to rule and that shyt will hit the fan (you have the shortest time to amass the maximum amount of ill gotten wealth) because for the most part up until now the presidents of a lot of those countries have risen to power illegitimately and eventual the opposition or the population is going to rise and look for blood. So you can get out of the country with no problem.
Secondly, those children when they go back to their country of origin they are more likely to attend international schools where the African elites send most of their children. These kids are likely to interact with other rich African kids or children of diplomats and expats from other countries. When university/grad school time comes, they definitely ain't going to Lagos University they are going to Oxford, London School of Economics, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, INSEAD the list goes on (foreign insititutions of higher education).
You have these people who have grown up insulated from the condition of their average fellow citizen. How do you expect them to have a sense of patriotism to fix their countries and look out for the best interest of their own people. If they can send their kids abroad to be born or to school what is the incentive for them to build institutions like hospitals or schools that would benefit the average citizen who cannot afford the lifestyle they have