African countries that could have become first world countries?

The Maghreb countries could have done it.
Morocco's economy in the 60s and 70s was in a much better situation than alot of south european and asian countries. Even the education was very good until the 80s. Sounds unbelievable when you see todays statistics. The downturn began in the 80s
The main problems were
-the King was to ambitious and wanted to make Morocco, literally, great again as soon as possible. The Sahara/Algeria issues played a big part in the economic downturn. Especially the Sandwar vs. Algeria was useless.
-import/export licenses were handed to some families. This created monopolies in some areas.
-no industrialization and alot of dependency on France. Leauty would be proud of himself.

Algeria had and still has simply the wrong leaders. They could have become an industrial powerhouse in Africa but they squandered their money right and left and are still doing it in the name of the revolution.

Regarding Algeria, maybe France forcing the National Liberation Front to adopt a multi-party system as a condition for independence. That would prevent their one-party dictatorship until 1989, followed by the Islamic Salvation Front's victory in 1991, followed by the military coup to prevent the Islamic Salvation Front from getting into power in 1992, followed by the civil war until 2002.
 
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