Niger crisis
Out of context: Reply #23
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Africa, which has abundant human and natural resources, and more farmable land than anywhere else in the world, ought to be able to take care of herself without desperately depending on outside help. Yet she has received an estimated $1 trillion in foreign aid in the past 50 years.
So what is the problem that causes Africa to slide into deeper poverty when Asia and Latin America that used to be part of the Third World, have become richer since the past three decades?
Many people are quick to attribute Africa’s predicaments to colonialism and its ramifications. To some extent this is true. Colonial masters designed African economies to suit their needs and not those of the local people. For example main roads and railways were built to convey minerals and crops for export and not to develop the internal economies.
In addition, Africa was segmented into units with in some cases friends and allies separated and enemies placed in the same countries. This is the situation that now gives rise to most postcolonial tribal, civil and nation wars that do not only destroy existing economies but also discourage potential investors.
But then, colonial experience should not still be an obstacle to African development. Colonialism ended some three decades ago. More to that, not only African countries were colonised. In countries like India, New Zealand and Australia that were equally colonised and exploited, successive leaders have been able to fashion out of the colonial legacy, political and socio-economic structures that have ensured economic prosperity.
Today people point to trade imbalances as a reason why African countries especially those south of the Sahara are unable to get above the poverty level. This claim is supported by the fact that within the last 20 years, sub-Saharan African share of global trade has declined from 6 to 2 per cent.
This is however just part of the problem. Today, the main constraint to African recovery is the role of post-independent and contemporary African leadership. This crop of leaders do not seem to care about the situation of the continent were 30,000 children die everyday and while a further 100,000 do not go to school. For how can one justify the fact that even though African countries have been losing potential revenue because of unfair international trading systems and external debt service payments, greedy and visionless leaders still conspire with their cronies to steal and squander vast amounts of their countries wealth on misguided projects.
How can Africa develop when her elite does not only steal the country’s wealth but are unwilling to invest in their own countries. In corrupt societies in Asia, such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan the citizens still prosper because the corrupt elite keep their money at home. They invest in new mobile phone network, build private hospitals and tourist hotels.
On the contrary, in Africa corrupt leaders steal money from the system and make matters worst by extracting the money from their countries. Mobutu is reputed to have amassed a fortune equal to Zaire’s national debt. The rate of capital flight in Africa is more than in any other continent. It is estimated that $20 billion is taken out of Africa annually by corrupt regimes. According to President Olusegun Obasanjo, corrupt African leaders have stolen at least $140 billion from their country’s wealth since independence. And it is believed that 40 per cent of wealth created in Africa is invested overseas.
Even money used within the country is often spent on ceremonies, activities or goods and services that hardly benefit the economy or those in dire need of government assistance. Lavish palaces like Cameroon’s Unity Palace, fleet of cars and jet planes have become status symbols for African regimes.
Former Emperor Bokassa of Central African Republic for example, squandered over $20 million of his country’s wealth on worthless and unpopular coronation. King Mswati III has spent £8 million on palaces for his 13 wives, £500,000 on eight Mercedes cars with gold-plated numbers, and £330,000 on his 36th birthday while 700,000 of his people live in poverty.
Recently the Cameroon government spent over FCFA30 billion of the country’s money on a new presidential plane even though Cameroon Postal Service customers are currently being owed over FCFA 54 billion of their savings, and several teachers recruited by government have had no salary for a year.
African leaders are not only motivated by greed for wealth, but also by power to crush their opponents. This explains why in many sub-Saharan African countries’ annual military expenditure increase by about 14 per cent when its economic growth increase only by about 1 per cent. More than $15 is spent annually by the region on arms that bring nothing in return but destruction of the economy and refugee crises.
Another reason why African economies have failed to take off is that African leaders have failed to create institutions and systems that would enable their citizens to develop. In some instances they even destroy or abandon existing ones especially if such structures do not happen to be in the region of preference.