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Debt Relief: Flipping the Script on Africa By Abdulrahman Muhammad Dan-Asabe, Ph.D. Ningbo, P. R. China
05 July 5, 2005
That Africa is in a big mess and can do with any form of genuine international support to alleviate the suffering of its poor people is, simply, an understatement. The entire African continent is a tragic place. All over the continent what one sees are Wars, AIDS, famine corruption, illiteracy, injustice and brutal suppression of the masses by their leaders. About half of the population of the continent, an estimated 900 million people, live on less than $1 a day. This is in addition to the lack of basic necessities, such as safe drinking water and basic healthcare.
Most, if not all, of the above Africa’s ills and its spiral decline are blamed on colonialism or the west, who, post-independence African leaders and political elites believe, deliberately created and left behind the fertile ground upon which these ills are now growing like bush fire. Among the many sins of colonialism or the west are: slavery, which has degraded African value systems and left the present generation of Africans with low self-esteem; the colonial legacy of unnatural and haphazard African borders, which are the root causes of most if not all, of the ethnic/tribal or religious wars across the continent today; the unfair international trade policies that seek to keep African products, mostly farm products, out of western markets through unfair competition; the complete looting of the continent’s priceless ancestral and cultural relics that denies present generation of Africans the knowledge of what their ancestors had achieved, or were capable of doing – a knowledge that would have enabled continuity and the setting of achievable target from where their ancestors left off; and the continued and reckless exploitation of the continent’s natural resources, without due regard for environmental impacts, amongst other things.
While no one, including the west, denies or doubt the truthfulness of some of the charges against colonial west, all efforts at getting African leaders to embark on good governance – transparency, fiscal discipline, reduced corruption, and respect for the rule of law – virtues that would enable any meaningful development, as blaming the continent's ills and lack of progress on colonialism simply allow them to evade responsibility for their own failures, fell on deaf ears. Irrespective of the nature of the problem(s) facing African nations - inability to feed, educate or provide basic healthcare for their citizens, the answer is, simply, colonialism and debt burden, and not anything to do with bad leadership.
Tired of (and angered by) Africa’s political elite’s evasion of their responsibilities toward their citizens through blaming colonialism and ‘huge debt burden’, the west has embarked on an effort that will surely flip-the-script on Africa’s political elites. Led by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is chairman of the G8 summit, and poverty-relief campaigner, the west is pushing for the cancellation of most, if not all, of the debts owed by Africa. This, given the fact that colonialism cannot be undone, should put an end to the claims that Africa’s lack of progress is solely due to the debt burden on the continent. Africa’s debt cancellation will also, once and for all, prove right or wrong the long held thesis about BLACKS as inferior race, incapable of even helping themselves.
The fear, however, is that with Africa’s current political-cum-business elite’s lack of pride and common sense, there is not much to hope for in Africa in the immediate near future.
No one is in a better position to know that present African elites lack pride and common sense than Africa’s illustrious son, the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan. Speaking at the high-level dialogue of the general Assembly on financing for development and in an apparent expression of anger and dismay, Kofi Annan, stated that “in 2002, for the sixth consecutive year, Third World countries made a net transfer of financial resources of almost 200 billion dollars to other countries” adding that “such a situation lacked common sense.” “Funds”, said Annan, “should be moving from developed countries to developing countries, but these numbers tell us the opposite is happening". Nigerians alone, for example, are known to own over US$100 billion scattered all over banks in EU and the US in addition to other businesses and properties that may run into equal or more value (Daily Trust: Wednesday, November 5, 2003).
The entire ‘debt burden’ argument by African nations is really funny. We make it sound as if these debts and their so-called unfavorable conditions sneaked on us overnight. How does anyone explain the fact that Uganda, having had her debt cancelled in 1998 following the country’s outcry that ‘debt burden’ had stalled her progress, immediately went for renewed borrowing spree after the cancellation; a situation that has now left her neck-deep in debt?
Of all African nations, the most pathetic is Nigeria. Pathetic in the sense that unlike other Africa nations with few people and little or no natural resources, Nigeria is one country that has both human and natural resources in abundance to make her not only to be great, but also to play a leading role in financially and politically bailing out other African nations but who, herself, is in a mess and in a dire need of debt cancellation and other forms of assistance.
Nigeria’s political elite’s shamelessness and lack of common sense is mind bugling. Nigerian leaders and businessmen prefer going abroad for everything they need, rather than make them available at home. A private German company, Julius Berger (Nig.) Plc, is much more powerful, efficient and better organized than any establishment in Nigeria. In addition to its construction work, Julius Berger is heavily relied upon for other services ranging from fire-fighting to the provision of healthcare services to political elites in Nigeria. What a pity on the self-acclaim giant of Africa.
Each of the Nigeria’s oil windfalls: the Yom Kippur war oil windfall of 1973, the Iranian revolution oil windfall of 1979, the Gulf War oil windfall of 1991, and then comes the ultimate, the Iraq war oil windfall, which is ongoing since 2000, have simply resulted in increased pain with louder outcry of suffering from ordinary Nigerians, and an unbelievable dearth of basic public facilities and public security.
In response to my article on Nigeria, World Bank and Nigerian poverty: Where Mr. President goofed, available on http://www.gamji.com/NEWS2599.htm and published in Daily Trust, Friday, June 27, 2003, a friend and class mate responded with the following enquiries to which I would need your assistance in answering:
“Dan, I continue to ask myself these questions; perhaps you could help me out. What is wrong with us as a people? I can’t understand why such a large number of people in such a gifted country as ours cannot make this country a wonderful place. This is mind bugling. Remember that we are about half the population of the U.S., that you will not find a country on this planet that has as much Natural recourses as ours. Correct me. That you will not find a country that lets it’s arable land go fallow for such a wonderful length of time and let its people go hungry. That maybe apart from India you can hardly find any other nationals dispersed all over the planet busy building other places while their country dies a slow and painful death. That you will find Nigerians in all spheres of life from cleaning to NASA, and that we should probably have more ex-leaders than any other country. That you have Nigerians touching on every trade or business at home, but we hardly put our heads to doing things well.
So Dan, help me out. What is wrong with us? I eagerly await your response.
Gosh (Abubakar Yahaya Abba)”
Well, whatever is wrong with us as Nigerians, or the Black race as a whole, is about to be exposed with the eminent cancellation of either all or some of the debts owed to the west.
Given the increasing unwillingness of the west to act on Africa’s safe-our-Souls outcries, as demonstrably shown by their foot-dragging on Sudan’s Darfur conflict and Niger’s food crisis, I guess, current Africa’s debt cancellation efforts are the last and final push by the west to ‘help’ Africa and the Black race out of their predicaments. Neither this nor future generations of westerners will ever listen to any of our baby-like cries again, should we fail to make good of this opportunity. This is more so because, unlike the atrocities of colonialism and slavery committed on us that are buried in books and require reading efforts by those interested to know, the music industry, through its LIVE 8 consisting of 10 concerts across the globe, has helped to create unprecedented world wide awareness of African plights and the debt cancellation issues, thanks to musician Bob Geldof, the mastermind.
One hopes and prays that as the winds blow let not the ass of the FOWL be exposed. |