Robbing Our Children To Pay Our Creditors

Robbing Our Children To Pay Our Creditors- A Clarion Call For Stronger U.S. Policy On Africa

Kayode Oladele

The 1980‘s witnessed in Africa, the genesis of economic, political and socio-cultural restructuring. The decade also saw the emergence of new political movements, the adoption of structural adjustment programs (SAP) by many African States, the increased role of NGOs, low resource mobilization by domestic private sectors, the weakness of the state capacity and the collapse of foreign investment in Africa.

Expectedly, the sustainability efforts in Africa were grounded during this period. This lack of sustainable development led to a great decline in the quality of people’s lives and damaged the environment. The development of African ecosystem, which is reputed for playing a pivot role in the global environment, also suffered a devastating setback.

This “new system” as it was then called, affected not only the people’s relationship with the governments but also in their relationship inter se. People’s mode of expression, the content of their expression, their concepts of patriotism, identity, statism, and value systems were all reshaped to reflect the new wav e of changes going on on the continent.

Giving this situation therefore, political development and economic growth, which are interwoven, grew worse. It was difficult to build a culture of democracy, establish democratic institutions, promote civil education, empower the civil society and build capacity in science and technology. Majority of the independent African States had military governments and even in countries in which democracy existed, few had multi-party systems, a situation which left the voters without any clear political choice. The human rights of the civil society were often as they are, violated with utter disregar d for due process of the law by the military dictators or with impunity by autocratic civilian presidents.

Unfortunately, as Africa was facing this widespread fragmentation of its socio-political structure, the decade was also witnessing a worldwide democratization process. This worldwide democratic revolution resulted in the collapse of dictatorship and authoritarianism around the globe. There was also the dramatic breakup of the Soviet Union. There was increased globalization of economies and trans-boundary socio-political interdependence. These events fortunately, also led to the end o f the cold war era.

As the decade of the 80’s was rounding up and the 90’s drew near, the African civil society hitherto rendered impotent by the decades of authoritarianism and military dictatorship suddenly re-emerged and embarked on agitation for radical political and socio-economic reforms within the continent. Civil organizations and NGOs not only begun to mobilize around political issues, but were also demanding for multi-party democracy, economic rights, social justice and protection of human and peoples’ rights.

By the early 90’s the continent of Africa, due to excessive pressure within a nd outside the continent began to experience its own share of the global political revolution. The apartheid regime of South Africa crashed and several autocratic regimes in Africa started to give way to wishes of the people. Many African autocrats and military dictators succumbed to democratic elections.

However, as Africa trails behind in the new millennium, it is sad to note that the continent can not participate and compete equitably and favorably with the rest of the world for the opportunities provided by the new world order . Africa today is facing excessive debt burden; the ter ms of trade have shifted unfavorably against the continent. Many African States are consequently unable to provide basic social services to their people. Africa pays more back in debt than she actually received in aid. For instance, in 1996, Africa paid back $1.31 in debt service for every $1.00 received in aid and grants.

The debts are growing everyday even as the volume of African exports has continued to be unimaginable low. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who are nothing but agents for African creditors continue to dictate tough economic measures that starve vital sectors such as health, health, educati on, water, electricity and other important public services of much needed funds. African governments are increasingly under pressure from these International Financial Institutions to abandon their social responsibilities to the people and prioritize the scarce resources for debts servicing.

Africa spends more than twice as much in debt servicing as on basic health care, education, and other social services to the people. The continent, reputed for being the richest of all in terms of natural resources is ironically considered to be the poorest continent in the world with per capital national income less than $490.00. There is no development of human capital. The physical infrastructure is grossly inadequate. Education, health, science and technology, transport, agriculture and other vital sectors are all crippled, neglected and grounded.

The poor Africans with a population of well over 750 million have insufficient shelter, food and clothing. They all (young and old, including the unborn) shoulder a huge debt burden with each one of them owing an average of $375.00 to Western creditors. This shameful and unacceptable index led the continent in 1996 alone, to transfer a whopping $14.5 billion in debt service to both foreign private creditors and Western governments.

While it is very difficult to place the blame for the looting of African treasury at the door step of foreign creditors alone, it is submitted that this sordid state of affairs in Africa was caused by interplay of poor economic management, bad political leadership, the ever-increasing interest rates on loans, grants, and the growing debt burden. All of this act in concert with unconscionable backing of corrupts leaders in Africa by the West.

These unpatriotic and corrupt African leaders many of whom are installed by the West, not only receive sundry loans and various grants from the West, but also mismanage the generous loans and divert a large chunk of them to their private bank accounts abroad. Some of these loans do not even make it to their final destinations. But as usual, the burden of repayment always falls on the poor African “recipients”. These peasant “recipients” who in most cases are not even aware of these loans often have their health, livelihood and the future of their children sacrificed in order to repay their strange “creditors”. They virtually starve themselves and rob their children to pay these debts.

Happily enough, Africans are now, more than ever, making conscious efforts to ensure that they find lasting solutions to their problems. As the 21^st century begins to unfold, and the tide of globalization moves fast, radical forces in Africa led by NGOs and other popular democratic organizations are pushing hard for good governance in Africa. The main theme of these efforts is to create an enabling environment, build capacity among the civil society, provide political education and social infrastructure that would facilitate stable political economy, sustainable development and good governance. These vibrant groups together with the now motivated civil society today demand form African leaders, accountability, transparency and res pect for the rule of law.

However, much as popular organization try to build a stable polity, enlightened civil society and sustainable growth, it is imperative to mention at this point that the support of the donor community and the multilateral aid agencies including the International Financial Institutions cannot be over emphasized. This is imperative for long term sustainable political, social and economic development and quality of life in Africa. This is also because; an underdeveloped and impoverished Africa portends a great danger to the future of the new world. With the world becoming a global village, it becomes the responsibility of the rest of the world, in particular , the donor community to help Africa participate effectively independently and more equitably in global trade and investment and the development of science and technology.

It is pertinent at this point, to call specifically on the U.S. to come out with a clear-cut policy on Africa with such policy defining and enumerating the U. S. relations with Africa. Indeed, this is not a fresh call. It could be recalled that at the end of the National Summit On Africa’s sponsored South-East Regional Summit which was held in Atlanta, Georgia in May 1998, participants, while calling for a U.S. action plan for Africa observed that “the U.S. has a significant economic stake in the economic involvement with other major regions, it is nonetheless, substantial and desires to be nurtured.”

For many years, the U.S., due to her history, domestic, experience and location adopted a policy of “isolationism” or “hands off” in the affairs of the old world. However, now as we are steadily into the 21^st century, America’s preeminence in the global political economy and the affairs of the new world is unrivaled. That being the case, the U.S. should emerge with a better policy on Africa.

It could be recalled that during the cold war, the U.S. in an attempt to curb the excesses of communism in Africa overtly sponsored and supported many corrupt, inept, visionless and cruel leaders in Africa. These prodigal leaders who were spoiled with generous loans and grants became uncontrollable, went on a rampage and balkanized Africa. If this is so, the U.S. must take full responsibility for how its support for dictatorship and bad governance aggravated African debt crises and underdeveloped Africa. The U.S. should therefore, not take advantage of its old “hands-off” policy or the end of the cold war to abandon Africa at this crucial period. Isolationism will be a policy too old, outdated and cosmetic to adopt in an era of massiv e marginalization of Africa and her people.

African interests apart, the U.S. will also benefit immensely from enhanced U.S. Africa relations. A marshal plan for Africa will assist the U.S. to continue to enjoy unfettered access to one of its major sources of petroleum and other resources. Perhaps, it is in the light of the foregoing the African Growth and Opportunity Act was passed to enhance and expand productive capacity in Africa. Some of the objectives of the Act are to provide mutual benefits to the U.S. and African States, create a partnership relationship, improve trade and investment and expand the state capacity in Africa. </ SPAN>It is also aimed at helping various African States to execute their economic reforms as well as provide incentive for American multinational corporations to invest in Africa.

However, for all practical purposes, any serious attempt by the U.S to formulate policy on Africa and chart a plan of action for U.S.-African relations should consider the following recommendations:

The U.S. government should through the African Growth and Opportunity Act adopt an economic policy that will promote and increase the capacity of U.S. foreign investment in Africa. This Act, together with a well-articulated marshal plan for Africa will also help to provide development or economic aid to Africa.

· As noted earlier, one of the greatest problems now facing Africa is the burden of debt servicing. Therefore, the U.S. government should assist to alleviate the suffering of the African people by providing tangible debt relief packages. Already there is in place, a program called High Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPCI). This initiative, which was designed to address among other things, African indebtedness, should be used to forgive all debts owed to U.S. by African States.

· The U.S. should provide both logistic and technical assistance to African regional economic blocs so that African States can all enjoy increased intra-African trade, investment, sustainable growth and social development.

· TThe White House should help facilitate a conductive environment for Africa-U.S. relations. This will in addition to creating economic relations, also help African States to expand their foreign reserves and provide overall economic and social development.

· The U.S. foreign assistance programs should gear towards the creation of enabling environment for the strengthening of the civil society in Africa. To this end, more monetary support should be given to deserving African NGOs that are involved in promoting democracy, human rights, gender equity, economic and social justice.

· Flowing from above, the U.S. should give priority to the promotion of democracy, respect for the rule of law and human ri ghts in Africa. Hence, grants or other forms of assistance should be given only to those African States that respect normative democratic concerns and establish or provide institutional democratic concerns.

· The U.S., in conjunction with the International Community including foreign private creditors and the International Financial Institutions, should ensure that macro-economic programs or any economic programs, such as SAP that addresses macro-economic problems in Africa are people-friendly. Such economic programs, it is submitted, should take cognizance of the peoples’ welfare and social needs to the extent that innocent citizens are not denied their basic needs all for the sake of promoting economic growth and development.

· The U.S. should work with the rest of the world to provide support for African initiatives for peacekeeping and peace making or an initiative that addresses conflict management, resolution and prevention. To this end, the practice whereby security assistance such as technical, logistical support or arms shipment are giving to feuding factions in Africa to fuel armed conflicts should be discouraged.

· Finally, the U.S. should come out with a policy that will address the development of technology and promote science education in Africa. This policy, if vigorously pursued by the U.S, will help to encourage African contribution to global science and technology. It will also help to foster sustainable development on the continent.

In conclusion, I wish to add that these recommendations are by no means exhaustive. While acknowledging this fact, it is hoped that an articulated U.S. policy on Africa will go a long way to wage a war on corruption, bad governance, poverty, economic crises and environmental degradation. This will further rid the African continent of the traumatic effects of the cold war.

Kayode Oladele, an International Law Attorney based in Detroit, Michigan can be reached by e-mail at: kayoladele@yahoo.com