Wake Up Call Africa , Your Cell Phone Is Ringing

By

Zakari Tata Askira, MBBS, FRCS

Michigan, USA

zayas64@yahoo.com

 

African countries currently measure their development against those of the Western and industrialized world. This tendency has prevented us from developing our own criteria for growth. We have totally accepted everything Western and have adopted criteria developed by Western economists for Western societies. Western countries modernize themselves in ways that are directly relevant to their needs. Innovative ideas are translated into rational products or processes in a logical manner of progression to promote growth. We in Africa tend to use shotgun development techniques by adapting overnight Western technology and systems without regards to our priorities and socioeconomic infrastructure. This odd admixture of purchased modernization, African kleptocracy with the attendant ill prepared , poorly motivated populace has resulted in the debt, worsening poverty and ecological disaster that define today’s Africa. This article attempts in a limited way, to illustrate that the total and premature embrace of western innovations by well meaning individuals and governments places Africa always at a disadvantage.

 

African countries have failed to develop themselves and are content to be consumers of Western products. In Africa , possession of top of the line luxury items like Western and Asian prestige cars are considered by the elite as a measure of success. What is important is that the car manufacturers are the clear winners in these situations. African countries need to emulate the vision, discipline, patriotism and self sacrifice that went into producing such luxury items. Africans need to remind themselves that for centuries they lived largely without imported items. In less than 200 years of gradual to total dependence on the fruits of the Western world, they have impoverished themselves and destroyed their environment. In a hotel in Abuja , Kano , Lagos or Port Harcourt you can order Quaker Oats and Cornflakes for breakfast but no Akara, Boli or Ogi. We are substituting of our own heritage. Right in our own lands we have voluntarily retired our culture and mortgaged ourselves so we can pay to eat someone else’s food.

 

African countries have limited themselves to short term goals and depend on the guidance of financial institutions that have indirectly benefited from billions of dollars stolen from their shores.  In attempting to be Western, we have relegated the importance of our rural populations. In the Western world, cities are favored so the governments can optimize essential services. This works for them because most of the city dwellers are educated or have a multitude of skills suited for the city. This does not apply to Africa where most of our populations are still rural. Our rural populations have fed us for centuries. They have been the driving force in local agriculture, herbal medications

livestock grazing, artisanship and other indigenous skills. They have been the custodians of our cultures and the guardians of our identities. They are indeed the pillars of our existence. They are the only places in Africa today where the people are proud of their cultures.

 

 

 

By trying to emulate the Western world, African countries have concentrated on cities and have ignored the majority rural populace who are largely farmers. The lack of attention given to these farmers forces them into cities where they experience real deprivation. This is because these migrants do not have the education or technical skills to live in the cities. The skills they have are best suited for the countryside and Africa would have done better to develop their potentials in the villages. Such actions would strengthen the local economies and provide the people with a decent lifestyle. Most of these migrants to the cities end up jobless and poor. This gives rise to frustration, slums and crime. We then build 12 feet high walls round our homes to keep them out. We obliterate from our memories the origins of the French Revolution, the Third Reich and the rise of communism in Europe .As our populace becomes more desperate, Africans will arise.

 

 

 Cell phones are an example of a welcome western innovation that we all own. It is estimated that over 50 million Africans own cell phones.  The cost of buying these phones and air time is a true testament to Africa ’s consumer culture.  Apart from personal convenience and prestige, we contribute more to trans- global cell phone manufacturers than to Africa when we buy cell phones. Approximately 5 billion dollars is the cost of just buying 50 million cell phones at $100.00 each.  This does not include line rental fees and recharge cards.  The issue here is to show how much wealth Africa spends on imported items. Most of us cannot imagine life without cell phones. Yet cell phones have existed for just 20 years compared with over 2000 years of human life. When we spend billions on items like cell phones we are helping to finance the development of another gadget that we have to own made in the developed world. This cycle of gadget addiction prevents us from developing our nations as all the money goes abroad. Africans at some time well have to learn to say no to new technology in order to grow. The time for this is now. The gap between the developed countries and Africa keeps growing yearly and we are paying for it freely.

 

I would like the readers to repeat my little cell phone experiment with their favorite imported soft drinks, fruit juice, biscuits, cosmetics, shampoo or DVD player. These items multiplied by millions of Africans will show how much we spend on imported items in Africa . Next time you enjoy anyone of these items remember the winner is not Africa . If you multiply the amount you spend by 20 million Africans then imagine the profits to the foreign producer on a yearly basis for decades to come. The question to answer is how we have allowed ourselves to fall victims of our fondness for imported goods. I would suggest that African banks and other financial institutions make public how much we spend yearly on the imported products listed above. As we say in Africa – send it to me by text.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of my esteemed friends have pointed out to the many advantages of cell phones, for example, indigenous farmers and fishermen trying to sell their produce. To them I answer cold storage facilities, grain storage silos and investment into developing pest resistant foods. Having everybody communicating with a cell phone has not translated into alleviation of Africa ’s poverty just like our huge investment in color televisions. Developing rural areas and encouraging farming would go a long way in preventing the urban overpopulation that encourages poor Africans to invest in cell phones. The creation of a multiple businesses selling recharge cards and cell phone accessories is still a consumer oriented business dependent on imported products that contributes nothing to Africa ’s manufacturing ability.

 

 

 

 

The idea here is not to ask Africans to deprive themselves of modern conveniences but to illustrate the fact that very few African finished products have commercial value even within Africa . Africans need to buy African and develop a pride in their products. Colonialism left strong imprints on our minds that Western made products are best. The Western world is more technologically advanced than we are. That does not mean that their products are best for us. What is best for us is what we grow or produce. What is best for us is keeping our wealth in Africa .  Instead, we sell cheap raw materials to the world and buy them back as manufactured modern necessities in fancy boxes at prices we can ill afford. This dependence on consumer items results in transferring our wealth out of our countries instead of recycling it back into our local industries. This issue has to be addressed before we solve our perpetual underdevelopment.

 

Nigeria recently launched a satellite into space. This act is only a sign of petrodollar power. The problem is that we have millions of dollars invested into space with purchased technology.  This is still the same cycle of depositing our dollars into Western and Asian Economies because of the imagined value of modernization. We need to stay here on earth and deal with our everyday problems like the devastation of the mangrove swamps by petroleum and Lake Chad by global warming. Spending over 200 million dollars on a satellite while 70 million Nigerians live on less than 1 dollar a day is wrong. The satellite is still controlled and designed by technologies of other cultures so we can never fully use it to our advantage. We forget that feeding our people and providing clean drinking water is more important than purchasing a fancy gadget. Unless this satellite will directly resolve poverty, the only winners are the countries that manufactured the satellite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Asian Tiger economies like china, South Korea , Taiwan and Singapore have developed themselves by co-opting Western intellectual ideals into their economies. They however did not abandon their determination to develop themselves.  One of the major pillars of their success was markedly improved government spending in university education.  The end result of this was they started exporting finished consumer and technological items back to the Western world. African countries on the other hand, like Nigeria , are actually selling off educational institutions and encouraging private ownership of schools and universities based on advice from world bodies. This is an example of African governments taking advice from the Western world blindly. We need not follow their example at all times because we have different histories, needs and aspirations. Western governments have subsidized education for long. As their societies have become more affluent, they have decreased their subsidies. In place of these subsidies they have student loans and scholarships backed by the governments. In addition wealthy foundations donate huge grants to the universities to assist indigent students. African students do not have these options. We do not have viable local economies that can generate legal wealth to pay for such education. Middle class professionals who should be the driving engines of the country are forced into corruption and petty trading to educate their children. Little wonder they have little time to formulate rational growth policies.

 

 

 

 

Africans should re-examine what development means to them. Development should be relative to their unique situations and should stop being defined as living up to Western standards. Measuring our success by purchasing the prizes of the West is backwards.. Self sufficiency should be the motivating factor for growth. Depending on imports leads to a culture of dependency and the attendant inferiority. It is naïve to think that acquiring everything Western is the best way. In this process we have destroyed our unique ways of life. We have to reorient ourselves to be patriotic by investing inwards and feeling proud of our products. Corrupt governance need to be replaced by intelligent, visionary leadership that believes in promoting African growth. The beautiful cars and magnificent villas of imported stone should be a constant reminder of failure.  We should remember we cannot short cut the way to Western standards by buying our way up.  We could never afford it. We however, can all afford made in Africa .