Nee man!, Tweya is right . . . we, Africans, are stupid Most Africans who read Greg Mills 2010 book, Why Africa is Poor: And what Africans Can Do About It, are infuriated. Mills says Africa is poor because our leaders have made a choice for us to be poor. This is what Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Tjekero Tweya alluded to last week during the Arandis Expo. Indeed we, Africans are not only stupid, but dumb losers who make bad choices and for that we are not respected worldwide; for that there are always attempts to either remote control African governments; or the reason why our economies are still dominated by outsiders. That does not happen in Asia where countries made a conscious decision to serve its people by focusing more on developing economies such that former colonisers are scrambling to relocate their factories to the east. Today we talk about Asian Tigers as if they fell from heaven yet all what they did was changing the rules of the game. And changing the rules of the game starts in parliament and at the United Nations. In Africa, the black man walked away with independence while the former colonial countries held onto the economy. South Africa, the self-proclaimed most developed nation on the continent, according to Mills owes it all ‘to the industriousness of the apartheid regime’ and the ‘wisdom of the post apartheid governments not to tamper with the economic apparatus set up by the racist regime’. There too 2009 statistics show that 52, 3% of the South African population lives below the poverty datum line. Mills says Asians transformed into tigers because their leaders chose to do right for their people and have stuck by those choices. One of such choices was investing in food production, health, development skills, and education. Mills gives the example of Singapore and Malaysia that have risen so much to compete with their former colonial masters. In the case of Vietnam which waged a 15-year war against the US, the country is today a leading exporter of coffee, fish, rice and locally manufactured goods. The US is even one of Vietnam’s major importers. The richest continent, poorest people Africa is the world’s richest in resources yet her peoples are the poorest. Why does being independent in Africa mean becoming poor? In the last 50 years of Africa’s independence, according to Mills, most economies have either remained producers of primary goods or even dipped in production with Sub-Saharan Africa’s global trade shrinking from four percent in 1960 to two percent in 2010. The question is why does Africa’s 315 million people – one in two in Sub-Saharan Africa live on less than US$ per day; 184 million – 33% of the African population – are malnourished; average income per capita dipped in 20 African countries; less than 50% of Africa’s population accesses hospitals; 300 million do not access safe water; average life expectancy is 41 years; only 57% of children attend primary education with one of three completing school; one in six children die before turning five; half of all people wounded or die in wars are children; and one person out of five has electricity. Yet Africa owns nine percent bauxite; five percent aluminium; 44% chromite: 57% cobalt; five percent copper; 21% gold; our percent iron ore; two percent steel; three percent lead; 39% manganese; two percent zinc; four percent cement; 46% diamond; two percent graphite; 31% phosphate; five percent coal; 13% mineral fuels; and 16% uranium. It is no wonder, Mills notes, that globalisation has left Africa behind because even countries such as Nigeria that has earned US$400 billion in 40 years in oil revenue, an estimated one percent of that country’s 138 million people benefit. He further says that had Nigeria not discovered oil, she would be 25% richer from agriculture which was abandoned when oil was found. In addition Mills states that Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Angola whose economies are based on oil suffer the same fate. The choice to be poor Mills’ book opens with this simple, painful truism: “The main reason why Africa’s people are poor is because their leaders have made this choice.” Mills further says Africa has the biggest voting bloc in the UN, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other such organisations, but does not know how to use its vote wisely. “None of this (Africa’s vote) does one bit for Africa or for Africans outside of the New York diplomats, who revel in such posturing or those leaders overwrought by their own anti-colonial complexes. Africa is often the subject of these meetings, but its leaders generally miss the point,” he writes. African leaders do not see the bigger picture and each leader looks at what their country will benefit from engaging countries that have built their wealth from and on African resources. All African leaders would rather pawn African diamonds, gold, copper, uranium and oil for donor funding. Imagine this: 32 of 48 Sub-Saharan countries live on food aid; an estimated 40% of Africa’s arable land lies unutilised; US$560b aid money has been pumped into Africa in the last 50 years; agriculture gets on average eight percent of national budget even though 70% of most populations rely on this sector. This is where Tweya’s dismay and frustration most probably is rooted. Why is it that we have so much yet we end up with nothing? The reason, Mills writes is because Africa does not realise its potential. “In a half-century of independence, Africa has not realised its potential. Instead, its greatest national assets have undermined its prosperity. Africa’s youth, far from being a huge source of talent and energy to be harnessed, are regarded as a distabilising force because they are largely unemployed and uneducated. This is not only a threat to Africa’s security. By 2025 one in four young people worldwide will be from Sub-Saharan Africa. If they do not find jobs on the continent, they will seek them elsewhere.” Africa’s potential lies in its vast human resource that can be harnessed to convert the natural resources for the benefit of its people just like what the Asians have done. There is nothing that can stop Africa from processing her raw materials on the continent and then export finished products if the leaders real care and are committed. Billions of dollars are channeled to armies while youths who hold the future of African countries lack education and skills to uplift and transform Africa into tigers. A 2012 UNESCO report, All Global Monitoring Report, Putting Education to Work states that a third of young people in Sub-Saharan Africa fail to complete primary school and lack skills for work. More than 56 million – an equivalent of region’s youthful population - people aged 15 to 24 do not complete primary school and need alternative pathways to acquire basic skills for employment and prosperity. About two-thirds of Africa’s population is under 25. Irina Bokova of UNESCO says the best answer to Africa’s economic growth is ensuring that young people acquire skills. “We are witnessing a young generation frustrated by the chronic mismatch between skills and work. The best answer to the economic downturn and youth unemployment is to ensure that young people acquire the basic skills and relevant training they need to enter the world of work with confidence,” she said adding that many youth, and women in particular, need to be offered alternative pathways to education, so that they gain the skills to earn a living, live in dignity and contribute to their communities and societies. According to the report every US$1 spent on a person’s education, yields US$10-US$15 in economic growth over that person’s working lifetime. And Africa misses this simple fact. Now stupid is what then? Self-recolonisation One of Africa’s biggest problems is the leadership that is still stuck in the past. All the problems are blamed on the colonial master even where a country has had 20 years of so-called self-governance. There is always talk about the West and any other super power initiating re-colonisation yet African leaders have effectively re-colonised their people. Former UK Conservative MP who is now a columnist, Matthew Parris in 2008 summed this recolonisation phobia saying great powers aren’t interested in administering wild places any more, still less in settling them but just raping them. “Black gangster governments sponsored by self-interested Asian or Western powers could become the central story in 21st-century African history. The continent is in many places run by outfits that resemble gangs rather than governments. You hardly need visit … the gang’s territory … you simply give it support, munitions, bribes and protection to keep the roads and airports open and it pays you with access to resources. It is when China, then America, and perhaps even Russia or India follows, that the scramble for Africa will truly be resumed,” Parris said. The late Bob Marley said none but ourselves can free our minds (and create wealth for generations to come.)
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 01:19:09 +0000
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