Driven by a sense of collective despair, underachievement and the will to address shortcomings
on the African continent, Nigeria and indeed, other African countries, have become regular
participants at functions organised by external institutions.
That seems to justify the increasing tendency towards proffering solution to Africa’s problems
by most countries located elsewhere outside the continent. This is reflected in the rising number
of international initiatives that focus on different aspects of Africa, a continent characterised by
high level of poverty and socio-economic degradation.
This is in view of the general consensus that such external engagements should have been
handled internally in Africa by Africans, given that the continent’s destiny is in the hands of its
citizens whose plight should tug at the conscience of those in leadership positions and compel a
greater attention to making the continent more conducive to the realisation of dreams.
In other words, the initiatives are what African countries, under the auspices of the African
Union (AU), should have carried out in terms of leading Africa towards peace and prosperity,
sustainable development and integration. Some of these milestones are embedded in the AU
Agenda 2063 including the Programme of Infrastructure Development for Africa (PIDA) and the
Common African Agriculture Plan.
A number of these foreign initiatives have been organized by countries within and outside Africa
including China, India, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in
Japan, Sochi in Russia and Aswan in Egypt.
These are the various international summits aimed at refocusing attention of African leaders
from their pitiable state of incurable mediocrity, to discuss Africa’s problems and proffer
solutions affecting the continent including large deficits in finance, infrastructure, security, and
resolving dichotomies, among others.
Outcomes of some of the international investment summits seem to find feet on the ground of
reality as the various organisers come with packages believed to keep Africa out of
disempowering poverty. Available statistics reveal that in China, about $60 billion was provided
to African countries to access for infrastructural development. In Japan, it was about $40 billion
that was made available to help African countries in the area of innovation and technology. In
Sochi Russia, it was a debt relief of about $20 billion in addition to opening its doors for
cooperation in the areas of oil and gas, mining, agriculture, education, security, military
development and the growth of defence industries of African countries. In Saudi Arabia, it was a
sovereign wealth of about $200 billion that was offered. With these grants, it appears that
quantum leaps have been recorded from sincere promises to fulfillment.
But it is only judicious utilisation of these resources that can develop the economy of, and
improve living standard in Africa. Such investments are capable of providing robust opportunity
in the private sector to engage actively in driving development process and accelerating
industrialization on the continent.
From statistics, in terms of resources, Africa has 30% of the world’s known proven resources yet
the continent is poor. These are linked to bad leadership arising from institutional incapacities
and hesitant attitude of member states of the AU, which finds it difficult to make the great leap
forward to take Africa to the next level. This seems to give the impression that foreign summits
are gradually taking over the roles of the AU and other regional bodies in Africa. This is evident
in their quest to continually engage Africa on a broader and larger scale, given the continent’s
inability to articulate coherent and integrated programmes in solving its problems.
Surely, Africa has failed to rethink its own approach to global interaction and global diplomacy.
As a result, Africa seems to be vulnerable and demeaning itself as a continent that is running to
various world cities to discuss its problems which do not in any way confound standard solutions
and approaches. Sadly, international engagements have become attention-getters in terms of
telling African leaders to sit up and pay attention to Africa’s problems.
Inasmuch as Africa is not excluded from the dynamism of a global village, there is a strong and
legitimate reservation about placing too much hope in externally driven solutions to the
continent's problems. Devoid of any form of posturing, this in itself, is an invitation for Africans
to reflect on the true purpose of leadership.
This ties in well with the theme of the past Aswan Forum in Egypt tagged “The Africa We
Want.” This is instructive because the Africa of our dreams cannot be engendered by foreigners
whose actions are largely driven by self-interest. It is Africans themselves that will work towards
a peaceful and prosperous continent.
Sometimes, one wonders whether Africa will ever catch up with the rest of the world at the rate
it holds on to retrogressive narratives. Our collective predicament is responsible for our failure to
make progress. The present state of uncertainty about the future of Africa and the living
conditions of its people will persist until the continent generates from within an ideology of
equal dynamism that can fill the vacuum and act as a bulwark against foreign-driven solutions to
Africa's problems.
Africa must look inwards to develop its capacities, trade more with each other and advance the
process of integration by bringing back the core responsibilities and duties of its regional bodies
and the AU to be led by credible people.
It is time to launch and implement ideas that will translate into collective social flourishing.
Africa should develop the capacity to engage with the world on its own terms. As citizens, we
must cherish our freedom and the values that define a focused society by being proactive. This
way, we can give meaning to responsibility and accountability. We should rise to the occasion
and prevent the continent from sliding into dysfunction, a call to take up the challenge, speak
truth to leaders and demand a commitment of positive change in values, thoughts and reasoning.
Africa will do well to ensure evidence-based policymaking by enlisting the collective wisdom of
its scholars. Think-tanks like the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), the
Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), among others, should play leading roles in
offering advice to government in this regard. Also, government on its part, should give itself over
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