![[OPINION] Paradox of African Continent And Her Untapped Resources - Richard Odusanya](/media/k2/items/cache/03b326977e72367eb942c90904fc6141_XL.jpg)
Africa now embodies the fears and hopes of humanity. Isn’t it a paradox that Africa holds vast natural and human resources–oil, gas, minerals, and a young educated populace—yet remains among the world’s poorest?. Naturally, Africa never stop to tantalize the world with its paradoxes – a youthful population juxtaposed with aging infrastructure, and staggering natural wealth, mismanaged and overshadowed by questionable poverty.
Whenever the issue of Africa’s underdevelopment and poverty is raised, the Atlantic Slave Trade, the Scramble for Africa, and, of course, neo-colonialism come to mind easily. Yes! Africa was raped and pillaged by European powers. That cannot be disputed. At the Berlin Conference of 1884 – 1885, Africa was carved up and effectively shared among Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Italy. And each European power treated her share (colony) not as a people but as personal property.
Sadly, the crimes committed in the Congo at the behest of the despicable King Leopold II can only be compared to the Holocaust. From Walter Rodney’s ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ to Kofi Awoonor’s ‘Breast of the Earth’, the horrors visited upon Africa by European powers and much later, America, is well documented.
But for how long will Africa blame the Slave Trade, Colonialism and neocolonialism for the sorry state she still finds herself in? The failure of Africa to realize her potential, despite the abundance of both natural and human resources, it can no longer be blamed on King Leopold II or Otto von Bismarck. These men are long dead. But sadly, they have been replaced by even more ruthless men. Men of African descent; black-men; men who sought to kill and impoverish their own kind – their brothers and sisters. Enter African leaders – the scourge of Africa.
Africa is home to some of the most ridiculously thieving and callous leaders that the world has ever known. It does not matter whether they are dressed in military camouflage, suit or ‘agbada’, history has proven time and again that, African leaders (with a few exceptions), all have the same purpose – thievery on a grand scale! And this has continued to impede development. Africa remains the least developed continent in the world.
According to the United Nations, 33 out of the 46 economies designated as poor are in Africa. One.org estimates that as at 2022, direct aid to African countries stood at $53.5 billion. Sadly, this aid is not used to create an enabling environment for local businesses to thrive. The bulk of direct aid sent to Africa is split into two. One part is stashed away in foreign accounts by corrupt leaders, while the remaining is used almost exclusively to fund the obscenely opulent lifestyle of the same corrupt leaders.
The line between military rule and democracy in Africa keeps getting blurred by the day. Democratically elected leaders have abandoned the rule of law and continue to unleash hell on the people. In some places, the cruelty exhibited by civilian governments pales in comparison when placed side by side with what is obtainable in military juntas. Democracy has been utterly bastardized. How will the numerous overseas trips by African leaders to woo foreign direct investment work? In fact, multinationals are fleeing the continent in droves.
That African leaders are seldom invited to give talks or lectures abroad is a testament to their epic ineptitude that continue to beset growth and development in Africa. A prime example is Nigeria’s immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari. It is worrisome that after over one year, no single institution or organisation anywhere in the world has deemed it fit to invite him to deliver a talk on any subject, not even on cattle rearing his favourite pastime. FPMB, had vowed to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, but at the twilight of his eight-year reign, it was clear to Nigerians that he only managed to almost achieve the exact opposite.
How can a continent that budgets more money for the emoluments and allowances of lawmakers than it budgets for education, healthcare and infrastructure thrive? Take the bizarre scenerio playing out in Nigeria – the emolument and allowances of lawmakers is so outrageous that the figures are not in the public domain. What Nigerian lawmakers earn remains a secret guarded aggressively by members of the two legislative chambers. And all this comes at a time when about half the populace is wallowing in extreme poverty as a result of anti-people government policies.
Let it be known that it is not by accident that education and healthcare in many African countries are in shambles. It is by design. Billions of dollars have been invested in education and healthcare in Africa, yet African leaders jet out to Europe, America, India, the United Arab Emirates, etc. to treat even common cold. Healthcare insurance schemes are mired with corruption and all forms of irregularities. The situation is so grave that even individuals who are considered wealthy are just one serious illness away from bankruptcy.
In several African countries, the earnest dream of about four out of every five youth is to escape to Canada, America or the UK. Inept and corrupt leaders have ensured that the system is rigged to work against the people. The best minds desert the continent in search of better opportunities, as dreams hardly come true in Africa. It is ironic that during the days of slavery, Africans were forcefully taken away, but today they voluntarily flee their motherland.
Economic instability, insecurity, erratic government policies and outrageous taxes keep forcing multinationals away from Africa, thereby increasing unemployment as well as the price of goods and services. Local manufacturing is hardly encouraged or given adequate support. SMEs are suffocated by stringent economic policies that must be enacted to ensure continued government borrowing from the IMF and the World Bank. And the borrowed fund is either mismanaged or embezzled by the same corrupt leaders. With a system like this, why would goal-oriented, ambitious young people want to remain in Africa? How can human capital flight be brought to an end?
Income inequality and uneven distribution of resources have also hampered development in Africa. It is common to see almost the entire populace in many African countries living below the poverty line while the ruling class keeps amassing enormous wealth. Infrastructural development, job creation, provision of social amenities, and governance at the grassroots level are completely neglected. This contributes to the steady rise of vices like armed robbery, advance fee fraud and all manner of insecurity. In Nigeria, the activities of IOCs, if left unchecked, could reduced most places in the Niger Delta to wasteland. Yet the people get very little or nothing in return.
In the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, people, including women and children, work under unsafe conditions just for peanuts. What goes on in the mines of the Congo is nothing short of modern-day slavery. The country accounts for about two-thirds of the world’s cobalt. Yet, the World Bank estimates that 74.6% of people live in extreme poverty, while opportunity.org believes that nearly 3 in 4 people live on less than $1.90 per day. These figures represent one of the largest populations in the world living in extreme poverty.
Again, let us look at Nigeria, the so-called giant of Africa. The uneven distribution of wealth is reflective of the insecurity that continues to bedevil the nation. Virtually all the regions in Nigeria are plagued by one form of security challenge or the other. The north east and north west have been torn apart by Boko Haram terrorists and bloodthirsty bandits. There, kidnapping is a flourishing industry. In the middle belt, marauding herdsmen are on a killing spree, maiming and burning entire communities.
Furthermore, the southwest is plagued by ritual killers and headhunters wandering about with different human parts ranging from skulls to limbs. The separatist agitation in the southeast have been hijacked by armed groups who crave blood more than freedom. It is only in the south-south region in Nigeria, that there is a semblance of sanity and security. The less said about the ritual killings of ‘yahoo boys’, the better. The giant of Africa now precariously walks with the limbs of a mosquito.
Additionally, Prof. PLO Lumumba once posited that the day Nigeria gets it right, Africa will get it right. But there is a saying that if the rat cannot run fast enough, let him give way for the tortoise. African countries must begin to find ways of arresting the menace of leadership failure. Africa must devise means of actively demanding good governance and hold its leaders accountable.
With the exception of Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, military coups in Africa have invariably replaced thieves in suits and ‘babaringa’ with uniformed ones. It is yet to be seen if the recent military takeovers in Mali, Chad, Niger, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Guinea will change this narrative. Similarly, African leaders who sought to vindictively remain in power must look to the example of Nelson Mandela. How long one lasts in office has no direct bearing on productivity and achievement. The rest of the world can one day look at Africa with envy, but to achieve this, African leaders must eschew greed and begin to harness both the natural and human resources Africa is blessed with towards ushering in development.
In conclusion, some African governments and State-owned enterprises have been plaque by corruption, nepotism, and mismanagement of resources, limiting the benefits for broader population.
Finally, overcoming these challenges will require significant investment, strengthening of institutions, and regional cooperation across the continent of Africa – developing the technical and financial capacity to extract and process resources domestically is an important step towards gaining more control over Africa’s natural wealth.
Richard Odusanya