Opinion
The season of Africa
One. We ought to fiercely resist the temptation to be carried away by numbers. African governments are experts at pursuing statistical success at the expense of experiential, verifiable development. Which is why you’ll go on Twitter and see a Nigerian presidential spokesperson announcing that Nigeria’s life expectancy has risen by four years and expecting us to pause what we’re doing to applaud him.
Worshipful submission to these statistics (rising gross domestic product, rising foreign direct investments, etc) and acronymed-diadems (BRINCS and MINT membership cards) very easily steal energy and focus away from the real issues, which have to do with the gritty realities of the daily lives of the continent’s people (minimum wages, functioning schools and hospitals, access to capital, property rights, etc) and provide baseless refuge for lazy and mediocre governments.
That explains the conundrum of a Nigeria with an economy growing at more than 6 percent per annum year-on-year, but that still has not found a way to break free from the curse of darkness – 14 years after the return of democracy and billions of dollars later, we’re still having to listen to government officials demanding commendation (sometimes going as far as on the CNN for this) for providing us 4,000MW of electricity. Jokers.
Two. African countries also need to be more wary and more inquisitive of the antics, passions and ambitions of “do-gooders” – whether they be individuals, corporate organizations or governments. Which is why it’s interesting to read the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi’s hard-hitting China piece that appeared in the Financial Times last month. Sanusi comes out firing from the first line: “It is time for Africans to wake up to the realities of their romance with China.” He goes on to say that “Africa is now willingly opening itself up to a new form of imperialism” and that “a significant contributor to Africa’s de-industrialization and underdevelopment.” Ouch.
The Chinese authorities didn’t exactly appreciate those comments. As I imagine they will not appreciate the one by Zimbabwean Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, at the Reuters Africa Investment Summit in Johannesburg last week. Biti is quoted as saying: “The sad reality is that China are not comrades. Their companies are there to make profits like everyone else. The African textile industry has basically collapsed because of cheap Chinese imports … Africa needs China but let’s create an equitable relationship.”
More than anything else, I think the continent requires self-confidence. We ought to seek to replace the 1980s and 90s clamour for foreign aid with a clamor for self-confidence. That’s the injection we need, upon which all other things shall be added.
It is this self-confidence that will provide the basis for the push for equitable commercial relationships with the rest of the world. It is this self-confidence that will enable us realize the deep value that lies in intra-African trade – and spur the development of the kind of policies and infrastructure that will open the continent up to itself. It is this self-confidence that will propel the proliferation of Africa-inspired, African-owned ideas and solutions, to replace the current blind faith in the efficacy of “all-wise and all-knowing” western offerings.
