AFRICA: RICH CONTINENT, POOR PEOPLE. WHAT WENT WRONG?

THIS MUST STOP!

African countries in the global community are defined by the belief that the continent is an indispensable resources base, which has served all humanity for many centuries. These resources can be broken down into the following sub-marginal headings, such as:

• The rich complex of minerals oil and gas deposits, it provides the flora and fauna, and its unexploited natural habitat which provides the basis for mining, agriculture, tourism and industrial development.

• The ecological hung provided by the continent rain forests, and the minimal presence of emissions and effluents that are harmful to the environments. These are beneficial to all mankind.

• The pole ontological and the archeological sites containing evidences of the evolution of the earth, life and the human species, and

• The benevolence of Africa’s culture and its contribution to the variety of the cultures of the global community.” (Olasode, 1994:13).

On the basis of Madison’s (1995:65) it is estimated that per capital Gross Domestic Profit (GDP) for a sample of countries, during the first half of the century, Africa had grown considerably more rapidly than Asia. By 1950, the African sample had overtaken the Asian sample. In the 1960s, Africa’s future looked bright, especially that the continent was gradually disengaging from the bondage of colonial imperialism. But today, Africa is the poorest continent in the world. While there has been a steady growth in countries of Asia, such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, African states have lagged behind. Why is African development growing slowly? What went wrong in Africa?

We will try to outline some of the major problems that have faced Africa which contributed to its stagnation in development and growth process down the years. These include;

Less Democracy and more Bureaucratic

For much of the post-colonial era, a number of African governments have remained undemocratic. Between 1970s and 1980s, most governments in Africa were close to autocracy, and far less democratic than the non-African developing countries. The pattern of the democratic governance in Africa was dominated by the educated elites, urban-resident population, with little agricultural or commercial interest. Some saw leadership positions as their birth right and remained in power even against democratic principles. Except such autocratic leaders are killed or forced out of power, they would ever remain. Prolong stay in power without any meaningful mission and vision has impacted the development and growth of the continent. For example, they expanded the public sector while imposing wide-ranging controls on private activity. These policies had negative economic consequences on the continent. Public employment was expanded, often as an end in itself. Since the sector was the main priority of the political officials, the managers were not under serious checks for actual service delivery. Because of the lack of democracy, the political leaders were not accountable, answerable and responsible to the broader public interest. As a result, Africa experienced poor public services delivery despite relatively high public expenditure. Poor service delivery handicapped firms through unreliable transport and power, inadequate telecommunications, and unreliable courts.

Countries such as Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya are good examples to be cited of poor services delivery in Africa.

External-Destiny

The location of Africa in the world map is better than Asia for most developed economy markets. But the greatest dismay about the its location is that most Africans live further from the coast than in other regions and faces the problem of high transport cost to move goods and services from one place to another. Much of the population of Africans lives in the land-locked areas, so much that the problems of distance are compounded by political barriers. For example, in 2008, when Kenya was rocked by Post-Election Violence, rowdy youths uprooted the Mombasa-Kisumu railway thus hindering transportation of goods to land-locked Uganda. It is an established fact that land-locked countries face national borders on all sides, this may constitute barrier to trade even if they have good relations with their neighbors. Trade relations among and between African states appears to be restrictive resulting into substantial impediments.

External-Policy

African governments formulate and adopt trade policies that are not in best interest of economic development. The policies which are anti-export and result into accumulated of large foreign debts. Available records show that Africa has had much higher trade barriers and more misaligned exchange rates than other regions (Dollar, 1992). The exchange rates, tariffs and taxes are much higher in Africa than in other regions of the world. Exports are reduced as a result of taxation. Tariffs and trade restrictions has also been higher in Africa than elsewhere, which affects its economic development in a way. The crisis can be attributed to the deteriorating and unfavourable terms of trade. African countries seem to be less developed compare to Asia. China, Japan and Koreas are developed economically and technologically. Even the Third World Countries- such as the famed “Asian Tigers” have transformed from very poor and underdeveloped countries to the rank of developed countries.

Yaqub, (2008) argued that it is not just by stealing and/or copying technological skills that these countries successfully transformed themselves; they also embarked on internal measures, such as land distribution, huge investment in human capital and a host of others. Externally, too, they were aided in their development by the access they had to the global capitalist market, both for the sale of their commodities, the purchase of necessary inputs into their production activities and, most importantly, the attraction of foreign capital in-flows.

Poverty

Poverty in Africa has become one of the major problems hampering the growth and development of the continent. In fact, poverty has become a serious issue in Africa. African states fall towards the bottom of any list measuring small size economic activity, such as income per capita or GDP per capita, despite a wealth of natural resources. In 2009, 22 of 24 nations identified as having "Low Human Development" on the United Nations' (UN) Human Development Index were located in Sub-Saharan Africa, UNDP (2009). Most countries in Africa, the GDP per capita are less than $200 U.S. per year, with the vast majority of the population living on much less. In addition, Africa's share of income has been consistently dropping over the past century by any measure. For example, the average European worker in 1820s earned about three times what the average African did. Now, the average European earns twenty times what the average African do, Sarch, (1998). This is largely contributed by the fact that, most Africans are under unofficial employment sectors due to lack or poor education. People live from-hand-to-mouth modes of life.

Diseases

It is a known fact, that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Among all regions in the world, Africa seems to have the highest rates and the largest number of people dying from AIDS despite all the efforts and engagement of some African leaders to stop the spread of the disease. Other disease that has rooted itself so deeply in Africa is malaria. Malaria claims many under aged Africans and pregnant mothers who are more susceptible to the plasmodium infection that causes malaria. This has greatly deterred the growth and development of the continent. Although Africa is inhabited by just over 14.7% of the world's population, it is estimated to have more than 67% of people living with HIV and 75% of all AIDS deaths in 2007. Other killer diseases include Ebola, typhoid, and deficiency diseases in drought hit areas like Somalia.  

Bad Governance/Administration/Corruption

The success any stability of any government depend on the kind of leadership they cultivate. One of the cardinal principles of NEPAD is to improve governance. Good political, economic and corporate governance systems are “necessary foundations to create, stabilise, nurture and utilise capacity for development” (Janneh 2005:3). Bad governance or poor administration hampers the capacity of already bartered economic system. Under such circumstances, capacity backwardness will remain in place and sustainable development will remain a mirage. Weak and bad governance in Africa is characterised, by a combination of many factors, such as poor institutional performance, inadequate parliamentary, lack of the independence of the judiciary system, corrupt police force and press, political instability, abuse and misuse of political offices, insufficient budgetary accountability, lack of respect for the rule of law and human rights, and bureaucratic bottleneck and above all corruption, which has become a thorn in the flesh of most African leaders. Corruption whether is rare, widespread, or systemic, it affects capacity by hindering individuals and institutions from meeting their desirable obligations to deliver goods and services for sustainable and efficient development.

Political Violence and Political Instability

African countries are known for political violence and political instability all in the quest for power. The attitude of African politicians is undemocratic. During the onset of multi-party democracy in the so called third wave of democratisation, (Huntington, 1991), most regimes in Africa did not fully embrace the changes that accompanied the transition. Many autocratic regimes, for instance accepted democracy out of western pressure and agitation for change by local civil society groups. As a consequence, the constitutional frameworks and state institutions have been altered, in order to create an uneven play field against the opposition. All these have resulted into violence during electioneering periods, leading to political instability. The reluctance of some incumbent regimes to live power in Africa has been due to the fear of being held accountable and responsible for misdeeds. In this context, a combination of external and internal factors namely; “the impact of global economy driven by the logic of the market, sectarian and particularistic tendencies, ethnic, religious, linguistics or cultural differences, or political and economic insecurities” (Mohamoud, 2006:15), continue to pay a significant role in shaping the political processes in Africa . Most electoral processes in Africa have been accompanied by political violence, for example in Kenya (2007-08) and Ivory Coast (2011). Most violence in such cases are often state sponsored, to the advantage of the incumbent, while various groups that struggle for state power also deploy hired violence, in the form of informal groups, militias and gangs. In the context of all the violence, it is the ordinary people who lose out in terms of lives and property (IDPs in Kenya who have taken a whole presidential term to be settled). How can development take place under instability and conflict? This is the scenario in most African countries.

Exodus of Skilled Manpower

The movement of skilled human capital from Africa to Europe and America – known as ‘brain drain’– has increased in the last four decades. This exodus has affected the capacity of African countries to deliver public services effectively and efficiently and contribute to the skill-pool requirements of the private sector. While people should be free to choose where they wish to live and work legally, the flow of skilled human capital with respect to Africa is primarily outward to Europe and North America. The exact number of skilled human capital leaving Africa has not been carefully monitored and documented. However, the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) has estimated that Africa loses an average of 20 000 skilled personnel a year to developed countries, excluding students who leave to study abroad (CFA 2005). What is particularly sad is that, most of these professionals, serving outside Africa have no intention to return to the continent due to “Push and Pull” factors which include, poor working conditions and by large small wages. Who will then develop Africa? How would the problems of emigration be solved in Africa? This is a food for thought, for all Africans indeed!

We all need to figure out the way forward, first, at an individual level then collectively as a continent. 'Where there is will,there is a way' goes a Swahili saying.