CHRONICLES OF POVERTY (2): ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE
But those who break the Covenant of Allah, after having plighted their word thereto, and cut asunder those things which Allah has commanded to be joined, and work mischief in the land; –on them is the Curse; for them is the terrible Home! (Quran 13:25)*
*”There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men”*_. Ludwig Von Mises
By Babatunde Jose
The solution to the problems of Africa is within the often-repeated issue of purposeful leadership. Everything necessary for the economic emancipation of Africa is on the continent: It is the husbandry and management of the vast human, mineral and agricultural resources, abundant fertile land and climatology that spans the Tropics of Cancer to the Tropics of Capricorn, with cool temperate Mediterranean climate to the bargain, that pose a major problem.
Everything grows in Africa, from apples to grapes, to dates to avocados, bananas to palms. We also grow cotton to sugarcane, tea, coffee, and papayas, including wheat, rice and other grains. We are blessed with minerals ranging from iron, tin, gold, diamond to uranium and chromium. There is nothing of value under the sun that cannot be found under the African sun. Why then is Africa the land of poverty?
We have proved incapable of managing our God-given resources and have allowed our gifts of nature to turn into our perdition.
Over a million mile of documents, treatises, dissertations, theses, and books have been produced on how to alleviate poverty in Africa. They have been the source of policies and programs but unfortunately, most have failed as a result of poor implementation, unseriousness of the bureaucracy, mismanagement of the funds, and often outright derailment of the projects. In most cases, it had not been for want of sound vision and objectives.
But, according to Prof. Oyelaran Oyeyinka, Senior Special Adviser on Industrialization to the President of African Development Bank, *‘Nigeria’s problem is people, not policies’*. Which goes back to our often-repeated conjecture about the leadership conundrum.
The federal government introduced an ambitious program between 2003 and 2007 known as the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). These plans have not achieved the expected results, not because they lacked basic objectives, but the implementers failed to empower those the program set out to empower but the pockets of the officials.
“Rather than the modern industrial economy we hoped for, there emerged a country with widespread poverty, poor infrastructural stock, massive unemployment, technological backwardness, and excessive debt burden. This is classic low-level economic equilibrium. It is not about plans and policies. It is about the motives, commitment, and patriotic propensity of those who hold the levers of power.” Says Prof. Oyeyinka
Therefore, despite the huge resources successive governments have committed to alleviate and or eradicate poverty, no success has been achieved. It is the human factor at work. This is the so-called Nigerian factor.
We have had various poverty alleviation programs among which are, Operation Feed the Nation, Green Revolution, Better Life for Rural Women, Family Economic Advancement Program, DIFFRI, and at a more advanced level, OMPADEC, NDDC. Given the scandal in the NDDC that featured the “off the mic” incident, how can that agency operate to serve the purpose for which it was established. All the poverty alleviation programs have not been successful; some are due to inadequate funding, lack of proper coordination and commitments, poor design, and evaluation of programs etc.
In order to get Nigeria out of the poverty trap, the new president should sit down with political and corporate leaders and agree with them on the policies and programs to adopt, but most important to ‘ring-fence’ them from cronyism, corruption and execute them using competent people. This is what General Park Chung-Hee did in South Korea in the 1960s.
The political, bureaucratic, and corporate elites must agree on the vision for Nigeria because the attitude and actions of the political and bureaucratic elite tend to determine the rate and direction of the country’s progress. Our problem is not policy and plans; our challenge is the elites and their pedestrian and visionless vision, which inexorably infects the general populace.
These are men who would not bat an eye before robbing Peter, and robbing Paul too, to the bargain. They have pauperized their people and sentenced them to penury. This is the bane of underdevelopment in Africa: They are the Enemies of the people.
Today, the story is still the same; Africa continues to be a market for finished goods; with their fortunes at the whims of international currency exchange rate.
The case of some African countries can buttress our point. Since independence, Congo has been in crisis; Mobuto Sese Seko killed Patrice Lumumba, renamed the country Zaire (now DR Congo); Mobuto went on to become one of the worst despots of all times and was richer than his country until Laurent Kabila pushed him out in May 1997. Today, after nearly two decades of wars and conflicts, DR Congo is among the most dangerous countries in the world, yet it is blessed with untold riches and resources.
Yoweri Museveni came to office in 1986 and is still on his seat after 37 years, without bringing about any meaningful change in the life of his people.
Late Robert Gabriel Mugabe: the white man’s nemesis, and his gang of thieves took Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 and it became one of the best economies in Africa: Before his death in 2019 he had helped to wreck Zimbabwe’s economy. One third of Zimbabweans live in exile or are seeking economic/political asylum. His successor is not faring better. Gold, one of the country’s mineral resources, is being smuggled, big time. See the documentary by *Al-Jazeera – Gold Mafia*. Blessed with a good climate for mechanized agriculture, the country was a breadbasket and exporter of tobacco until all hell broke loose.
Today, Angola is still trying to rebuild from the kleptomania of the late Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, 36 years in power. Angola is one of Africa’s largest oil producers, but despite the country’s oil, diamonds, hydroelectric potential, and rich agricultural land, most Angolans remain poor.
As we write, the Republic of South Africa is experiencing its worst power crisis as a result of corruption and mismanagement. A once, beacon of hope for the African continent, has regressed into a situation probably worse than during the time or apartheid. Poor housing, unemployment, crime, and insecurity are now the lot of South Africans. The dividend of freedom has become a mirage.
Equatorial Guinea with its oil wealth and less than a million people, has not improved the lot of the populace but only the family and cronies of President Teodore Obiang Nguema Mbasago who has spent over thirty years in power.
The story of Nigeria is a pathetic one. Once named the giant of Africa, a country with rich human and natural resources has been brought to the brink due to years of bad leadership. Economic woes, insecurity, civil wars, internal strife and conflicts, ethnic and religious cleansing, looting of public wealth, capital flight, lack of infrastructure and capacity development have become the hallmarks of Nigeria’s underdevelopment. The elasticity of corruption in Africa is like an unchained spirit.
Democratic regimes have not done much to expedite the cause of Africa’s transformation; rather, countries like Nigeria operate the most expensive yet wasteful democracies in the world. In many African countries the leadership is composed of crooked men and women who ought to be in jail. Frantz Fanon was right after all, chastising the African Middle Class in his epic piece, *‘Pitfalls of National Consciousness’*:
_“National consciousness, instead of being the all-embracing crystallization of the innermost hopes of the whole people, instead of being the immediate and most obvious result of the mobilization of the people, will be in any case only an empty shell, a crude and fragile travesty of what it might have been. . . . . the result of the intellectual laziness of the national middle class, of its spiritual penury, and of the profoundly cosmopolitan mould that its mind is set in. . . . an under-developed middle class. . . .We go on sending out raw materials; we go on being Europe’s small farmers who specialize in unfinished products. . . . . The national middle class discovers its historic mission: that of intermediary”._
What have the leaders done with our money? “Many Nigerian states receive revenue allocations which are larger than the budgets of neighboring countries such as Liberia, Gambia, and Benin. The top two recipients of state allocations –Akwa Ibom and Rivers –receive about half of the entire budget of Ghana.” – Okonjo Iweala.
The docility of Africans is legendary. It’s about time we started asking our leaders to account for their stewardship. A core function of leadership is to motivate, inspire and unify citizens around core values, set goals to be achieved, and point to the future state or condition to which a country aspires.
We can’t face or build the future by relying on those whose “skill sets” lie in the past. It’s time for a different game. We need a paradigm shift in Africa. _“As a matter of urgency, the underdevelopment of the nation caused by the mindless corruption and criminal diversion of public funds by unpatriotic public officers on our hapless people should be addressed”_ – Femi Falana.
The time for change is now! Africa must look to a new generation of leaders that can actually solve the myriad problems of nation building, joblessness, aggravated and naked poverty and weak institutions. Like one protester said, _‘Our Mumu Don Do’_. We need to start asking questions.
*May the wealth Allah has bestowed on us not be the source of our perdition.*
*Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend. And as we look forward to the coming Eid al Adha, we wish you all Eid Mubarak*.
*Babatunde Jose*
