Why is it that arguably the world’s richest continent in terms of natural resources has some of the world’s poorest people? Africa has 30% of the earth’s mineral resources. It is home for 54 different nations and it is amazing to note that the people speak 2000 different languages! I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that I worked in Nigeria from 1976 for five years, as their doctor’s remuneration was far higher than in India. Since then their prosperity declined and expatriates started leaving the country. Let me examine various causes for this sad situation, in spite of various charities helping many of the countries in Africa.
Trade routes to Africa was established between 16th and 17th century, and the English merchants first traded slave merchandise in 1698. In most of the African countries the ‘chief’ of ethnic community was empowered to barter human beings for European commodities. In fact the commodities sold by Europeans such as clothes and sugar were manufactured in European countries by the raw materials taken from African countries. In this blog, I am not going into the hardship and humiliation endured by slaves. Once the country lost the able bodied youngsters, it suffered growth because there were fewer people to do farming, manufacturing and infrastructure work. That was the beginning of the decline.
Denmark and Norway first abolished the slave trade in 1803, followed by Great Britain and later by America. In fact this resulted in reduced income for the African countries, whilst the would be slaves were not educated or trained to do any trade. This made severe trade deficit and those African countries became debt ridden. In the 19th century, most African countries were colonised by Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Portugal who exploited the situation and drove African countries into even more debt. The first African country to get independence was Liberia in 1847 and the last one was Zimbabwe in 1980.
Unlike Asian countries, Independence did not generally help African countries. Democracy did not work well in Africa because the fabric of the society is deep rooted in ethnicity. In Nigeria, the major ethnic fractions were Igbos in Biafran area, Yoruba in western area, and Hausas in Northern areas. To become a Nigerian president, the candidate has to work on the ‘vote bank’ based on the ethnicity. Once he or she becomes the president, the first thing he/she would do was to reward the ethnic leaders with lucrative posts. This resulted in inefficient or less talented people in the government, resulting in less satisfied people in the country.
Poor administration and corruption in police enforcement resulted a surge in crime rate, and many of my friends in Nigeria were victims of armed robbery. Whilst in Nigeria, we seldom travel after 8pm, as the armed robbers normally operate in the darkness. For the past two years, we have been hearing about Boko Haram model of kidnapping school girls and exchanging them for ransom. Since this happens in the North of Nigeria, the elite Lagos government lobbyists seldom care for it. This unabated brutal criminal activity tarnished the image of Nigeria and puts off new business ventures in the country. Similar organised crimes, carjacking, forced ATM cashing, hitman activity, coercion, drug trafficking are more common in African countries than elsewhere. Whilst in Nairobi, I was asked not to carry a briefcase, as snatchers were active all the time, and police seldom take action against it. The above lists of crimes dissuade tourists visiting African countries and investors keep away from Africa.
On a number of occasions when I argue about the crimes in Africa with a person of African origin, he/she would put that such crimes are there in Europe also. But the frequency is much lower and the law enforcers are more dedicated than their African counterpart.In most African countries. the law enforcers are known to be in the payroll of criminals and in every walk of life ‘kickback’ is an accepted model of business. For getting business licenses and clearing other formalities, the business owner bribes the minister or concerned authorities. Let me highlight the mind-boggling scale of high level embezzlement in Democratic Republic of Congo. Africa’s greatest kleptocrat, Mobutu Sese Seko ex president of DRC, was estimated to have embezzled between US$4 billion and $15 billion during his 32 year reign. He accomplished this by selling his nation’s rich natural resources while his government was forced to default on international loans, infrastructure virtually collapsed, public service workers went months without being paid and many of his people starved.
Let me examine what are the consequences of kickbacks, corruption, bribery, nepotism and cronyism. 1) It causes bitterness and dissatisfaction in the society, less loyalty to the country. 2) Gap between rich and poor increases, persuading people into crime 3) Countries economic growth is affected as fewer businesses are attracted to a country with poor law and order record 4) Kickbacks make the infrastructure or other construction less safe, and the government ends up in a vicious cycle not to investigate if any disaster happens. 5) Money laundering and black money make parallel economy in the country. 6) Politicians recycle the unaccounted money to capture power in the next election and thereby perpetuating one party rule.
When I went Nigeria, the head of state was Murtala Muhammed, who was assassinated and Obasanjo became the head of state through a military coup.. Same is the case with most other countries. We are bombarded with the news of civil unrest when the ex president Zumo of South Africa was arrested and put in jail for contempt of the court. Since 2015, twelve African countries had coup and the head of state was either assassinated or exiled. The last coup was on 24/05/2021 when Bath Ndawe Moctar Ouane became the president of Mali. Colonial masters, Great Britain and France were summoned several times to tackle the civil unrest following a coup. Stability of the country is a key factor in business investment and its success.
A 2014 estimate suggests that rich Africans were holding a massive $500bn in tax havens. Africa’s people are effectively robbed of wealth by an economy that enables a tiny minority of Africans to get rich by allowing wealth to flow out of Africa.Countries like Switzerland, UK and other developed EU countries are accessory to the embezzlement, by hiding the loot. The politicians in power amass wealth through kickbacks, and they siphon the money into foreign bank accounts. The above wealthy countries seldom ask the source of the booty. If they enquire, they would realize that the money belongs to the law abiding countrymen of Africa. It is an irony that countries like Great Britain(0.7% of budget)and Switzerland (0.4%of budget) pay international aid fund to improve the plight of Africa without correcting the basic anomaly. In fact this sort of charity is like giving alm to an able bodied beggar! One other thing UK is doing is giving refuge to those emblezzers and allowing the culprits to escape the justice from their mother country.
Lack of infrastructure like electricity and water supply, a lot of manufacturing businesses could not be started in certain African countries. This also affected farming and some of the countries have to import food. Devastation due to drought is a common occurrence in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. But that is only a minor contributor in making Africa poor, as a number of desert countries currently flourish. The continent has the highest number of malnourished children. There are endemic diseases in Africa, including in Egypt due to parasites and viruses. These diseases affected the physical, mental capabilities and intelligence quotient (IQ) of inhabitants. Economists say, healthy citizens are the greatest asset of a country, and therefore unhealthy Africa cannot stand strong on world stage.
The share of world trade for Africa as a whole was around 5.5 percent in 1960; now it has plunged to 2.5 percent. The shrinking of world trade of Africa is due to poor governance, lack of transparency, embezzlement of country’s wealth by political elite and civil wars. Asylum seekers, and economic migrants from Africa leave their mother country, not just because of the economy, but because of the political system. I am of the opinion that developed countries should interfere if the head of state of an African country plunders the wealth of the country. Also developed countries should not allow these political mafias to open a bank account, or allow refugee status to these elites who flee their country. In my view, it is unlikely Africa will get out of this predicament and poverty will linger on for many years to come.
Dr.C.J.George FRCS
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