Opinion / Columnist
Africa must be proud of its own institutions
20 Feb 2015 at 08:01hrs | Views
President Mugabe, as the AU Chairman, implored all Africans to utilize African resources in financing African operations. His call for Africa to be for Africans meant that Africans should be proud to be identified with their continent where natural resources are plenty and second to none in abundance the world over.
As such African leaders should be proud of and have confidence in the African institutions in fighting any vice that might befall the African continent. While Africa has been under attack from diseases like Ebola, HIV and AIDS, Malaria and other diseases, African leaders have not come together to strategize on how to deal with such diseases. It has been a big problem for African countries to come together and deal with such vices in the continent.
The outbreak of Ebola in countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and other Western African countries late in 2013 saw the World Health Organisation (WHO) sending medical experts into Africa to deal with the outbreak. African leaders were caught unaware as nearly ten thousand people succumbed to that disease. It was disturbing that there was no plan put in place by African leaders to handle such an outbreak as it needed the intervention of experts from outside the continent to deal with that pandemic.
While it is not wrong to consult international community when Africa is faced with problems ranging from diseases, wars, economic malaise, Africa should now realize that African problems need African solutions. It is high time that Africa becomes independent economically, socially, culturally and physically so that the continent is able to wean itself off from western dependence syndrome. Africans should have expertise to deal with such problems without international intervention.
For that reason, Africa should embrace the call by the current AU Chairperson, President Mugabe's call, for Africa to be for Africans. It is high time that African leaders embrace African solutions to African problems. Africa should realize that it is endowed with natural resources which if utillised carefully and magnificently the continent can finance its operations without the assistance from western countries. In actual fact western countries got developed just because of their exploitation of African natural resources which are scattered around the continent.
As such the appeal by the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, to the United States of America (USA) to assist the Nigerian government to fight the Boko Haram insurgents, at a time when the AU is planning to send its African forces, is unfortunate. The Nigerian leader seems to have no confidence in the African forces that are ready to decent on the Nigerian soil to destroy the Boko Haram rebels. The African force is now ready to hunt down the rebels who have been committing heinous crimes against humanity since it first launched its military operations in 2009 targeting Christians and unarmed as well as vulnerable school going children.
Boko Haram, which was founded in 2002 meaning "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language, has been fighting the Nigerian government in order to create an Islamic state in that populous and oil rich African country.
The AU, which recently officially termed the Boko Haram, an international problem is intending to destroy those rebels by using the combined forces but the Nigerian leader thinks otherwise. It is surprising that the Nigerian leader fails to recognise the strength and power that the AU forces in countering Boko Haram rebels and choose to call for American assistance.
It is high time that African countries have confidence in the African institutions so that the coming generation is able to wean itself from our former colonisers. Exporting labour to western and developed countries should also make people bring back expertise on the exploitation of mineral resources for the betterment of the continent. Beneficiation of the African resources would make it possible for the continent to become developed.
It is crystally clear that developed countries were once underdeveloped but their belief in themselves, coupled by continuous experimentation of new ideas, made them realize how to utilize natural resources to their benefit. In actual fact the reason for colonization of Africa was for Europeans to siphon natural resources from Africa so that they could feed them into their markets. The development of the western countries was made possible by the mineral resources which were exploited in Africa leaving the African continent under developed. Even Walter Rodney, in his 1972 book, "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa," confirms that Europe was developed by the exploitation of the African mineral resources, leaving African countries under developed.
So, African leaders should realize that having faith in the western countries, thinking that they would be assisted, is a waste of time. African countries should have faith in African institutions so that Africa remains for Africans. Surprisingly, African leaders fail to realize and appreciate that western aid do not come cheap.
Why is it that African leaders fail to come up with their prepared plans of action to counter problems that they encounter in life? Why would Africans think that foreign assistance, either financially or militarily, is better than that from within the continent? For that reason, Africans should come up with institutions meant to assist the whole of Africa in times of need. There is no problem utilizing mineral resources for the continent to build a strong African army and also a financial institution modeled in the form of the World Bank. Since there is the Africa Development Bank (ADB), it is high time that this bank is well capitalized so that African countries can get assistance from it instead of rushing to the WB and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance.
It is a fact that these two Breton Woods institutions do not give cheap money to developing countries as financial aid comes with strings attached. Such strings sometimes leave trails of destruction on developing countries' economies. For example, Zimbabwe bear testimony to this as the Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP), which was prescribed to this country in the 1990s, created economic malaise. The results of ESAP were negative to Zimbabwe to the extent that even today the country has not yet recovered from the economic demise which was brought by ESAP and thereafter sanctions imposed by the western countries as reaction to the land redistribution program that was undertaken by the country during the turn of the 21st century.
As such African countries should have faith in African institutions instead of rushing to western countries for any assistance.
As such African leaders should be proud of and have confidence in the African institutions in fighting any vice that might befall the African continent. While Africa has been under attack from diseases like Ebola, HIV and AIDS, Malaria and other diseases, African leaders have not come together to strategize on how to deal with such diseases. It has been a big problem for African countries to come together and deal with such vices in the continent.
The outbreak of Ebola in countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and other Western African countries late in 2013 saw the World Health Organisation (WHO) sending medical experts into Africa to deal with the outbreak. African leaders were caught unaware as nearly ten thousand people succumbed to that disease. It was disturbing that there was no plan put in place by African leaders to handle such an outbreak as it needed the intervention of experts from outside the continent to deal with that pandemic.
While it is not wrong to consult international community when Africa is faced with problems ranging from diseases, wars, economic malaise, Africa should now realize that African problems need African solutions. It is high time that Africa becomes independent economically, socially, culturally and physically so that the continent is able to wean itself off from western dependence syndrome. Africans should have expertise to deal with such problems without international intervention.
For that reason, Africa should embrace the call by the current AU Chairperson, President Mugabe's call, for Africa to be for Africans. It is high time that African leaders embrace African solutions to African problems. Africa should realize that it is endowed with natural resources which if utillised carefully and magnificently the continent can finance its operations without the assistance from western countries. In actual fact western countries got developed just because of their exploitation of African natural resources which are scattered around the continent.
As such the appeal by the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, to the United States of America (USA) to assist the Nigerian government to fight the Boko Haram insurgents, at a time when the AU is planning to send its African forces, is unfortunate. The Nigerian leader seems to have no confidence in the African forces that are ready to decent on the Nigerian soil to destroy the Boko Haram rebels. The African force is now ready to hunt down the rebels who have been committing heinous crimes against humanity since it first launched its military operations in 2009 targeting Christians and unarmed as well as vulnerable school going children.
Boko Haram, which was founded in 2002 meaning "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language, has been fighting the Nigerian government in order to create an Islamic state in that populous and oil rich African country.
The AU, which recently officially termed the Boko Haram, an international problem is intending to destroy those rebels by using the combined forces but the Nigerian leader thinks otherwise. It is surprising that the Nigerian leader fails to recognise the strength and power that the AU forces in countering Boko Haram rebels and choose to call for American assistance.
It is high time that African countries have confidence in the African institutions so that the coming generation is able to wean itself from our former colonisers. Exporting labour to western and developed countries should also make people bring back expertise on the exploitation of mineral resources for the betterment of the continent. Beneficiation of the African resources would make it possible for the continent to become developed.
It is crystally clear that developed countries were once underdeveloped but their belief in themselves, coupled by continuous experimentation of new ideas, made them realize how to utilize natural resources to their benefit. In actual fact the reason for colonization of Africa was for Europeans to siphon natural resources from Africa so that they could feed them into their markets. The development of the western countries was made possible by the mineral resources which were exploited in Africa leaving the African continent under developed. Even Walter Rodney, in his 1972 book, "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa," confirms that Europe was developed by the exploitation of the African mineral resources, leaving African countries under developed.
So, African leaders should realize that having faith in the western countries, thinking that they would be assisted, is a waste of time. African countries should have faith in African institutions so that Africa remains for Africans. Surprisingly, African leaders fail to realize and appreciate that western aid do not come cheap.
Why is it that African leaders fail to come up with their prepared plans of action to counter problems that they encounter in life? Why would Africans think that foreign assistance, either financially or militarily, is better than that from within the continent? For that reason, Africans should come up with institutions meant to assist the whole of Africa in times of need. There is no problem utilizing mineral resources for the continent to build a strong African army and also a financial institution modeled in the form of the World Bank. Since there is the Africa Development Bank (ADB), it is high time that this bank is well capitalized so that African countries can get assistance from it instead of rushing to the WB and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance.
It is a fact that these two Breton Woods institutions do not give cheap money to developing countries as financial aid comes with strings attached. Such strings sometimes leave trails of destruction on developing countries' economies. For example, Zimbabwe bear testimony to this as the Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP), which was prescribed to this country in the 1990s, created economic malaise. The results of ESAP were negative to Zimbabwe to the extent that even today the country has not yet recovered from the economic demise which was brought by ESAP and thereafter sanctions imposed by the western countries as reaction to the land redistribution program that was undertaken by the country during the turn of the 21st century.
As such African countries should have faith in African institutions instead of rushing to western countries for any assistance.
Source - Mukachana Hanyani
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