The-foolishness-of-most-african-political-leaders-elites-bourgeois-responsible-for-the-continents-underdevelopment-status-and-backwardness
September 7, 2020 | News
THE FOOLISHNESS OF MOST AFRICAN POLITICAL LEADERS/ELITES/BOURGEOIS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTINENT’S UNDERDEVELOPMENT STATUS AND BACKWARDNESS
President Muhammadu Buhari (Left) and Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo (Right)
“When an African becomes rich: His bank accounts are in Switzerland, He travels to France for medical treatment, He invests in Germany, He buys from Dubai, He consumes Chinese, He prays in Rome or Mecca, His Children study in Europe, He travels to Canada, USA, Europe for tourism. If He dies, He will be buried in His native country of Africa. Africa is just a Cemetery for Africans. How could a Cemetery be developed?” – Russian President, Vladamir V. Putin.
The above statement reportedly made by the Russian President, Vladamir V. Putin, may sound harsh and hard, but that is the bitter truth and pill that Africans, particularly Nigerians, need to swallow and accept as the stark reality of where we have made ourselves to remain, and perhaps there is urgent need to make the necessary sacrifices to change this unhealthy narrative in Africa, especially in Nigeria – supposedly the ‘giant-of-Africa’.
It is a shame that in the Nigeria of today for instance, we have serving and former Council Chairmen, Senators, National and State Assembly members, Governors, Public Servants and even past Presidents, that have countless mansions in different parts of the country; many state-of-the-art-cars which they hardly/never use but are left covered in tarpaulins within their compounds; as well as businesses and structures that only benefit them and their families, fronts and aides. But all around them, are poverty-stricken Nigerians whom they were supposed to serve while in government. Is that not being foolish? It is sad that today, we still find old and very old former political leaders, that ought to have left the political scene for the younger generation, in government circles, simply because of the ‘ambiance of wealth’ they get to misappropriate while in the system. Rather than being ‘elder statesmen’ that are there to advise the younger generation on the right path, they still want to “remain relevant” in Nigerian politics by ensuring nothing happens without their consent, approval and voice. We have them as “Political godfather”, Chairmen, President, or Ambassador of one thing or the order. All aimed at placing themselves in places/areas where they can continue milking the nation dry off public funds.
The question we often ask ourselves is this, if our Nigerian political leaders, as well as those in other African countries, have widely traveled and have seen these other developed countries, met the men and women who lead these countries, walked the clean streets of their cities and travelled in the regular and regulated means of these countries, why can’t they replicate the same things back home in their country? Have our African leaders been encouraged to imitate these persons, places and things? Our African political leaders have seen palaces, slept in palaces around the world and yet come home to ramshackle buildings and failing basic infrastructures across their countries. Unless we have an indigenous inspiration to make things better for ourselves, no listing of what others have done would inspire us to make things better for ourselves.
Again, what has inspired others in the world to seek betterment of their people in their lifetime? What do they have that we cannot muster? Agreed that Poverty and disease are major inspirations for people to aspire to a life of sufficiency and health. But there is still something else. There is “the belief that poverty and ill-health is not the fate of any one.” Poverty and disease are not wished on anyone by some malignant deity or neighbour. That underlining belief that “poverty and disease can be avoided,” can be done away which inspires the effort to seek better seedlings, better forms of food preservation, better basic infrastructure and access to them for all and sundry, deeper understanding of the causes of illness and disease and how to prevent them, etc. Without this ‘belief’, nothing will get done.
Some few years ago, Nigeria’s Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele was Quoted: “It is either I do not understand economics and how exchange rates work or a vast majority of us Nigerians still do not get how we have wrecked our country with our own curious choices.
“There was a time long ago when Nigeria had a truly strong economy and the naira was one to the dollar – even exchanged for higher than the USD, but that Nigeria is not this Nigeria. Sadly, that Nigeria was laid by the British, and this Nigeria (if you don’t believe in the nonsensical imperialist conspiracies like me) – fueled by the DAMAGING Indigenization Decree, has been the creation of us Nigerians. Back then we had a booming economy. We were either at the top, or among the top exporters, of timbre, cocoa, groundnuts, rubber, palm oil, etc, in the world. Nigerians not only holidayed at home in their villages, at Yankari Games Reserve, at Obudu Cattle Ranch, at Oguta Lake, at Ikogosi springs, at Gurara Falls, at Mambilla Platueau, etc, we attracted international tourists who brought in loads of foreign exchange. Even Nigerian schools were foreign exchange earners because they attracted foreign students. We had different car assembly plants – Peugeot, Volkswagen, Anamco etc. Nigerian government officials only bought vehicles assembled in Nigeria for official cars. We had a thriving sports industry. We were not Man United or Chelsea fans, we were Rangers or IICC fans. We had the Nduka Odizors, people made money from sports. We also had companies like Lennards and Bata producing school shoes in their thousands, we had the thriving Nigerian Airways and the Aviation School in the north that produced some of the best pilots in the world. In those days if you were brilliant you were respected much more than the crass money-miss-road contractors of today. Most of the Aje Butters I knew had fathers who were university dons. Back then it meant something to ‘know book’. Our textile industry was alive and well. Just recently I watched a news report on the textile industry in Nigeria on CCTV News. Though the main focus was on the comatose status of the industry, I was stunned by the gigantic Kaduna Textile Mill built in 1957. I could go on and on.
“Every year we collectively burn billions of Naira being fans of clubs that give us nothing back, but some ‘entertainment value’ – simple pleasures for which we are ready to destroy the future of our children. Well people, payback time is here. Even with our ta-she-re money we all want to wear designer clothes and carry designer bags, Armani, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Gucci, Prada, Ferragamo, etc. We all want to drive jeeps with American specs, our children must now school overseas and acquire the necessary accents to come back home and bamboozle their ‘bush and crass’ contemporaries that they left behind. Who holidays in Nigeria anymore, is there Disneyland here? No one buys made-in-Nigeria school bags for their children, after all no Superman or Incredible Hulk or Cinderella on them. We are no longer top exporters of anything and the demise of oil means we have zilch… zero. A country of 170M fashion- conscious people has no textile industry. We take delight in showing how our made-in- Switzerland Aso Ebi is different class to everyone else’s... “
Other countries are known for one good thing or the other, which they manufacture/produce and contribute to the world and humanity. Where is African and the countries in the continent within the global economic map? Even India has ascended in the ranks of breakthroughs on the health sector and communication technology. China is known for producing practically everything you can imagine at any quality level, grade and commercial quantity you want it. Dubai is amongst the top leading world tourist destination for the rich and mighty, with over 20 million tourists visits every year. Now we see why Dubai and its citizens can never experience any element of poverty. And they did all of this by having a vision, and by using their God-given resources of oil first, then the Sun, Sand and Sea. The natural resourcefulness of Africa, especially Nigeria are blessed in abundance with, cannot be imagined. But even in Africa, other so-called less endowed countries (when compared to Nigeria), like Kenya, is already planning to launch its own locally-built line of mobile phones production. Botswana, whose economy is dominated by mining, cattle, and tourism, can boast of a GDP per capita of about $18,825 per year as of 2015, which is one of the highest in Africa. Its high gross national income (by some estimates the fourth-largest in Africa) gives the country a modest standard of living and the highest Human Development Index (HDI) of continental Sub-Saharan Africa.
For Mauritius, despite having no exploitable natural resources, the economic history of Mauritius since independence has been called “the Mauritian Miracle” and the “success of Africa.” The IMF ranks Mauritius high in terms of economic competitiveness, a friendly investment climate, good governance and a free economy. Mauritius is ranked as having the 8th most free economy in the world, and the highest score in investment freedom. Singapore, which is a tiny island, was propelled from being a Third World economy to First World affluence in a single generation. Today, Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transportation hub, ranking fifth on the UN with the third highest GDP per capita in the world. It is ranked highly in education, health care, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety and housing. Even the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, which gained independence from the UK on August 31, 1962, has become one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the Caribbean.
We can go on and on to list many countries, which got independence almost at the same time Nigeria, but today, they have overtaken and left Nigeria far behind in the area of development. The truth is that Nigeria’s dependence on the sale of cash crops and crude oil and natural gas, with no invention, no manufacturing, but trading companies with coupling or assembly plants in the name of manufacturing – has to be urgently turned around if we are to become significant in global economic affairs in years to come.
In what was described as “Nigeria’s greatest problem”, a public affairs analyst, Aaron Abun, practically hit the nail on the head in a recent post, when he noted a ‘very scary, but true reality’ facing the country: that “Thirteen Boeing 747 cargo planes come to Nigeria daily. Offloading cargo then fly back ‘empty’, Sometimes, they have to use sandbags to stabilize the aircraft. Five out of every six ships that berths in Nigeria return to their base ‘empty’. The only one which leaves with cargo is filled with Charcoal, Gypsum Salt and Sesame Seeds. 180 million people eating, sleeping and contributing nothing to the world. All we do is to drill oil, sell it, bank the money and share the proceeds! Even the oil is drilled by foreign companies. We do nothing other than share the sales proceeds…”
Those lines hit us hard and nearly made us to want to weep for our dear nation Nigeria, especially as regards what the future holds for our young and yet-unborn-generation; if we continue like this as a people and as a nation. With empty cargo aircrafts and ships respectively leaving Nigeria’s airspace and Ports on a daily basis, it clearly shows that Nigeria is nothing but “a consumer nation” that is gradually eating and consuming itself out of existence and oblivion, without producing, manufacturing or yielding much to benefit the rest of the world it has been eating from. Aside the exploration and production of crude oil and national gas, most of which are still carried out by International Oil Companies (IOCs) as noted above, what can we really say as a country, which we can pinpoint and boast about, that we are contributing to the rest of the world through exports, to better humanity? What can we point exactly?
Even the oil and gas that we usually boast about, is it not appalling and a serious source of concern that Nigeria, despite its over five decades of oil and gas exploration and production activities, still exports its hugely raw crude oil and natural gas at commercial quantity, and then import ‘refined petroleum products’ and other ‘finished goods/products’ gotten from oil and gas productions, at higher costs? There are over 6000 items/products that can be derived from these natural resources, which Nigeria is yet to tap from. Although, the major use of these natural petroleum resources is as a fuel (petrol, jet fuel, heating oil, generate electricity, etc.), there are many other uses which, most of us, and those in Government are not even aware of. We have simply been enriching other countries’ and shortchanging Nigeria’s economic growth by still doing this kind of ‘penny-wise-pounds-foolish-kind-of business all these years. Nigerian business men travel all the way to China, Japan, South Korea and United Arab Emirates (UAE) to import the same goods that were produced from the raw oil and natural gas we export. What a shame! The saddest part is that our Nigerian elites are not even bothered about any of this. All they know how to do is to cover up their irresponsible politicians due to tribal, religious and political sentiments.
Is it not wickedness, cruelty and man’s inhumanity against man that our past and present Nigerian political leaders at all levels of Government have not been able to use the abundant natural and human resourcefulness evident in this country to address the deplorable living standard of its citizens have been exposed to for as long as we can remember? Is it not an irony, and almost an enigma that, despite Nigeria’s vast natural resources and enormous human potentials across all boards; the gap between the poor and the rich, the haves and the have-nots, the governed and the government – keeps increasing and expanding rather than closing-up. One would have thought that, considering how ‘blessed’ Nigeria is, the issues of life-threatening poverty, hardship, underdevelopment and backwardness will not be that prevailing in the country. As it is in Nigeria, so it is in most African countries today. The most annoying part of this pathetic situation in Nigeria is that it seems as if our Nigerian political leaders at all levels, are hardly moved emotionally, empathetic or even understand how bad the poverty and underdevelopment situation is in the country. Many of them, do not even have an iota of idea of the sort of sufferings, hardship and poverty countless Nigerians are made to grapple and deal with every day of their lives.
Like we have often reiterated, no foreigner can effectively and efficiently develop our country for us. That onerous task, no matter how challenging it might seem, only belongs to us and can best be done by us. So, it is high time our political leaders stop making excuses and start using their ‘thinking faculties aright’ in harnessing the enormous resources in the nation, develop this country and get it out of the league of Third World countries in no distant future.
Zik Gbemre.
We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes as if Those Were Our Causes
President Muhammadu Buhari (Left) and Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo (Right)
“When an African becomes rich: His bank accounts are in Switzerland, He travels to France for medical treatment, He invests in Germany, He buys from Dubai, He consumes Chinese, He prays in Rome or Mecca, His Children study in Europe, He travels to Canada, USA, Europe for tourism. If He dies, He will be buried in His native country of Africa. Africa is just a Cemetery for Africans. How could a Cemetery be developed?” – Russian President, Vladamir V. Putin.
The above statement reportedly made by the Russian President, Vladamir V. Putin, may sound harsh and hard, but that is the bitter truth and pill that Africans, particularly Nigerians, need to swallow and accept as the stark reality of where we have made ourselves to remain, and perhaps there is urgent need to make the necessary sacrifices to change this unhealthy narrative in Africa, especially in Nigeria – supposedly the ‘giant-of-Africa’.
It is a shame that in the Nigeria of today for instance, we have serving and former Council Chairmen, Senators, National and State Assembly members, Governors, Public Servants and even past Presidents, that have countless mansions in different parts of the country; many state-of-the-art-cars which they hardly/never use but are left covered in tarpaulins within their compounds; as well as businesses and structures that only benefit them and their families, fronts and aides. But all around them, are poverty-stricken Nigerians whom they were supposed to serve while in government. Is that not being foolish? It is sad that today, we still find old and very old former political leaders, that ought to have left the political scene for the younger generation, in government circles, simply because of the ‘ambiance of wealth’ they get to misappropriate while in the system. Rather than being ‘elder statesmen’ that are there to advise the younger generation on the right path, they still want to “remain relevant” in Nigerian politics by ensuring nothing happens without their consent, approval and voice. We have them as “Political godfather”, Chairmen, President, or Ambassador of one thing or the order. All aimed at placing themselves in places/areas where they can continue milking the nation dry off public funds.
The question we often ask ourselves is this, if our Nigerian political leaders, as well as those in other African countries, have widely traveled and have seen these other developed countries, met the men and women who lead these countries, walked the clean streets of their cities and travelled in the regular and regulated means of these countries, why can’t they replicate the same things back home in their country? Have our African leaders been encouraged to imitate these persons, places and things? Our African political leaders have seen palaces, slept in palaces around the world and yet come home to ramshackle buildings and failing basic infrastructures across their countries. Unless we have an indigenous inspiration to make things better for ourselves, no listing of what others have done would inspire us to make things better for ourselves.
Again, what has inspired others in the world to seek betterment of their people in their lifetime? What do they have that we cannot muster? Agreed that Poverty and disease are major inspirations for people to aspire to a life of sufficiency and health. But there is still something else. There is “the belief that poverty and ill-health is not the fate of any one.” Poverty and disease are not wished on anyone by some malignant deity or neighbour. That underlining belief that “poverty and disease can be avoided,” can be done away which inspires the effort to seek better seedlings, better forms of food preservation, better basic infrastructure and access to them for all and sundry, deeper understanding of the causes of illness and disease and how to prevent them, etc. Without this ‘belief’, nothing will get done.
Some few years ago, Nigeria’s Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele was Quoted: “It is either I do not understand economics and how exchange rates work or a vast majority of us Nigerians still do not get how we have wrecked our country with our own curious choices.
“There was a time long ago when Nigeria had a truly strong economy and the naira was one to the dollar – even exchanged for higher than the USD, but that Nigeria is not this Nigeria. Sadly, that Nigeria was laid by the British, and this Nigeria (if you don’t believe in the nonsensical imperialist conspiracies like me) – fueled by the DAMAGING Indigenization Decree, has been the creation of us Nigerians. Back then we had a booming economy. We were either at the top, or among the top exporters, of timbre, cocoa, groundnuts, rubber, palm oil, etc, in the world. Nigerians not only holidayed at home in their villages, at Yankari Games Reserve, at Obudu Cattle Ranch, at Oguta Lake, at Ikogosi springs, at Gurara Falls, at Mambilla Platueau, etc, we attracted international tourists who brought in loads of foreign exchange. Even Nigerian schools were foreign exchange earners because they attracted foreign students. We had different car assembly plants – Peugeot, Volkswagen, Anamco etc. Nigerian government officials only bought vehicles assembled in Nigeria for official cars. We had a thriving sports industry. We were not Man United or Chelsea fans, we were Rangers or IICC fans. We had the Nduka Odizors, people made money from sports. We also had companies like Lennards and Bata producing school shoes in their thousands, we had the thriving Nigerian Airways and the Aviation School in the north that produced some of the best pilots in the world. In those days if you were brilliant you were respected much more than the crass money-miss-road contractors of today. Most of the Aje Butters I knew had fathers who were university dons. Back then it meant something to ‘know book’. Our textile industry was alive and well. Just recently I watched a news report on the textile industry in Nigeria on CCTV News. Though the main focus was on the comatose status of the industry, I was stunned by the gigantic Kaduna Textile Mill built in 1957. I could go on and on.
“Every year we collectively burn billions of Naira being fans of clubs that give us nothing back, but some ‘entertainment value’ – simple pleasures for which we are ready to destroy the future of our children. Well people, payback time is here. Even with our ta-she-re money we all want to wear designer clothes and carry designer bags, Armani, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Gucci, Prada, Ferragamo, etc. We all want to drive jeeps with American specs, our children must now school overseas and acquire the necessary accents to come back home and bamboozle their ‘bush and crass’ contemporaries that they left behind. Who holidays in Nigeria anymore, is there Disneyland here? No one buys made-in-Nigeria school bags for their children, after all no Superman or Incredible Hulk or Cinderella on them. We are no longer top exporters of anything and the demise of oil means we have zilch… zero. A country of 170M fashion- conscious people has no textile industry. We take delight in showing how our made-in- Switzerland Aso Ebi is different class to everyone else’s... “
Other countries are known for one good thing or the other, which they manufacture/produce and contribute to the world and humanity. Where is African and the countries in the continent within the global economic map? Even India has ascended in the ranks of breakthroughs on the health sector and communication technology. China is known for producing practically everything you can imagine at any quality level, grade and commercial quantity you want it. Dubai is amongst the top leading world tourist destination for the rich and mighty, with over 20 million tourists visits every year. Now we see why Dubai and its citizens can never experience any element of poverty. And they did all of this by having a vision, and by using their God-given resources of oil first, then the Sun, Sand and Sea. The natural resourcefulness of Africa, especially Nigeria are blessed in abundance with, cannot be imagined. But even in Africa, other so-called less endowed countries (when compared to Nigeria), like Kenya, is already planning to launch its own locally-built line of mobile phones production. Botswana, whose economy is dominated by mining, cattle, and tourism, can boast of a GDP per capita of about $18,825 per year as of 2015, which is one of the highest in Africa. Its high gross national income (by some estimates the fourth-largest in Africa) gives the country a modest standard of living and the highest Human Development Index (HDI) of continental Sub-Saharan Africa.
For Mauritius, despite having no exploitable natural resources, the economic history of Mauritius since independence has been called “the Mauritian Miracle” and the “success of Africa.” The IMF ranks Mauritius high in terms of economic competitiveness, a friendly investment climate, good governance and a free economy. Mauritius is ranked as having the 8th most free economy in the world, and the highest score in investment freedom. Singapore, which is a tiny island, was propelled from being a Third World economy to First World affluence in a single generation. Today, Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transportation hub, ranking fifth on the UN with the third highest GDP per capita in the world. It is ranked highly in education, health care, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety and housing. Even the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, which gained independence from the UK on August 31, 1962, has become one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the Caribbean.
We can go on and on to list many countries, which got independence almost at the same time Nigeria, but today, they have overtaken and left Nigeria far behind in the area of development. The truth is that Nigeria’s dependence on the sale of cash crops and crude oil and natural gas, with no invention, no manufacturing, but trading companies with coupling or assembly plants in the name of manufacturing – has to be urgently turned around if we are to become significant in global economic affairs in years to come.
In what was described as “Nigeria’s greatest problem”, a public affairs analyst, Aaron Abun, practically hit the nail on the head in a recent post, when he noted a ‘very scary, but true reality’ facing the country: that “Thirteen Boeing 747 cargo planes come to Nigeria daily. Offloading cargo then fly back ‘empty’, Sometimes, they have to use sandbags to stabilize the aircraft. Five out of every six ships that berths in Nigeria return to their base ‘empty’. The only one which leaves with cargo is filled with Charcoal, Gypsum Salt and Sesame Seeds. 180 million people eating, sleeping and contributing nothing to the world. All we do is to drill oil, sell it, bank the money and share the proceeds! Even the oil is drilled by foreign companies. We do nothing other than share the sales proceeds…”
Those lines hit us hard and nearly made us to want to weep for our dear nation Nigeria, especially as regards what the future holds for our young and yet-unborn-generation; if we continue like this as a people and as a nation. With empty cargo aircrafts and ships respectively leaving Nigeria’s airspace and Ports on a daily basis, it clearly shows that Nigeria is nothing but “a consumer nation” that is gradually eating and consuming itself out of existence and oblivion, without producing, manufacturing or yielding much to benefit the rest of the world it has been eating from. Aside the exploration and production of crude oil and national gas, most of which are still carried out by International Oil Companies (IOCs) as noted above, what can we really say as a country, which we can pinpoint and boast about, that we are contributing to the rest of the world through exports, to better humanity? What can we point exactly?
Even the oil and gas that we usually boast about, is it not appalling and a serious source of concern that Nigeria, despite its over five decades of oil and gas exploration and production activities, still exports its hugely raw crude oil and natural gas at commercial quantity, and then import ‘refined petroleum products’ and other ‘finished goods/products’ gotten from oil and gas productions, at higher costs? There are over 6000 items/products that can be derived from these natural resources, which Nigeria is yet to tap from. Although, the major use of these natural petroleum resources is as a fuel (petrol, jet fuel, heating oil, generate electricity, etc.), there are many other uses which, most of us, and those in Government are not even aware of. We have simply been enriching other countries’ and shortchanging Nigeria’s economic growth by still doing this kind of ‘penny-wise-pounds-foolish-kind-of business all these years. Nigerian business men travel all the way to China, Japan, South Korea and United Arab Emirates (UAE) to import the same goods that were produced from the raw oil and natural gas we export. What a shame! The saddest part is that our Nigerian elites are not even bothered about any of this. All they know how to do is to cover up their irresponsible politicians due to tribal, religious and political sentiments.
Is it not wickedness, cruelty and man’s inhumanity against man that our past and present Nigerian political leaders at all levels of Government have not been able to use the abundant natural and human resourcefulness evident in this country to address the deplorable living standard of its citizens have been exposed to for as long as we can remember? Is it not an irony, and almost an enigma that, despite Nigeria’s vast natural resources and enormous human potentials across all boards; the gap between the poor and the rich, the haves and the have-nots, the governed and the government – keeps increasing and expanding rather than closing-up. One would have thought that, considering how ‘blessed’ Nigeria is, the issues of life-threatening poverty, hardship, underdevelopment and backwardness will not be that prevailing in the country. As it is in Nigeria, so it is in most African countries today. The most annoying part of this pathetic situation in Nigeria is that it seems as if our Nigerian political leaders at all levels, are hardly moved emotionally, empathetic or even understand how bad the poverty and underdevelopment situation is in the country. Many of them, do not even have an iota of idea of the sort of sufferings, hardship and poverty countless Nigerians are made to grapple and deal with every day of their lives.
Like we have often reiterated, no foreigner can effectively and efficiently develop our country for us. That onerous task, no matter how challenging it might seem, only belongs to us and can best be done by us. So, it is high time our political leaders stop making excuses and start using their ‘thinking faculties aright’ in harnessing the enormous resources in the nation, develop this country and get it out of the league of Third World countries in no distant future.
Zik Gbemre.
We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes as if Those Were Our Causes