FOREIGN AIDS AS AFRICA’S PANDORA BOX

 No society has ever been powered to prosperity with foreign endowment, contends KEHINDE AKINFENWA

Contemporary events in the developing world have contradicted years of economic development history signifying that lack of financial capital has impoverished the poor countries. Evidence from macroeconomic data shows that every year, trillions of capital flow to these countries mainly African states from the developed donor states and international organizations. However, far from contributing to rapid economic development along democratic lines, these aids have become a pandora box that is more than meets the eye.

Africa provides a striking example of the failures of international aid, evoking a bottomless pit that has slurped an estimated US$2 trillion of aid money in the last six decades. Despite this incongruous affair, foreign aid remains a centrepiece of today’s African development policy, reinforcing her prolonged reliance on external assistance.

Conventionally, foreign aids are intended to complement and supplement the national resources of developing entities for sustainable development. But the interplay of politics makes it a horse of a different colour. Rather than leading to a corresponding transfer of prosperity in Africa, it re-enforces corruption, increasing debt and collapsing economic structure. The impact of this is an undeniable reality etched into the daily lives of ordinary people.

African states have been conditioned for years to be entitled to aid from the West that the tag of ‘poor countries’ does not irritate them anymore as it has become normal to be declared poor to get what has been described as a “dead aid”. Every time, they appear incapable of lifting themselves out of dearth without a begging bowl. The folly of thinking that they can beg unendingly makes it even more pathetic.

Along with policies and economic strategies that widen the chasm between the rich and the poor, social initiatives that lack inclusivity continue to cast a shadow over the entire region. Struggling economies, compromised healthcare systems, underfunded educational institutions, and the despairing hardship etched in every furrowed brow across the continent lay visible the paradox of foreign intervention.

The inescapable fact is that the pervasive corruption which has become a badge of honour among the ruling class in Africa is making the cycle of poverty very difficult to break. It is estimated that Africa loses more than $50 billion a year to corruption, although this could be as high as $89 billion a year, accounting for 3.7% of its GDP. According to the UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report, over the past 50 years, Africa has lost US$1 trillion to illicit flow, equivalent to all official development assistance received during the same period.

The most insidious thing is that as corruption continues to gain impetus, African countries are sinking into debt. Even the multilateral debt relief initiative could not keep them away from the borrowing treadmill with the majority now on the list of IMF debt distress. Tony Blair’s memorable description of the continent as a “scar on the conscience of the world,” and his insistence that the international community could heal it, is a classic illustration of the normative perspective on foreign aid to Africa.

On the other side of the coin, rich countries and financial institutions in the disguise of assistance keep propagating their sinister plot against African nations. The hypocritical nature and baneful influence of aid flows are an attrition against Africa’s prosperity and stability. Draped in the cloak of diplomatic support, these aids have become tools to maintain a unipolar hegemonic position and engage in geopolitical games.

Through their abhorrent affinity with the African elite, the world’s powerhouse lurks behind the scenes to embolden numerous atrocities, inflame political divisions and exploit our precious national resources. Russia has been actively supporting coups in Africa through the Wagner mercenary group. Besides her exploration of gold and other illicit in Sudan which are been trafficked through the Central African Republic, the Kremlin has forged opportunistic relationships with kleptocratic powerbrokers in some parts of Africa to keep her economy afloat amidst global sanction.

Concurrently, the heinous violation of Africa’s essence in the upper echelons of Western politics and economy is baffling. With the formation of imperialism, Africa has acquiesced to be a vassal continent because achieving political independence did not include attaining economic decolonization. The scaffold and pivot of such an economy are colonial relations of exploitation. If not, almost a quarter of the continent – 12 Francophone African countries would not be operating almost entirely on the CFA franc and place half their foreign exchange reserves with the French treasury. Through their ever-proliferating Africa summit diplomacy, they set an agenda to limit Africa’s integration and economic prosperity and make her development largely artificial and fragile.

Amidst the multilayered conflict bedevilling the continent, powerful nations influence insurrection within the continent to destabilize the polity, causing chaos and unrest so much that Africa continues to be a hotbed of radical crisis. From the tumultuous Dafur region where intensive civil war is raging, to the Western Sahel through the Horn of Africa, encompassing the Lake Chad Basin and the Gulf of Guinea that has become a beehive of violent Islamic extremists. The transnational organised crime within the G5 Sahel countries as well as the reignited hostility in the Western Sahara territories remain a poignant reminder of our volatile existence.

Africa remains the locus of humanitarian crisis, resulting in a spike in forced displacement and human trafficking. It is now estimated that over 40.4 million people are forcibly displaced across the continent. In South Sudan alone, 42% of its population is forcibly displaced. These freckles of apprehension have continued to impale resilience and limit Africa’s socio-economic opportunities, resulting in accelerated poverty.

The success of global poverty reduction is dominated by Asia, where high-impact structural reforms were used to develop a self-sustaining economy and break from the shackles of Western hegemony. In 1990, a large majority – 60.2% of people in the oriental territory lived in extreme poverty while Africa during the same period had only 14 percent of its people in the poverty line. The last 30 years have seen the Asian region achieve significant reduction with only about 3.5% living in poverty. On the contrary, extreme poverty has become a cathedral in Africa as over 57% of the world’s poorest are domiciled in her sub-Saharan region.

It has become abundantly clear that as long as the conditions for economic growth in developing countries are absent, no amount of external financing will be able to produce economic growth. Africa’s labour and natural resource endowments are insufficient to attract and sustain financial capital. Critical endowments like human, public and institutional capital are pertinent.

The call for further increase in the volume of aid to Africa known as the “Big Push” redolent the familiar “white man’s burden” to uplift the peoples of the “dark continent” from gloom, ignorance, and despondency. Those who champion the moral argument, when pushed, will generally admit that their calls for more intervention are self-serving and not purely benevolence. The irrefutable fact remains that during a period when aid has risen over time as a percent of income in Africa, Africa’s growth rate has concurrently fallen, giving rise to increased poverty and a decline in the continent’s share of global trade.

Even in this epoch that has been dubbed the African Century, playing out in our eyes is a grotesque of Africa as a helpless child and a continent of beggars. The United Nations and World Bank who are both linchpins in plotting the fate of Africa cannot oppose the fact that as the region receiving the most aid, Africa will not meet their development benchmarks of 2030.

Governments of nations are devising means to double their per capita income. To do this in one generation, which means about 25 years, a country needs to grow at 3% yearly. Lower-income countries need to grow at a faster pace to anticipate this, approximately 7% a year. Most developing countries are growing below 3% annually.

Development is the internal pursuit of human society. Africa’s concern should be all about building sustainable opportunities that will enhance the productivity of physical and financial capital. Because as long as significant gaps in infrastructure, technology, and skills persist, African society cannot ingress meaningful development.

To truly reimagine and deepen antipathy towards these external spoilers, Africa must be able to conduct her development policy within the framework of a planned and dirigisme economy. Beyond earnestly pursuing a viable fiscal and monetary policy that is detoxified of external financing, investment in human capital development and evolving educational system must be prioritized. We can learn some lessons from the economic boom of the Asian tiger which is profoundly sustained by the presence of a highly-skilled workforce.

It is perilous for a new Africa not to emerge. Coupled with being the fastest-growing population in the world, the density of humanitarian crises nestling across the region is nightmarish. African leaders therefore must liberate themselves from the coven of external aid as no society has ever been powered to prosperity with foreign endowment.

In the face of these many uncertainties hovering over this land of opulence, the propensity to become the most dynamic region that will optimally drive global growth is patent. All that this ideal is craving for is a shared vision of a united Africa; an Africa with a robust economic network that will engender a competitive pan-African marketplace. One new factory anywhere in Africa has more value than a hundred million dollars of aid.

What would be far more beneficial to African development is to remove barriers to labour and capital mobility and allow African businesses to compete as it is envisioned in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. Dubbed to be the largest regional trading bloc in the world, the lofty pact will not only facilitate our revival as competitive market economies but also thwart the ongoing contestation for access to our treasure trove of commodities and raw materials.

Since sustainable economic growth is premised on stability, we need to develop the capacity against asymmetric warfare threats and cross-border insurgency without having to rely on global players with their vested interests. Rather than waiting for outside agencies to help us bury our dead, we need a proper African-managed disease response centre.

In this spectrum of reality, African citizens must acknowledge the potency of their collective agency. It is their responsibility to demand accountability from governments, to champion policies that uplift the marginalized, and to forge a path toward a future where justice, compassion, and opportunity are not lofty ideals but tangible realities for all.

 Akinfenwa is of the Lagos State Office of Sustainable Development Goals, Alausa, Ikeja