|
Shame on us in Africa
2008-01-19 08:47:56
By Editor
Why is Africa poor while it has plenty of resources? Can somebody give an answer to this question? From whatever angle the issue is looked at, the answer is not hard to find.
Why are people who have plenty of oil, gold, uranium, diamonds and cobalt under their feet being categorized among the poorest of the poor? You can name a host of other resources, and they are all there.
The problem in this continent is the lack of efficient and effective deployment of natural resources, and this phenomenon is much more apparent in Sub-Saharan Africa.
There are countries which are blessed with abundant oil resources. These are Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Chad and Sudan.
Other countries south of the Sahara which are bound to exploit oil in the near future are Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Mozambique and possibly Tanzania, which already has discovered huge gas deposits.
When one compares the living standard of countries in Sub Saharan Africa that are major oil producers and their Northern Africa counterparts of Algeria and Libya, one will be chagrined at the shocking poverty in oil producing countries located south of the Sahara while the situation is quite different with the Northern Africa oil producers.
African leaders—those in politics, business and other social and economic spheres, after the quick comparison —should ask themselves if they are doing justice to their people by letting this appalling condition take root in the countries they lead.
We can take Equatorial Guinea as a case in point. Equatorial Guinea is the third largest oil producer in Sub Saharan Africa.
It also has got the fourth largest per capita income in the world, and is officially recorded as having registered fast economic growth.
However, the windfall from oil revenues has not brought any significant improvements in the lives of its poverty-ridden population.
Worse still, and quite ironically, the World Bank suspended aid to that country due to mismanagement and corruption, as government officials and their relatives own most of the business.
And this is a country that by all accounts, does not need a single drop of financial aid.
As is typical of many African countries, the leaders of Equatorial Guinea take delight in reeling out statistics on ``rapid economic growth`` and having the fourth largest per capita income in the world.
It is high time we resorted to taking refuge in solid achievements rather than statistics alone, which can at times not tell anything.
To highlight our point, we wish to quote Bobby Bragam who said in 1963: ``Say you are standing with one foot in the oven and one part in an ice bucket. According to the percentage people, you are perfectly comfortable.``
In Africa, there is a big effort being invested in explaining why the people are as poor as they are.
It is high time the continent`s leaders woke up to the fact that the people of Africa already know better why they are poor, despite being rich in resources and will even more vigorously strive to control their resources for their own benefit and that of their children.
|
