HOW AFRICANS ARE UNDER DEVELOPING THEMSELVES

Africans cannot afford the luxury of emulating some Far and Middle Eastern nation states. Let us look at it that we all took part in the Second World War under various colonial masters. When it came to the Marshall Plan, Africans benefited nothing from it. It went to the rebuilding of Germany that was belligerent, France that had sat on Africans and exploiting them, to the Japanese that were ready to wipe out cities in the USA and had took part in the sinking of several US war ships. What evil did the Africans do to the Americans? Nothing. They could not get the Marshall plan assistance because they were still considered by Americans as properties of European nation states. Africans possessions continued to supply their Western masters with raw materials and had literally nothing in return till they achieved independence. Then some European colonial masters were so shrewd that they ensured that ex-colonial leaders elected were to put their ex-colonial masters interest above those of the countries they were ruling. This is sadly still the case in some 'backward' African states who had been brainwashed to believe that they are so low and cannot stand or rule themselves without the directions of Western European leaders. Is this true after some fifty years of independence of these African states?

Why is this my concern? It is because all of us are Africans and it is a shame that we deliberately led down Africa and Africans who had contributed so much to the development of the world. I will not exhume slavery and slave trade that Africans and African Americans bore the brunt of it all. That is a different story. It is true that Africans were bamboozled by Westerners and Arabs. That is history some of our siblings who sit side by side descendants of slave masters have never heard of. We have to look at the present and see what we could salvage from what we have to advance industrially and be self sufficient and stop blaming the Westerners for our political and industrial woes.

Prior to looking outside for help as is the tendency of the readers in Africa, they should explore what they have. Let me take one illustration, poultry. What is the reason for Africans importing poultry products from Brazil when they have been self-sufficient in their production of local birds? Let us look at vegetables. Some Africans states import cabbage and potatoes from Europe when in their hinterland these vegetables are used by children as soccer balls. What is the reason? They do not not have the managerial skills and there are no roads to take the products from the rural areas to the markets in the urban areas. The mere import of these products from Europe killed the once burgeoning local industries.

What is wrong with Africans exporting finished products instead of raw materials all the time. Make it mandatory for those firms importing hardwood from Africa to set their manufacturing plans in Africa and jobs will be created and the locals will learn the skill willy-nilly. It is not a shame that all hard wood that took thousands of years to grow are being exploited mercilessly without taking into consideration what would become of the next generations. Can African not export finished products? Why must their dictators sit and believe that they were made to consume and import from Europe, America, China and lately form India? Why not tell all those Japanese, American, Chinese, Indian and Europeans firms to extract those minerals, process and manufacture the products in Africa. How long has copper been exported from Zambia and Katanga District in the Democratic Republic of Congo? Is there a single manufacturing industry in any of these regions that use locally mined minerals? None. If it were mandatory for only finished products to be exported from Africa, would African not be developed?

What do Africans not have? See the potential for the tapping of hydro electricity from the River Congo alone is so huge that at the moment there are serious plans to tap it and export it all the way to Europe and the middle East. Africans should think big and concentrate on scientific training and stop thinking that with scams, 419 they could be rich. Are they trying to fool Europeans who had fooled them before? Europeans are instead more sophisticated and Africans better cooperate through join ventures and not thinking that they would siphon hard earned European or American money by scam. Africans should run away from, dictatorship, extortion, blackmailing, drugs and drug related activities are not the way forward. Therefore, lawlessness and the sad growth of buccaneers (pirates) as in the Horn of Africa, the Seychelles, Gulf of Guinea, etc. should be deplored. It is tarnishing the regions involved and their credibility. Let is be a wake up call to tottering states like Somalia you all know went that way because of dictatorship. You can name the rest.

Furthermore, the holding of Westerners who come to help in improving the standard of education of Africans hostage so as to extort money, as the case cited below should be deplored. Africans should not be bamboozled by the Islamic fundamentalists who had been with Africa for centuries and have brought literally nothing to help Africans advance industrially. I would like Islamic scholars to challenge me on this. Instead they have brought hatred of the brothers and sisters who once upon a time lived amicably. Look at the countries abutting the Arab states of Africa and full-blooded African states as Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Ethiopia, and Sudan and you will see that the man whose belief is Islam had ever been fighting with the dark-skinned African in order to force him to become Islam or enslave him as the recent case with Darfur and Southern Sudan. When those countries are hit hard by famine, the Arab sheiks maintain a law profile and it is the Westerners who with Life Aid and the others contribute money to help Africans. Why do Africans sadly and without using their heads adopt Western Diplomats and Students who had come to cement the friendship and help in the building of Africans? Some of these Europeans or Americans come because they know that Africans did not benefit from the Marshall Plan that spurred the economies of the vanquished and the winners after the Second World War (1939-1945)?

Look, there was a time in the 1960s when Western Economists compared the growth of new African states with those of some South Eastern countries. Today, those South Eastern countries have outdistanced Africans. Go to Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and now India. Look at their infra structure and compare with those of Africans states that started with them. You will see that there is nothing that Westerners can manufacture that cannot be manufactured in those countries. They underground railway systems are perhaps the best and you cannot even compare them with the London Underground railway system. Their planning and development are meticulous. Ask what Nigeria had done to rectify the chaos and miasmic conditions in Lagos, Enugu, Douala, Dakar, Kinshasa, Mombassa, and Nairobi. The good parts are those that Europeans planned in the colonial days. What have Africans done for themselves? The European colonialists had long gone but Africans are complaisant and do not look at the future or do not love their countries enough to invest in their future. If I am wrong tell me why all Africans yearn to get out of the mess their dictators have created and come to live in Europe and North America. Who elect those dictators?

What do Europeans have that you Africans do not have? If it is strength, it had been proven that you Africans rank among the strongest men in the world. Why, it was the strength of Africans that they were recommended in the 1500s by a Mexican Catholic Bishop for Africans to be brought in to help the Indians and Europeans who were dying like flies when exposed to harsh tropical conditions, conditions too in mines, factories, plantations and even in domestic labor. That sympathy triggered the transatlantic slave trade. Africans worked like Spartans and excelled where others were falling in Europe and Americas. What can stop Nigeria from sending a man to the moon and back? Is it cash, intellectual capacity, or what when they have professors in Harvard, Oxford University, and having been running their own show since the 1960s? How long will it take for Africa to know that they can plan and manage properly and leave scams aside? How long will it take them to be patriotic and to think of Africa first? Are all roads still leading to Rome? Europeans were smart to know this and cut off from Rome. What happened when they did that? They were independent and developed as never before. Their dominance of the Romans was a handicap to their industrial growth and free thinking. Will Africans one day think similarly?

Finally, it should be borne in mind that when Africa does not advance economically and industrially, the rest of the world is dragged behind.  Emigration of Africans, Far and Middle Easterners to Europe, North America and other developed parts of the world is as a consequence of underdevelopment. Also Africa had to conform to the economic trends of the day or they be left out. The worse scenario is another wave of new comers who will colonize Africa and live in Africa and African will be turned into their new servants or modern slaves. Will you Africans continue to under-develop yourselves by not doing the right things, but adopting visitors and asking for ransoms. In the past the cry was how Europeans under-developed Africa. Today, the cry is how Africans are under developing themselves. What is the next step patriotic African elite and intelligentsia?

Viban Viban Ngo, PhD.

Canadian woman kidnapped in Nigeria
Posted By Star Staff



Star Staff
An Alberta woman is being held for ransom in Nigeria after being taken
while on a Rotary International study exchange - the same program the
Whitecourt Star's editor was part of.
Editor Brigette Jobin, along with three other members of the Group Study
Exchange (GSE), were brought back to Canada immediately following the
kidnapping of team leader Julie Mulligan.
Mulligan, who hails from Drayton Valley, was seized by gunmen Thursday
night in the northern city of Kaduna as she entered the home of her host
family.
The kidnappers are believed to be asking for a ransom of 20 million Naira,
the equivalent of $166,473 CAD.
The team of five Alberta women left Canada April 8.