By Ahmed Audu
The fifth United Nations conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) was held recently in Doha, capital of Qatar. World leaders including President Muhammadu Buhari gathered with the private sector, parliamentarians, civil society as well as youngsters , and advanced new ideas to hasten delivery on agreed commitments as well as raised new pledges of support via the Doha programme of action. The Doha programme of Action aims to invest in eradicating poverty and build capacity, leverage the power of science and technology as well as innovation, and equally enhance international trade as well as regional integration. It also aims to support structural transformation, drive prosperity, tackle COVID-19, climate change, build resilience, and mobilise the international partnerships to enable sustainable graduation.
The conference which held under the theme: “From Potential to Prosperity” provided African countries the opportunity once again to garner the support of the international community for accelerating sustainable development on the continent and equally assist them make progress towards achieving prosperity for all. Indeed the African continent is home to eight of the fifteen fastest growing economies in the world. According to the international monetary, fund, IMF, many economies in Africa grew at a record pace in 2022, an average of more than 7.5% per year over the past two decades. Therefore, it is not surprising that interest in Africa has increased significantly in recent years on the part of leading international players, especially the former mother countries – Britain and France. Things, however, have not been well for the French in recent years, particularly in Mali and Burkina Faso, but formal European dominance in Africa ended in 1977 after Republic of Djibouti gained independence from France. But Africans are increasingly realising that they only have flag independence in a maze of economic dependency that rubbishes their sovereignty.
Many observers wonder how growth indicators are a measure of welfare in Africa as western companies continue to relentlessly extract the resource of the continent. And when a local national leader gets in the way , then western governments through “Colour revolutions “ or armed intervention, remove such an “ obstacle” as a result of which the resource rich continent remains plagued by poverty, unemployment and hunger.In Neo-Colonialism : The Last Stage of Imperialism, the radical visionary, Kwame Nkrumah, the first African- born Prime minister of Ghana, wrote in 1965 that ‘’the neo-colonialism of today represents imperialism in its final and perhaps its most dangerous stage….. The final essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject to it is, in theory, independent but in reality its economic system and its political policy is directed from outside….The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital was used to exploit and not to develop the least developed parts of the world.’’ Frankly speaking the land and people of Africa were brutally exploited by British colonial rulers. And at present the African vector of Britain’s interest is not new, an excuse has been added. According to the British foreign minister, James Spencer Cleverly, the reason is to prevent the spread of Russian and Chinese influence on the African continent. Again such important aspects as the sovereignty and well-being of the peoples of Africa are omitted.
Really, the main driving force that is plundering Africa under the guise of charity is the global financial system with its centre in London. According to a published report by a coalition of British and African non-governmental organizations, NGOs , the annual losses of African states from cooperation with western governments and transnational corporation’s amounts to at least 60 billion US dollars. It is on this grounds that the Zamfara state government in February this year banned the so called development partners and donors masquerading as NGO’s from working in the state , owing to the high influx of them carrying out illegal activities that contravened the existing laws of the state government.Britain reportedly plans to become the largest investor in Africa from the G7 countries, the informal grouping of seven of the world’s advanced economies, by 2025 . Given the kingdom’s plunge into a deep financial, economic and energy crisis in recent months, the demonstrative concentration on military and financial assistance not for the world’s poorest states, but for pro-western regime in Kiev, are perceived on the African continent with little enthusiasm and very critically. Against the backdrop of the global crisis, in particular the food crisis, countries with a monarchical model of government are on the verge of even greater uncertainty. Therefore they follow the path of least resistance, using neo-colonialism as a tool to achieve their economic and political goals.
One of these tools used by London is the Commonwealth of Nations, which after the death of Queen Elizabeth II became a relic of the past, and also shows the archaism of the monarchical model of government in Great Britain. The truth is the economic growth in Africa is contributed largely by enterprises with the capital formation dominated by foreign groups of private and public enterprise and investors. They exploit of Africa’s potential for their own prosperity. Under such business arrangement, the wealth generated in the nations is largely retained by foreign nationals. The Doha conference did not address this. This justifies the current existence of two Africas. One Africa with a solid growth rate and one Africa with over 30 states at the bottom of the Human Development Index.
Audu is a public affair analyst