By Ehizuelen Franklin Imafidon
Walter Rodney wrote a powerful book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, in it he blamed Europe as the major cause of Africa’s impoverishment, and like him, so many other Pan-African scholars have argued that Colonialism and Western dominance are the reasons why African governments have not fared well or will do so soon if things don’t change. That is true but not the whole truth; it could have been true at the time but no longer, today.
The achievements of nations like Dubai, Singapore, Rwanda and most recently, Tanzania under Mugafuli has proved that our problem is majorly leadership, mental slavery and imposter’s syndrome. There has never a time in our history when we have come under economic or political siege without the cooperation of our leaders whether it was during the slave trade, colonialism or neo-colonialism as we have it today. This is the truth we must tell ourselves if we must grow. Our leaders must prove that they can be independent and make independent decisions that will foster progress and when need be, stand up to Western bullying to the extent that the right thing is done and our interest protected. We must be confident to assert our sovereignty in its varied forms, whether economic, political or cultural.
Paul Kagame once said that it doesn’t make sense for African leaders to have insecurity challenges yet do nothing until they are invited by western counterparts to be told what to do. It doesn’t make sense for those who have raw materials to wait until they’re invited to by the west to be told what to do. It doesn’t make sense for us to steal our money as African leaders and take it by ourselves to Western nations where we stack them in foreign accounts or invest it in foreign economies while ours are impoverished and underdeveloped. It doesn’t make sense for us to hold our foreign reserve in the dollar and not our own currencies like others do. It doesn’t make sense for our leaders to run the most expensive governments and outrageous sums on governance at the detriment of development yet borrow from the West and China whose politicians operate lean budgets on governance.
How many western or Asian leaders have houses and investments abroad yet 60 per cent of Dubai’s real estate are owned by Nigerian politicians.
And back home, how do we justify the fact that a state like Edo which is the 7th richest in Nigeria far ahead of Anambra State; yet under Peter Obi, it fared better? If our governors are sincere and less corrupt like Peter Obi, Babagana Zulum and Dave Umahi, our underdevelopment burden won’t be what it is today.
A few examples will suffice. Peter Obi, when he was governor, received the monthly allocation of 3,095,850,399.41 yet at the time he left office he had achieved to wit:
At a time many other governors were leaving huge debts, he left the equivalent of 500 million dollars in investment as well as local and foreign currency, including $156 million in Dollar-denominated bonds. The Nigerian Debt Management Office (DMO) rated Anambra as the least indebted state in Nigeria. Despite visible and measurable achievements recorded in various sectors, the state under him did not borrow or raise bonds for her various projects.
The State provided Internet access to more than 500 secondary schools, which the CEO of Galaxy Backbone (Gerald Ilukwe) characterized as incomparable to any in the country.
As part of the efforts to turn around the economy of the State, several companies were attracted to build their facilities in Anambra State. A case in point is SABMiller, the 2nd largest brewery in the world, which built their first Green Field facility in the State, which is today one of the most successful facilities they operate globally.
Many other companies followed the SABMiller initiative and were all supported and encouraged by the Government; a good example is INNOSON Motor Manufacturing Company, from which the government bought more than 1,000 vehicles.
Anambra State for the first time started close collaboration with recognized government security agencies (the Police, Army, Navy, Department of State Security, Civil Defence, among others), offering them various types of support including provision of more than 500 security vehicles. The security improvement was phenomenal, such that the former IG of Police (Abubakar Mohammed) lauded Anambra State for not witnessing any bank robbery in his last three years in office.
His Administration conceived and built, from scratch, the first state-owned Teaching Hospital, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Teaching Hospital, Awka. His government commenced the planned development of the Igbariam Campus of the university, including the fencing, construction of internal roads, electrification, construction of the Faculty of Law, Auditorium, Administrative Block, Faculty of Agriculture, Management Building, among others.
He built the first Secretariat Complex to house government ministries that were hitherto scattered around the state.
By the end of his tenure in 2014, more than 12 health institutions, including two hospitals, had secured accreditation; when he took off in 2006, no health institution in Anambra State was duly accredited.
Anambra State was the first to undergo national peer review, which scrutinised state governments for good governance, through the State Peer Review Mechanism (SPRM), an initiative of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum in collaboration with the DFID.
Now put the above vis-à-vis the achievements in Edo or any state for that matter between 2007 till date, then it will be glaring who our real enemies are! Is it the president or the governors? Development is usually grassroots just as underdevelopment is also usually grassroots too.
Yes, under this administration, we have blamed the president, Muhammadu Buhari for nepotism, bias, etc; without question, he is all of those, but he is not your senator, house member, governor or local government chairman. Neither does he deny them developmental funds or control it. So what happens when it comes to visionary leadership, accountability or prudence with resources? Our worst problems are our own brothers!
Who is the minister of transportation, the boss of the Niger Delta Development Commission, CBN governor, and ministers of labour and of technology? Are they not all from the south? Have they been able to attract development down here? Your guess is as good as mine. Now that you know who to blame, the blame should be enough to go round.
- Imafidon is of Better Nigeria Advocacy and Empowerment Initiative based in the UK
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