Seizing the opportunity of Nigeria’s participation in the recent 6th European Union – Africa summit, which held in Brussels, President Muhammadu Buhari published an article in Politico, an online/offline magazine reputed to be one of the most influential publications for the EU in Brussels. The central thrust of the piece is the mass emigration of youths from Africa to Europe, and the deleterious consequences for both continents. Although this phenomenon of large numbers of people leaving Africa for the more developed climes of Europe began several years ago, it has in recent times assumed alarming proportions. Indeed, those who seek desperately to migrate out of Africa for Europe do so often at great risks to their lives as they try to escape from their home continent through hazardous danger-laden deserts or no less turbulent seas, that claim many lives daily. This shows that those who take such risks consider the perils of migration preferable to their socio-economic conditions back home.
President Buhari noted in the piece that not only does the large scale migrations of youths occurring in Africa on a daily basis deplete the continent’s pool of talents, it is also the cause of political crises in Europe where powerful domestic pressure groups have arisen to oppose the high migration rate of people into their respective countries from Africa. This is understandable as most of the African immigrants into Europe are less educationally qualified and thus available to take on lower paying jobs to the disadvantage of host populations. The President advocated creation of opportunities for Africans at home so as to provide alternatives to emigrants’ decisions to take life-threatening boat journeys in search of more favourable existential opportunities elsewhere.
Contending that Europe will not find a sustainable remedy for this problem by further reinforcing its Fortress Europe approach, President Buhari made a case for the recalibration of the economic relationship between Europe and Africa to focus on job creation. Noting that Africa’s population is set to double by 2050, with the continent’s inhabitants making up a quarter of the world’s population, he stressed that this would imply a huge youthful market right on Europe’s doorsteps but also, with attendant increased trade, a growing middle class with money to spend. He argued that both continents can take mutually beneficial advantage of the fact that Africa is currently the fastest growing population on earth while the EU is presently Africa’s largest trading partner.
According to the President, “Moving forward, it is clear what a new economic deal between our unions will entail: For Africa, it must offer a chance for a fundamentally new economic deal. For Europe, it must provide the chance to rid itself of a trade policy that quashes job creation in Africa and hinders efforts to stem economic migration to Europe”. He cited the example of agricultural subsidies to European Union farmers to the tune of €50 billion designed to keep European food prices cheap but which renders Africa’s exports uncompetitive. Consequently, with the export market distorted against them, African countries are deprived of foreign exchange and the capacity to invest meaningfully in agriculture.
While we agree on the need for less unequal and more mutually beneficial economic relations between Africa and Europe, the present skewed relations between both continents to the advantage of Europe is, in our view, not the fundamental cause of the mass migration from Africa that President Buhari addresses. In the first place, the phenomenon of large scale migration from Africa is no more a phenomenon involving only the youths. The trend now is for even older persons, including property owners, to seek to migrate from the continent. This indicates widespread disenchantment with socio-economic conditions on the continent and loss of hope in the possibility of a bright and better future.
Even if economic relations between Europe and Africa were to be rendered more equal and just today, there is hardly any guarantee that mass migration from Africa will be significantly reduced. This is because at the root of Africa’s developmental quagmire is poor governance and low quality leadership. Thus, the phenomenon of massive corruption across African countries diverts into private pockets funds that should have been invested productively to improve living standards. In the same vein, to cite another example, even funds that should have been invested in the military institutions of many African countries to enable a more vigorous and efficient prosecution of the war against insurgency, terrorism and religious extremism tends to be embezzled, thus worsening the challenge of insecurity that is also a key factor prompting large numbers of people to seek more secure livelihoods elsewhere.
The continuing mass emigration of people across age and socio-economic categories from Africa is thus a serious indictment, first and foremost, of Africa’s leadership and political elite. Even if more just and equitable economic relations between Africa and Europe is established and results in a more productive and efficient economic performance, there is no guarantee that large scale corruption will not erode whatever benefits that may accrue.
Of more critical importance then is for Africa’s leadership elite to take a hard look at their own governance styles with a view to enthroning higher standards of governance on the continent. This will entail institutionalising mechanisms of peer review that makes African leaders act as mutual checks and balances on each other, as well as holding themselves accountable to higher standards of governance.
It is noteworthy, for instance, that in a number of African countries where democracy has collapsed in recent times, large crowds have turned out on the streets to cheer and welcome the aberrant soldiers back to power. This should tell African leaders that the fundamental causes of disaffection and disenchantment that fuel mass migration lie essentially in internal, rather than external factors.