Africa’s humiliating relations with the world By Jide Osuntokun

To match Interview NIGERIA-BUHARI/Recently, President Muhammad Buhari went to India to participate in an Indo-African summit. This was the first of its kind and we were told it will be an annual meeting in which the Indian Prime Minister will meet all the 53 heads of government of African states in New Delhi. The precedence for this humiliating conference was laid by France and China and later followed by the USA. Who knows what other country will summon all African heads of government and states to come to its capital for a conference? These leaders like school children whose names and countries are announced in a public address system always  step out to be recognized and led to the smiling emperor who will condescendingly shake their hands telling them to stand by for a group photograph. This humiliating experience in which African leaders dressed in local attires of their host willingly participate is totally unjustified and unacceptable. In international relations, there is sovereign equality of all states.

Diplomacy operates on two wings of bi-lateral and multilateral  relations. If there is need for any country to talk to Africa as a continent, then such a country should come to Addis Ababa during the annual African Union summit. The UN also provides a forum for multilateral meetings if necessary on the sidelines of UN annual General Assembly meetings.

This humiliation started with the neocolonial relations between France and la francophonie when all former French colonies in Africa which were heavily supported militarily and financially by France had to visit the élysée palace to get approval for their budget and policies. Interestingly, the former French colonies in Asia did not allow themselves to be submitted to this humiliation. It was most surprising when the same policy was extended to the whole of the continent and our people sheepishly accepted this treatment. Imagine Nigeria, a country of 170 million groveling before the French president. If we have anything to  discuss with France, do we have to follow 52 other African presidents who apparently have nothing to do at home? We must put an end to this humiliation. The situation where African presidents are dressed in Chinese or Indian apparels like clowns about to go on stage is not funny at all. The justification for this is that we need foreign investment and market for our goods. Yes we do and this can be sorted out bilaterally. Some apologists for this new way of relations with Africa may suggest that all Africa put together are about  500 million people whereas India and China are each over a billion people. Yes this is true. But it will still not justify lumping together of a whole continent this way. Inter tate relations is not based on demographic size even though population size counts as an important element of power. I do not see any gain in Africa exhibiting its weakness and poverty the way we are doing. Respect begets respect. If we do not respect ourselves, no one will respect us. It is not that Africa is totally helpless. The continent is sitting on resources that the world needs and without begging, those who need our resources will come begging us to sell to them.

We do not have a union government in Africa so why are we being treated as if Africa is a country? Why is South America not being treated the same way?

If our founding fathers were to see what is going on in the various countries they laboured to liberate from European colonialism, they will be horrified. Those were the days when a Kwame Nkrumah would  go to China or India and be feted by Chou en Lai, Mao Zedong and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru respectively as equals. Several years later, the whole of the continent is treated as if it is irrelevant. President Nkrumah spent the better part of his political  life preaching about the desirability for Africa to unite. He wrote a book with the title Africa Must Unite. He made the point that individually African states are too small and that to make an impression globally, they must unite. He was correct. There are too many puny states in Africa. Most of them are unviable politically and economically. But the point is that not of them are this way. Certainly Nigeria cannot be described as too small to be viable. If the other countries are ready to troop out and be presented on a stage by foreign powers in the name of summit with that country, Nigeria should be sensitive and sensible enough to opt out. If Africa must unite, it must come out of Africa’s effort and not dictated from outside by China, India, France or the United States. While unity is desirable, it must not be at the expense of our continent’s dignity. The existence of the European Union has not led to the USA or China ignoring the bilateral relations between them and individual European countries. What is good for the goose must also be good for the gander. I suspect South Africa demurely and hesitatingly goes along with other African states on this issue in order not to appear ungrateful for the support of Asian states during the struggle against the apartheid racist regime in South Africa before 1994. Nigeria does not carry this burden and we must resist this humiliation as the foremost Black African Country. The Arab-speaking African countries are cleverly spared this disgraceful diplomatic treatment. This is, if one must say, some kind of racism where in global reckoning, Africans are seen as being of lesser importance than whites, Browns and yellow people.  Nigeria cannot be campaigning to be recognized as a potential UN Security Council member and be subjecting itself to this ridicule. If Nigeria as a result of maintaining its dignity will not receive technical aid or assistance, so be it. All the so-called technical assistance of the past 55 years since independence has not translated into prosperity  for all our people and missing out a few pennies from international donors will not undermine our development trajectory if we are a serious country. It is even better to develop on our own and not to depend on western or eastern or Asian paradigms of development. Never again must our country go to Paris Washington, Beijing, New Delhi or London as part of a continental summon to Africa by a non-African country. If we continue to do so, our children’s generation will not forgive us. How does one explain 90 year-old Robert Mugabe  and other geriatrics routinely going to India and China on these merry go round when at Mugabe’s advanced age, he should be playing with his great grandchildren at home?  The problem and solution to African development is at home not in the hands of development partners. If we do not know this by now, then it means our leaders have not learnt any lessons from the failure of these decades of development assistance. What we need is trade and trade will go any where there are commodities or articles of trade for exchange. Besides, this is better left in the hands of private entrepreneurs and not in the hands of presidents.

NATION

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2 Comments

  1. To add to the humiliation, your president goes on the disgraceful trip to India, only to go there and rubbish Nigeria by moaning how the country is so corrupt. Lord have mercy!

  2. I completely agree. A south south and African regionalism is the way forward. Lets go back to the African in us. Lets deal as partners and so call aid recipients.

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