I enrolled in college as an economics major, but sitting in my first economics course (microeconomics 101) I had a sense that I had made the wrong choice. But who gives up on the first day? So, I stuck it out, partly because of how excited the brilliant Eva Paus was during her lectures, and partly because I was not sure what course I would replace economics with. Besides, economics seemed to be the preferred course of studies for my African and Caribbean sisters who were not in the sciences.
By the time I got to my third year, to maintain my sanity, I got my faculty adviser to approve that I take some courses in sociology. I was tired of learning models that worked ‘ceteris paribus’ (other things being equal). At that level, the courses were seminars that allowed for open discussions between students and lecturer. Of all my friends who were economics majors, I do not know anyone who took the Economic Development Seminar and came out the same. Most of us had, directly or indirectly, experienced the failure of economic theories implemented by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). From Jamaica, to Zimbabwe, the experience was similar. Economics tries to pretend that it is a science, but it is not.
I remember how we had many debates at different levels from students to professionals before Nigeria implemented the Structural Adjustment Programme in 1986. The push was for free market liberalisation of the economy. Washington gets what Washington wants and Nigeria needed the aid, so we buckled and did what they told us to do.Change your trade policies, we did. Reform your foreign exchange system, we did. Change your agricultural regulations, we did. We were told that we had to tighten our belts, and we did, to disastrous consequences.
Yes, the Structural Adjustment Programme worked out well for some Asian nations, but not so much for other nations that implemented it. The problem with Washington and its team of experts is that after designing the great economic models, the historical, cultural, social and political economy is left ceteris paribus. What works in Japan may not work in Nigeria, and vice versa. But the almighty IMF and its experts had spoken and we obeyed.
Last month, at the IMF and World Bank Annual meeting where the 2018 Human Capital Index was launched (in which Nigeria placed a dismal 152nd out of 157 countries), the World Bank President, Mr Jim Yong Kim, made an important admission about the direction that the institution had put Nigeria on. He said, “I think that the World Bank has to take some responsibility for having emphasised hard on infrastructure, roads, rails, energy for a very long time and I think that changed 20 years ago.But there is still then the bias that says we will invest in hard infrastructure and then when we grow rich, we will have enough money to invest in health and education.We are now saying that that’s really the wrong approach, that you’ve got to start investing in your people right now.’’
When Bill Gates visited Nigeria some months ago and voiced his opinion that not enough was being invested in developing our human capital, this administration sneered at him. What does he know? According to the quote above, we were on course with our focus on infrastructure. But it turns out the almighty World Bank was wrong. And so, what happens now? What happens to the industries that were destroyed because of SAP? What happens to the children who could no longer afford to go to school? The World Bank admits it was wrong and we just look away and say, ‘Pip, pip, that was many years ago, we forgive you’? This is the kind of admission that would lead to shirt-grapping were it made on the streets. Lives and fortunes were ruined with the implementation of SAP.
We do not document much in this country, but for anyone who wants to put a human face to the impact of the structural adjustment policies pushed by the IMF and World Bank, the 2001 documentary film, Life and Debt, by Stephanie Black, is a good starting point. The documentary was filmed over several years in Jamaica where the IMF became known as ‘It’s Manley’s Fault’ after former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Michael Manley. In the course of the documentary, we witness the decline and eventual shutdown of a dairy farm that could not keep up because the markets were flooded with cheap American powdered milk. One-sided trade liberalisation policies that allowed subsidised Western products into the Jamaican market but kept the products of Jamaica out of their markets using subtle protectionary policies.
This admission by the World Bank is not new wisdom. In 1994, my Zimbabwean friend, Rumbidzai Bwerinofa-Petrozzello, who was also an economics (and mathematics) major wrote a paper on the Zimbabwean experience with the structural adjustment policies of the World Bank and concluded thus:
‘The laissez-faire attitude of the plan does not look like it will work. The government of Zimbabwe inherited a sick economy and now it is trying to let it go before it has healed. This has not yet been shown to work and there is nothing that is outstandingly unique about Zimbabwe that indicates that a structural adjustment programme such as those advocated by the World Bank and IMF would work in Zimbabwe. The alternative to ESAP should be a development of the people, which is carried out by and for the people, based on equity and social justice, meeting basic needs, protecting the environment, alleviating poverty and integrating all people…. Zimbabwe belongs to her people and, thus, any programme that is carried out should be one that benefits the majority, if not the entirety, of the Zimbabwean people.’ Rumbidzai Bwerinofa, 1994 (emphasis, mine).
The lesson for us is that we must begin to develop our own solutions that work for us. We cannot wait to get Washington’s approval before we plan for our people.
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