Time for Africa’s home-grown devt — Opinion — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News

The ninth edition of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that ended recently again presents an unseemly convergence of countries in a lopsided relationship that Africa needs to correct in its continental interest. Africa undoubtedly needs China for more than a few lessons on how to take countries’ economies and industries from zero to super level, but African countries can gain much more than they presently do from China if only the leaders can exercise greater discipline in managing their vast resources. Quite a few African scholars consider the periodical visits of African leaders to China as demeaning and symptomatic of an enslaved mentality.

The forum, a summit of African leaders and the People’s Republic of China took place from September 4-6, 2024, with this year’s theme: “Joining hands to advance modernisation and build a high-level China-Africa Community with a shared future”, yielding more pledges and bilateral economic agreements. The Forum has been held every three years since 2000, in what is described by African scholars as a renewed scramble for economic and diplomatic ties with Africa by the developed world, as well as by medium and even emerging powers.

The forum provided an opportunity for African countries to cut fresh deals with China as well as renew previous agreements bordering on much-needed industrialisation, expansion of agricultural capacities and infrastructure financing. The engagements also tapped into China’s expansive security/defence industry and renewable energy technologies.

Surely, Africa needs Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), in virtually all sectors. There is an urgency for industrialisation and domestic utilisation of primary/natural resources that are in abundance in the continent. It is also a fact that unemployment figures in Africa are frightening. Africa is home to around 1.5 billion people, equivalent to 18.3 per cent of the total world population. Of this, 70 per cent of Africa’s sub-Saharan population is under the age of 30, the youngest in the world, but plagued by debilitating unemployment.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) reported in 2016 that while 10-12 million youths enter the workforce in Africa each year, the continent is only able to create three million formal jobs yearly. It is estimated by the World Bank that 40 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population, around 433 million people live in extreme poverty.

The gravity of underdevelopment and poverty has pushed African countries into signing all manner of economic agreements to restart the aging industry and build roads, railways, airports and dams. For African countries, China has become the preferred destination for investment capital. On the surface, China loans come faster with less stringent conditionalities than those from Western countries. Beneath the surface, however, are strict repayment terms. Unfortunately, this is where some African countries have fallen into debt traps because they lack the discipline to abide by the terms.

Therefore, there is little to celebrate when the entire African leadership emptied into China to seek foreign investment, not as equals but from a position of weakness and self-affliction. China has become the largest export market for African countries, especially for crude oil and rare mineral resources. Trade between China and Africa is lopsided, in favour of China, with African countries contributing less than five per cent of China’s imports, according to Carnegie Endowment data. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that for African countries to finance critical infrastructure, they need around $285 billion between 2021 and 2025 and China is the place to go. Meanwhile, Africa’s debt to China is reported to be around $170 billion. It was $140 billion in 2021, with most countries already distressed and defaulting in repayment agreements, according to IMF.

Angola, for instance, an oil-producing country, is reported to have borrowed more than $45 billion from China since 2002 and is lagging in repayment terms, forcing China’s gradual shift to other markets. Angola now spends about half of its yearly budget on debt payments. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy is also struggling with debt, owing China $5.16 billion, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO). This is the situation with most African countries.

We are thus reminding African countries that the transformation that has brought China fame and opulence was homegrown, built on patriotism, discipline and self-pride. In just four decades, China transformed from subsistence agriculture into a market economy, with heavy investment in manufacturing and a focus on foreign markets. Many African countries were contemporaries of China in the 1960s, low in the industry, reliant on agriculture, limited in infrastructure and dependent on foreign aid. However, determined leadership transformed China into what it is today. China did not achieve that by carrying a bowl in its hand, begging for alms.

This is the lesson for African leaders: to show uncommon leadership and pull Africa out of the depths of misery and underdevelopment. They should not just go for loans; they should learn from the discipline that is the hallmark of Chinese culture.

Africa controls an impressive 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land of around 600 million hectares, providing immense opportunities for agricultural revolution. In addition, Africa is home to assorted minerals, accounting for around 20 per cent of the world’s gold production, 50 per cent of the world’s diamond, 60 per cent of global cobalt reserves, has the largest world’s chromium, manganese, the appreciable amount of uranium among other choice minerals.

It is therefore hardly surprising that all eyes are on Africa. The renewed quest for diplomatic and economic relations with the continent is to access Africa’s resources. A lot is already going on in terms of undocumented and unreceipted explorations and exploitation. The Democratic Republic of Congo is ravaged by the exploration of resources as well as by wars that are engineered and fanned by foreign interests. This must be resisted by the African Union.

We task African leaders to eschew corruption, which is the reason the loans from China and revenues from the extractive industry are not working for the people. African countries negotiate for loans from a position of disadvantage, unable to bargain on equal terms, falling prey to China’s shrewd business sense. African countries have seen disgraceful seizures of assets owned by African countries by Chinese companies for defaulting on loan payments. This is shameful and should not happen again.

Notably, ongoing global competition for Africa by China, Russia, India and Turkey among other countries is a way of hitting back at the West’s military and economic dominance across the world and in Africa. African leaders must nevertheless position the continent to benefit as equal partners in reshaping a new world order, not as appendages to other continents or countries.

There are security implications inherent in economic agreements and African leaders must be mindful. This is the time to protect the continent’s sovereignty from military infiltrations and foreign dominance.

For Nigeria, this is the time to demonstrate leadership as a regional powerhouse and Africa’s largest economy. This is the time to reawaken the golden era when Africa was the centre-point of Nigeria’s foreign policy, with an unreserved commitment to the liberation of Africa. That was when Nigeria led from the front. That can only be achieved with deft leadership at home, together with a sound economy.

While addressing Nigerians living in China, President Tinubu remarked: “China is a very disciplined society, and we have to be disciplined too. Without discipline and commitment, we cannot build a nation that is respected everywhere in the world.” This is the moment for President Tinubu and other African leaders to show discipline and commitment to their communities.

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