Africa too rich to be poor

Lazarus Sauti

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rofessor Ali Mazrui called Africa a ‘Treasure Island’ because it is a continent that is endowed with vast human and natural resources.

True to Mazrui’s assertions, Africa own about 50 per cent of the world's gold reserves, the world's largest diamond reserves, manganese, chromium, cobalt, several millions of acres of untilled farmland, and other numerous natural resources.

In spite of its treasure island’s status and superb human resource base, Africans are still the most impoverished people in the world. Its people live in the poorest situations imaginable.

It is sad to note that African nations regularly fill the bottom 25 spots of the United Nations quality of life index.

It baffles the mind why Africa is too rich but its subjects are underprivileged.

Koffi Alle, Senior Advisor to IMF Executive Director for Africa once asked: “Why is it taking Africa so long to raise its people out of poverty and into prosperity despite its wealth of natural resources?

“Could it be precisely because of its natural wealth that Africa’s transformation has been held in check?”

Africans with a dose of social sensitivity, a talent or skill for observation, and a knack for inquisitiveness must have pondered why so many Africans live in deafening poverty.

News from Africa writer Peter Mafany Tome bemoans technological gab as one of the main reasons why Africans are poor compared to other continents.

He writes, “In a century experiencing huge technological advancements and globalisation Africa is still struggling against poverty, wars, corruption, in a word, against underdevelopment.”

Despite technological advancements that have revolutionised the world, Africa is still lagging behind.

It is high time Africa utilises information and communication technologies (ICTs) to combat massive underdevelopment and all sorts of untold sufferings.

Insufficient education is also a major contributing factor to the poverty of Africa and her subjects.

It is critical to note that education changes everything. Unfortunately, the majority of African children today do not have access to basic education which is required to open up their minds to knowledge and skills needed to equip them to discover ideas and opportunities that will create jobs and put people in employment.

Accordingly, African governments still have a lot to do in terms of education.

Education in most African countries is still beyond the reach of many because of the costs involved and African governments do little or nothing to support parents, guardians and sponsors in sending children to school.

Without this education, the African people will never have the ability to developing the continent, or be able to identify and exploit the numerous materials on our African soils and seas.

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t is for insufficient enlightenment that Western countries come to us, give us peanuts in the form of foreign aid, and then exploit our resources for their own benefit.

Masimba Brian Mavhudzi, a Policy and Planning Officer based in Harare says lack of government policy is the main driver for poverty amongst Africans.

He says: “The fact that Africa has been absent from the international debate on industrialisation is enough evidence that our leaders are not thinking out of the box.

“The lack of domestically driven policies and institutional reforms has even hindered progress in Africa.”

Mavhudzi added: “We are poor because we do not have the know-how to exploit our own resources therefore western countries take us for fools in international trade, because we are not informed enough to negotiate properly.”

One thing Africans should bear in mind is that nation building is not an individual effort but a collective effort.

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very African has a shared responsibility on nation development. Africans must learn from countries such as the United Arab Emirates who invested heavily on developing their nation with funds from oil.

African governments should come up with constructive reform powerful enough to shape a better and prosperous future for Africans.

It is time to propose relevant and sustainable development policies that have Africans as the focal point.

The time has come for a paradigm shift in Africa – in its development thinking, policy making and institutional setting – if it has to shape its own prosperity.

This is the moment for the continent to escape the natural resource trap of jobless growth, industrialise, and provide jobs for its unemployed youths.

The change has to be demand-driven. This means African civil societies, intellectuals, scholars, or think-tanks have major roles to play in the process.

They should demand from their leadership bold agendas and political platforms that emphasise industrialisation as a means to transform resource-reliant countries into modern and job-providing economies.

Africans should inculcate a culture of personal and moral responsibility to overcome poverty and help shape the continent. Poverty of the mind must not prevail among Africans. We must live with the conviction that as a continent, we can grow like, India, New Zealand or Australia all enjoying substantial per capita income after de-colonisisation from Britain.

Mavhudzi says that for Africans to effectively benefit from our vast resources, corruption must never find space in all sectors of the economy.

“Corruption must be an area of concern for the security agents to work on and all those criminals who are squandering resources which are supposed to develop and benefit Africans must be hunted, exposed and jailed,” he said.

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f Africa is ever going to take its rightful place among the superpowers and leave the realm of poverty, it must first and foremost educate and invest in its people. Malcom X once said, “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” Consequently, Africans must gain knowledge enough so as to be able to deal intelligently with our western counterparts in trade and commerce.

Africa must believe in the strength and power of its own ideas and support entrepreneurial and inventive minds that have the potential to create new ventures that would open up more job opportunities for the people.

Surely Africa is too rich to be poor.