Foreign aids as Africa’s pandora box

Contemporary events in the developing world have contradicted years of economic development history signifying that lack of financial capital has impoverished the poor countries. Evidence from macroeconomic data shows that every year, trillions of capital flow to these countries mainly African states from the developed donor states and international organisations. However, far from contributing to rapid economic development along democratic lines, these aids have become a pandora box that is more than meets the eye.

Africa provides a striking example of the failures of international aid, evoking a bottomless pit that has slurped an estimated US$2 trillion of aid money in the last six decades. Despite this incongruous affair, foreign aid remains a centrepiece of today’s African development policy, reinforcing her prolonged reliance on external assistance.

Conventionally, foreign aids are intended to complement and supplement the national resources of developing entities for sustainable development. But the interplay of politics makes it a horse of a different colour. Rather than leading to a corresponding transfer of prosperity in Africa, it re-enforces corruption, increasing debt and collapsing economic structure. The impact of this is an undeniable reality etched into the daily lives of ordinary people.

African states have been conditioned for years to be entitled to aid from the West that the tag of ‘poor countries’ does not irritate them anymore as it has become normal to be declared poor to get what has been described as a “dead aid”. Every time, they appear incapable of lifting themselves out of dearth without a begging bowl. The folly of thinking that they can beg unendingly makes it even more pathetic.

Along with policies and economic strategies that widen the chasm between the rich and the poor, social initiatives that lack inclusivity continue to cast a shadow over the entire region. Struggling economies, compromised healthcare systems, underfunded educational institutions, and the despairing hardship etched in every furrowed brow across the continent lay visible the paradox of foreign intervention.

The inescapable fact is that the pervasive corruption which has become a badge of honour among the ruling class in Africa is making the cycle of poverty very difficult to break. It is estimated that Africa loses more than $50 billion a year to corruption, although this could be as high as $89 billion a year, accounting for 3.7 per cent of its GDP. According to the UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report, over the past 50 years, Africa has lost US$1 trillion to illicit flow, equivalent to all official development assistance received during the same period.

The most insidious thing is that as corruption continues to gain impetus, African countries are sinking into debt. Even the multilateral debt relief initiative could not keep them away from the borrowing treadmill with the majority now on the list of IMF debt distress. Tony Blair’s memorable description of the continent as a “scar on the conscience of the world,” and his insistence that the international community could heal it, is a classic illustration of the normative perspective on foreign aid to Africa.

On the other side of the coin, rich countries and financial institutions in the disguise of assistance keep propagating their sinister plot against African nations. The hypocritical nature and baneful influence of aid flows are an attrition against Africa’s prosperity and stability. Draped in the cloak of diplomatic support, these aids have become tools to maintain a unipolar hegemonic position and engage in geopolitical games.

Through their abhorrent affinity with the African elite, the world’s powerhouse lurks behind the scenes to embolden numerous atrocities, inflame political divisions and exploit our precious national resources. Russia has been actively supporting coups in Africa through the Wagner mercenary group. Besides her exploration of gold and other illicit in Sudan which are been trafficked through the Central African Republic, the Kremlin has forged opportunistic relationships with kleptocratic powerbrokers in some parts of Africa to keep her economy afloat amidst global sanction.

Concurrently, the heinous violation of Africa’s essence in the upper echelons of Western politics and economy is baffling. With the formation of imperialism, Africa has acquiesced to be a vassal continent because achieving political independence did not include attaining economic decolonisation. The scaffold and pivot of such an economy are colonial relations of exploitation.

If not, almost a quarter of the continent – 12 Francophone African countries would not be operating almost entirely on the CFA franc and place half their foreign exchange reserves with the French treasury. Through their ever-proliferating Africa summit diplomacy, they set an agenda to limit Africa’s integration and economic prosperity and make her development largely artificial and fragile.

Amid the multilayered conflict bedevilling the continent, powerful nations influence insurrection within the continent to destabilise the polity, causing chaos and unrest so much that Africa continues to be a hotbed of radical crisis. From the tumultuous Dafur region where intensive civil war is raging, to the Western Sahel through the Horn of Africa, encompassing the Lake Chad Basin and the Gulf of Guinea that has become a beehive of violent Islamic extremists. The transnational organised crime within the G5 Sahel countries as well as the reignited hostility in the Western Sahara territories remain a poignant reminder of our volatile existence.

Africa remains the locus of humanitarian crisis, resulting in a spike in forced displacement and human trafficking. It is now estimated that over 40.4 million people are forcibly displaced across the continent. In South Sudan alone, 42 per cent of its population is forcibly displaced. These freckles of apprehension have continued to impale resilience and limit Africa’s socio-economic opportunities, resulting in accelerated poverty.

To be continued tomorrow.

Akinfenwa is of the Lagos State Office of Sustainable Development Goals, Alausa, Ikeja.