Captioning this work, the first in the series, was a serious challenge, the reason being that my objective is to uncover the endemic institution of corruption in the African continent and Nigerian receding nation and submit that Biafra will make the evasive difference.
Nations in Africa, with the exception of the white populated ones like South Africa and Namibia, have always had very low Gross National Product (GNP) due to selfish, greedy, myopic, and inordinately corrupt leaders. The figure for South Africa and Namibia is very encouraging due to their mixed racial state - a sign that colonialism is not that bad, after all.
Lootocrats have always been the ones to man what we call nations in Africa, with no end in sight. Walter Rodney wrote a classicus titled "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" wherein he said the coming of the white man is responsible for the stunted growth or absence of it in the continent.
Rodney is an advocate of DEPENDENCY THEORY, a theory that holds that Africans, having been colonized, have remained under the political and economic control of the West, with the IMF and IBRD (World Bank) as the specific instruments. Rodney, in my view, failed to see that the state of affairs in the post colonies is worse than that of the colonies.
W. W. Rostow, on the other hand, authored the five (5) stages every society must pass through in order to attain development, a submission that reveals that economies, like humans, grow from PRIMITIVITY to MODERNISATION. This submission is akin to that of the founder of Sociology, August Comte, whose "classical positivity" divulged how the human mind developed from the pristine/primitive to the positive/scientific era. Another French Sociologist, Emile Durkheim, used his distinction between a mechanic and organic society to drive home the point that the human society is DYNAMIC. MODERNISATION THEORY holds that progressive economies are so called because of the state of their economies with respect to GNP, employment, science and technology, and education.
Economies that have clambered up the echelons of economic growth (according to Rostow) fare better than their counterparts that remain below. The first three stages each economy must work hard to surmount are (1) the primitive stage (2) pre-conditions for take-off (3) take-off. African economies, I dare say, have a long way to go. The 4th stage, Stage of Maturity, is for economies that are classified as FIRST WORLD/CORE/DEVELOPED economies.
The dependency theorists who claim that the African problem is exogenous (caused by the West) are wrong, since they hinge it on IMPERIALISM/COLONIALISM. Africa is not the only continent with countries that were colonised. The United States of America was a colony of Britain for years. Are there still vestiges of colonialism in the US? Has the US not overtaken Britain in all the indices spelled out by the modernisation theorists that engender development? Africa must look inward for the cause of and solution to Africa's problem.
We should note that the countries in the Iberian Peninsula, Spain and Portugal, founded the New World - South America. Yes, Africans were the ones being shipped as slaves to the New World. The black man, his blackness notwithstanding, is responsible for the existence of the continent we refer to as South America today. It means we have been in existence for many years, albeit with SERVILE MENTALITY. When will Africa grow? When? It appears we are in dire need of RE-COLONISATION. Donald Trump may not be entirely wrong, after all.
Walter Rodney and other dependency theorists are wrong. Colonialism and imperialism do not keep colonies tied to the socio-economic, religious, and political apron strings of the coloniser. I disagree. I think the modernisation theorists, who based growth of economies on the indices mentioned supra (above), are spot on. Let us survey Africa, our own continent, using the modernisation theory scale.
WHERE IS AFRICA ON THE MODERNISATION THEORY SCALE?
Rostow talked about the 1) primitive 2) pre-conditions for takeoff 3) takeoff 4) maturity 5) period of mass production as the five stages every society that is desirous for economic growth must traverse. Countries are rated as FIRST WORLD (NATO and OECD), SECOND WORLD (vietnam, Cuba, Poland, Kazakhstan) and THIRD WORLD (Africa and some countries that are not ideologically n-sync with the West).
NATO means North Atlantic Treaty Organization and refers to the EU, while OECD means Organization for Cooperation and Development. OECD is a larger organization that comprises the EU, US, and several other nations all of which are called the Western World. The strong economies in them make them developed nations, and you must note that most of them were COLONIES years ago. Africa must stop hiding under colonialism. The First World nations are also called Highly Industrialized Countries (HIC) due to the preponderance of indigenous industries in them. On the modernisation scale, these countries occupy the transitory stage between takeoff and maturity. There are those that have attained the maturity stage. Some countries have been able to move up the scale, albeit not completely e.g. China. China, for some of us, is a first world country, but we know that the ideology of the Western World will continue to check them. It is noteworthy that the requisite indices adduced by Rostow are the determinants of impartial assessments. The first world countries are referred to as the CORE countries.
Third World countries are also called THE PERIPHERY, or UNDERDEVELOPED countries, and are characterised by the following:
1) Low GDP and GNP
2) High cost of living that leads to Low Standard of Living
3) High Death Rate
4) Uemployment
5) Crude production method (lack of industries)
6) Widespread poverty etc.
Some countries that are treated as Third World are only so seen due to their ideological independence from the West. Africa sits comfortably as a third world, with no vision to stem the ugly tide. The African problem is not reduceable to colour, since black men who have done global exploits abound. What then is the African challenge? The dependency theory blames it on colonialism, but the chink on the wall of that assertion has been exhumed. We have seen that colonial experience is not peculiar to Africa. Some people say the DURATION OF THE COLONIAL MASTER is responsible for our problem, but fail to see that Ethiopia was colonized for just five (5) years: 1936-1941, but is the LEAST DEVELOPED country in Africa.
It is, thus, indubitable that neither colonialism/imperialism nor duration of same is the problem. What then is the cause of the African peculiarity? Colour is not the issue, for the aboriginal Egyptians prior to the conquest of Alexander the Great of Babylon, were black people. (Read the "Larceny in Egypt" chapter 2 in AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY by Nwigwe and Emedolu) Some of us know the true story about the transformation of Egypt, the first developed country in the world. Stories abound that great historians like Herodotus, great thinkers like Thales, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato etc all passed through the tutelage of black Egyptians whose works disappeared after the conquest. The Egyptian mysticism and the pyramids were second to none in the world. The glory of Egypt has thinned out in antiquity due to lack of documentation. This is a serious problem in Africa - oral tradition that makes things disappear when the sages die.
The black man, it has been proved, is not devoid of natural abilities, for the original black Egyptians civilised the world. The white man is not superior to us because of his colour. He gets things done. Yes, therein lies the difference. The white man is not Homo Intellectus because of his colour. The white racist calls the black man Homo Erectus, which means we are just humans because we can walk upright. As offensive as that racial declassification is, is Africa not confirming it? When will the black man begin to get things done? Those who blame the West for our peculiar problem should tell us how Africans fared before the arrival of the white man. Maybe we should answer to the following posers:
1)Who were we before imperialism/colonialism? Identity issue. Hunters and gatherers?
2) Were we the only ones colonized?
3) Have other colonies not moved up the economy growth scale?
4) Are we still being colonized?
5) Did we not fare better under the colonial masters?
6) Would we have known the values of our natural resources but for the colonial masters?
Posers (5) and (6) prove that Africa gained a lot from colonialism, but have failed to make jusicious use of the lessons learned. Africa's problem is BAD LEADERSHIP. Africa is home to very selfish and corrupt men and women whose penchant for corrupt acts is better imagined. The GNP of nations in Africa is the worst in the world. This is disturbing, knowing that we are home to NATURAL RESOURCES in aplenty. We are the richest in natural resources, yet the poorest in the world. Is that not a shameful irony? Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire) , Sani Abacha (Nigeria), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Isaias Afwerki (Eritrea), Meles Zenawi (Ethiopia), Omar Bongo (Gabon) and Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe) are some African leaders that have looted their national coffers dry and sent their monies outside. Is it not shocking that Abacha of Nigeria stashed billions of dollars that exceeded our national debt in foreign accounts for himself? The cannibal, Mobutu Sese Seko embezzled over 10 billion dollars outside the shores of Nigeria.
According to R. Baker in a news magazine, our own Sani Abacha as Head of State in the 1990s, ordered the CBN (our central bank) to transfer the sum of fifteen million dollars ($15000,000) every day to his swiss account. Do you know what that means? It means $465m left Nigeria every month. Go ahead to compute how much money left our coffers every year. Over 100 banks worldwide were in charge of Abacha's loots! Crazy! Damn crazy! May God forgive these looters.
Today, it has been uncovered that African politicians hold somewhere between US$700 and $800 billion in offshore accounts and outside the continent. An estimated $274 billion leaves Sub-Saharan Africa for other countries. These huge amounts of money embezzled by African leaders exceed their national debt. Do you see why debts are not easily cancelled? The Lootocrats in Africa are the ones keeping our continent backward. You can see why the lootocrats in Nigeria don't want us to have Biafra.
Yes, secession of Biafrans from the LOOTOCRATIC Nigeria will lessen the purse of the looters. Nigeria and other African nations do not practise democracy. What we have is a DEMOCRATISED LOOTOCRACY. My own governor, I have been duly informed by his own brothers, is busy acquiring properties in and out of the state and nation. I have been shown a lot of properties he has acquired in just two years. We all know why they are scared of Biafra. Biafra will take Nigeria and Africa out of the woods. Embezzlement is a soft word that makes stealing a conventional thing.
The looter is no different than a thief and will be treated as such in Biafra Republic. There will be no such distinction between the THIEVING POLITICIAN and an ARMED ROBBER, for the MANDATE of the people is what the looter uses as arms. Biafra will westernize Africa.
Please note that this work is the first in the series. The next episode shall do justice to the Gross National Product of several African nations. You will see that even in countries where gold is a natural resource, poverty sits comfortably. You have seen what Abacha looted. You have seen the amount of money that leaves Sub-Saharan Africa. What you have not seen is how much Osinbajo, Buhari (living-dead), Obasanjo, Abdusalami, Amaechi, Odili, Obiano, Wike, Atiku, IBB, Senators, other governors, other presidents in Africa, political appointees, emirs, kings, Sultan etc all over Africa have looted and are still looting. Africa is a household of lootocrats. Every politician in Nigeria is driven by the lootocratic spirit. It is the truth we must begin to tell ourselves. A sustained African and Nigerian politics rejuvenates our national and continental underdevelopment. Things will get worse as long as Nigeria remains loosely ONE.
The template is too corrupt for any form of economic growth. Nigeria and Africa are far away from Rostow's takeoff stage. As a matter of fact, recent events in Nigeria show that we are on our way back to the PRIMITIVE/TRADITIONAL stage. Ours is a receding economy, and Biafrans, those blessed with the needed technology to MODERNISE Africa, have said they will not take this plunge with Nigeria. Biafra is the remedy for this speedily receding enclave called Nigeria. Watch out for parts 2 and 3.
Nigeria, we divorce thee.
Biafra, we hail thee.
Russell Idatoru Bluejack is a thinker, revolutionary writer, a tutor, and a socio-economic and political analyst that writes from Port Harcourt.