Has Africa underdeveloped Africa?

The current political upheaval in Niger is not just about that country, which sits on top of Nigeria on the map of Africa. Rather, it is about the entire continent, the land that has been shortchanged by its own, especially the leaders. Leadership failure in Africa is the root cause of the region’s stunted growth in every respect. This is why the historical, economic and international dimensions being explored in the framing of the Nigerien affair are quite appropriate.

Africa is not lacking in resources that can transform lives on the continent to what obtains in developed countries. The resources are here, in abundance. They are right under our feet, and around us.

I have covered a gold mine opening ceremony in the northern part of the Guinea. That country is also abundantly endowed with other minerals such as diamond, uranium, petroleum, manganese and diamond. Yet its development indices are some of the lowest:

I have visited Ghana’s Obuasi gold mine, run by Ashanti Goldfields, to report mining activities there. I was driven to level 700 metres into the womb of the earth under the hill, to witness gold mining at its best in an underground mine That mine, located in the famous Ashanti Region, was opened in 1897; I visited in 1997, its centenary anniversary.

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In Nigeria, I have gone to oil and gas installations, to witness the facilities that enable the production of the two commodities that have dominated the economy of this country for several decades now.

In other words, this continent has not lacked resources that can transform its economy. Mining and other extractive activities have long been in operation in all parts of Africa. What we do not have is purposeful leadership. We as a region have not been lucky with leadership. When the colonial masters came, they were largely interested in the development of their homelands, which explained the actions they took, including carting away Africa’s resources, among which were human beings, back home, for their own development. That formed the basis of Walter Rodney’s book, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.”

And since they left, we have been unlucky still with leadership, otherwise, our material situations would have improved significantly. Africa’s story is little changed, only that another set of “underdevelopers” have taken over the reins of power.

This continent has been saddled with leaders whose mindset is out of sync with the needs of the homeland. That is why, rather than having  “Africa First” as a mindset, their interest is elsewhere. This explains why leaders plunder their nations’ treasuries and stash their resources away in banks in Europe and other places. Meanwhile, the local economies are shrinking because there are no resources for investment. Sometimes, the amount of funds that leaders loot is in multiples of the foreign direct investments that African countries celebrate when the funds trickle in.

Africa faces a weak governance challenge. The political system in most countries is weighed down by corruption. Corruption is a barrier between Africa and the profitable conversion of its resources to the benefit of the majority of the people. Because of corruption (which is represented by various ills such as nepotism, sectionalism, tribalism, etc), it is impossible for a nation’s resources to be used for the good of the majority.

Leadership in Africa has failed to mobilise the continent’s resources, both human and material, and convert them into economic benefits for the larger society. This explains the continued low human development that characterises life in Africa. Our people are poor; they are uneducated, and above all, life expectancy is extremely low in Africa.

Available figures indicate that sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest Human Development Index among the regions of the world. This statistical composite index measures life expectancy, mean years of education, and per capita income. It is divided into four tiers, ranging from Very high human development (0.8-1.0); High human development (0.7-0.79); Medium human development (0.55-.70), and low human development, less than 0.55.

In the latest HDI rankings, SSA countries are found almost exclusively in the Low Human Development category, including Nigeria (0.535); Democratic Republic of the Congo (0.479); Central African Republic (0.404); South Sudan (0.385); Niger (0.394), among others.  Nigeria ranks 163 while Niger is ranked 189, out of 191 countries. Most SSA countries are ranked from the 160th position to the last position, which is occupied by South Sudan.  

Niger encapsulates Africa’s story of ‘potentials’ that never get translated into realities. Like Africa, Niger is rich and poor at the same time. It has several mineral resources, including cement, coal, gold, gypsum, limestone, silver, tin, and, above all, uranium. Niger is ranked as having the fourth-largest deposit of uranium in the world. Niger’s uranium is said to be the major interest of that country’s colonial master, France. Uranium is used in several industries, including as fuel for nuclear power plants to generate electricity; medical and industrial uses, among others.  

Vast resources dot the African landscape. Gold, oil, gas, diamond, bauxite, copper, and several others, but the continent has little to show for these. The standoff in Niger has brought to the fore the age-long question about Africa and its resource endowment and low levels of development prevalent in the continent. Africa is home to the things that other regions have used to become rich, yet this continent, paradoxically, remains poor, grossly poor.

That is part of Africa’s story, which has always evoked images of contradictions, where millions of people wallow in poverty and lack in the midst of plenty.  Why, you may ask, is Niger ranked so low on HDI, if it has this very important mineral that is obviously in demand today?

Or, what do we say about the case of DRC, which has a HDI of 0.479, despite its mineral deposits? In 2019, this country accounted for over 60 per cent of the global production of cobalt, according to one report. Cobalt is an important element in the production of batteries for electric vehicles, and the shifting emphasis to clean energy means that demand for it is bound to rise.

Will this translate to improvement in living standards for the people of DRC and other African countries endowed with cobalt and similar minerals? The answer belongs to African leaders. They have a choice to make: whether to continue the plundering of their national resources or to use the same for the good of their people. The choice is theirs.