By: Sunday Podo
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| Map of Africa drawn with meat |
The African Continent is home to one of the world's best natural rainforests and water falls, human and mineral resources including gold, diamond, uranium, natural gas and petroleum et al.
With a population of 1.4 billon in 2022, according to United Nations projection, Africa remains a permanent exporter of raw materials and and the world's largest importers / consumers of finished products including coffee, furniture and petroleum products.
A brief accounts into how Africa was raped by external forces who were in search of gold and cheap human labour were quite degrading to human history.
The Portuguese first made their incursions into Africa in 1415 up till 1600 when the scramble for Africa's resources became an ambitious projects for the Colonial Masters.
The Portuguese introduced commodity trade including slavery. The British and French also arrived, first as explorers and Missionaries then introduced Western education and Religion and later the Colonial policy of political and economic subjugation that rages up till post independent Africa.
However, Islam and Arabic education also found itself first in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel Region, down the Swahili Coast and spread through the Senegalese Basin in West Africa down to Northern Nigeria through commodity trade and preaching.
Today, Africa, the second largest continent in the world, is home to multi cultural, multi religious and multi lingua society thus becoming a de facto economic "prey" in the hands of the West who still controls world's economy and diplomacy.
Incidentally, in spite of the huge resources available to Africa, both humans and minerals, weaker Governments and Weaker institutions have continued to hinders Africa's prosperity and has made the world's major economic players like the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, China etc to remain Donor's Nations to Africa instead of Partners.
African Governments must redefine its ambitions in global trade and diplomacy through industrialisation and leadership capacity building for sustainable development of its key comparative advantages like agriculture, oil and gas, mining, arts and crafts, ensure Rule of Law and enforce transparency in Governance.
Yes, we can do it, if our political system and leadership recruitments processes under whatever name are transparent, competent, credible and suitable for our culture and peculiarities, be it democracy, monarchy or military. Copying the West entirely would not remove all our challenges.