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Obasanjo's mission impossible By A single photograph, as the Chinese say, communicates more information than a thousand words. This was one of the ideas that coursed through my mind as I beheld the photo story of President Olusegun Obasanjo and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. The photograph was carried by The Guardian and a few other papers last Wednesday. With Obasanjo were five other African heads of state. These were Benjamin M'kapa of Tanzania, John Kufour of Ghana, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Joaquin Chissano of Mozambique and Festus Mogae of Botswana. The caption below the photograph said the team was in Blair's official country home "where they were due to hold talks..." In spite of the poor colour reproduction in our newspapers, this was not a picture that any newspaper reader could ignore. It told a story of more than a thousand words.
When I sought further advice from those who should know better, I was educated that the meeting was at the joint instance of Africa and the G.8 industrialised nations. That is something fresh for Africa. In the last few years, I am further informed, there has been this growing understanding between the continent and its creditor nations which are worried about the lack of progress in Africa and are therefore moved by compassion to render a helping hand to uplift it from the valley of economic death. Even the most hardened Afro-pessimist would welcome such large-heartedness. And being an Afro-optimist, I should not risk being suspected of lacking the milk of patriotism by believing the contrary. If you take a second look at the photo and consider the attentive manner the African leaders listened to Blair, you will see the import of what I mean.
Yet I have other thoughts troubling my mind. The posture of President Obasanjo in that historic event reminded me of his address at the opening ceremony of FESTAC 77 at the National Theatre in Lagos. He was in his second year as Nigeria's military head of state. Sounding very much like Nkrumah, Frantz Fanon or Walter Rodney, Gen. Obasanjo decried the fact of African nations being mere trading posts of the industrialised countries. He said this was a legacy of the centuries of the slave trade and colonialism which plundered Africa and consequently underdeveloped her. His historical perspective was so acute and his delivery so eloquent that he justly earned a loud ovation from delegates of about 130 countries from the African and Black world.
Nor was Obasanjo engaged in mere histrionics to gain the attention of the guests, most of whom were visiting Africa for the first time since their forebears were hijacked by slavers. As head of state, the General took decisive steps to pull Nigeria out of the trading post quagmire. His government enunciated policies to fortify the productive capacity of the country and reduce its dependence on imports. The government was determined enough to compel multinational corporations establishing factories in the country to pledge to manufacture a quarter of their essential parts within the country by the fifth year of operation. Eight automobile plants were set up for this purpose. Rapid progress was made in completing petrochemical plants to supply needed materials for industrial take-off. Besides Ajaokuta, a direct steel reduction plant was built at Ovwian-Aladja to ensure that steel was available for the hardware backbone of the industrialisation process. Gigantic harbours were added to boost trade. Moderation in the life style of the elite was made a national credo. The use of the 504 Peugeot saloon car for official purposes was made mandatory. It is still the case. Most of these measures collapsed along with the economy when the Shagari, Buhari and Babangida regimes that followed blundered on without an economic compass. Abacha and Abubakar completed the rout of economy. Thus Obasanjo's second coming was viewed by many as a divinely-ordained opportunity for him to resume the crusade of economic self-sufficiency which he pursued 20 years earlier.
What has junketing in foreign countries got to do with this project of national recovery? Pretty little. The President's diligent campaign for the recovery of looted public funds is a display of the right political instinct. So is his indomitable drive for the cancellation of African foreign debts. The debts are not only unpayable, they are dubious and mostly fictitious. The hope that the stolen money would be returned to us is a forlorn one. Such monies stashed away in European banks by the late Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Mobutu Sese Seko of former Zaire have not be redeemed. The European financial institutions whose governments insist that ours must abolish welfare budgets and advertise audit accounts on the Internet are making huge profits from husbanding the blood money. Their governments and civil society organisations that are furious with instances of terrorism are indifferent to the moral and ethical terrorism implied in keeping stolen wealth that should have saved the lives of millions of innocent Africans. The industrialised and rich nations of the west are eager to stigmatise Africa as a huge refugee camp of unstable regimes, yet they engage in international economic transactions that are bound to impoverish the continent in perpetuity. These countries know that vast potentials that abound in Nigeria. They are uncomfortable that an industrialised and democratic Nigeria could become a model in the region the way Japan and south Korea have been for Asia. After defeating Japan in World War II, the capitalist nations conspired to prevent her economic recovery and re-entry to the club of the prosperous. The Japanese and other countries of Asia recognised the challenge. They did not waste their diplomatic skills trying to woo Europe and America to be benevolent. Rather, they designed their own development programmes and emerged from the ashes of war as technologically advanced economies. They are now feared and respected by others.
Where is the development blueprint that Obasanjo takes to the numerous meetings he holds with potential foreign investors? If such a plan were available it should be known to the rest of us to enable each local investor know where to fit in. After the civil war in 1970, the Gowon administration brought out such a programme. It was robustly debated in the media and university campuses. Not everyone agreed with its projections, but the disputation and polemics helped the government to plot its way in implementation. The efforts by Obasanjo I spoke about rather effusively earlier were the product of this vision. If the soldiers that came after had no time to design a development plan because they were too busy stealing money, why should a civilian successor fail to produce one two and a half years in office?
Rather than sit down to produce a development programme, the Federal Government is busy attacking state governments that seem to be making some effort to be different. The Lagos State government which is striving to improve electricity and restore the city's premier position in manufacturing was for months handicapped by federal authorities. Some states in the Niger Delta which have detailed plans on how to transform the region are objects of ideological assaults by the Obasanjo team. I am aware that Delta State has produced an economic blueprint that could guide development there for the next 15 years. The presidency is not excited by this initiative, it would rather send idle ministers there to obtain rumours about how Governor Ibori is not delivering good governance. Zamfara, Nasarawa and Plateau states are in turmoil on account of economic depression, yet the Federal Government has no superior economic agenda to assist them to tame the social cataclysm that is building up in the Middle Belt. When terrorists wrecked havoc in New York two weeks ago, President George Bush was on the scene in workaday dress to urge the rescuers to do their best. When Jos burned and floods ravaged Kano and Jigawa, our legislators went there in flowing robes as if they were out for a carnival.
Nigeria cannot pay the price the foreign countries want to be helpful in our development. Egypt, Uganda, Ghana, Mali and Saudi Arabia have paid that price many times, yet they are not out of the woods. The problem with the Nigerian economy is not the absence of foreign investors. We have enough of them in the strategic areas of oil and gas. But they control those areas in a way that siphons more resources from Nigeria. If being a sycophant of the west were all it required to attract investment, Nigeria under Abacha would have been boycotted by foreigners in the economy. Yet information at the Central Bank shows that during those bloody years, 35 per cent of all direct foreign investment destined for Africa came to Nigeria. All of it went to the oil and gas fields in the Niger Delta.
What the Obasanjo government needs to do is to change its help-us-please orientation. It should engage its thinkers to produce a visionary development programme for the country. This should be subjected to intensive and extensive national debate by all stakeholders. The outcome should be incorporated into the long-term goal of the country. The states should undertake such projects and harmonisation can be done where necessary. President Obasanjo will find it more worthwhile to attend these debates than waste public funds going abroad to placate deities that would rather wish Nigeria remain a dumping ground for their goods and ideological quarrels.
September, 2001
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