The assertion that Afrika can independently liberate herself economically is very wrong and it’s rather premature at this stage. Nations depend on each other as we are said to be a Global village.

Developed Nations; Canada, USA, China and Countries in Europe have other Nationals that own Organizations/Factories in their Countries and the citizens of the host Nations are the ones that work in those organizations and Factories, that’s how jobs are created . Don’t Americans have factories in China and vice versa? Who are the people working there in China, are they not Chinese? And the Factories in America and Canada who works in those factories are they not Americans and Canadians respectively?

Besides, Afrika as a continent doesn’t have the economic power to liberate herself enough to be economically independent. Afrika is only slightly above $2.6 trillion of Nominal GDP so where’s the financial muzzle or how much can she attract with such GDP to be able to compete with other continents giving the political office occupation by our MISFIT Leaders who could not harness the enormous Natural and Human Resources abounding in Afrika. The Housing deficit of 50.6 million units alone in Afrika will swallow up an amount equal to Afrika’s three years GDP as a continent. So you see, we are not strong enough to independently pull ourselves from poverty, No thanks to high level corruption in Afrika. Leaders looting our patrimony in an Industrial scale in connivance with our erstwhile colonial masters and neocolonialists.

But Nations can only attract Loans or Funds relative to their Economic size which is their GDP and this explains why Countries like the United States can attract over USD1 trillion from China as bail out funds while Afrika with a population of 1.3 billion people can only attract $60 billion from the same China because of the size of our economy.
What we should be preaching to our Afrikan Leaders therefore is, just like what other developed Country Leaders are doing, Governments in Africa must set the rules for partnerships, for equity participation etc in favour of Afrika/Afrikans when dealing with other Nationals who wish to invest in Afrika. But this may look a Herculean task to our Afrikan Leaders because of their in-depth corruption in Afrika as they seek for their parochial interest only while on the negotiation table.

I am a Pan-afrikanist but i believe in analyzing situations critically.
Just as we proud ourselves with our Afrikan population, other countries like China and India too have even higher population and they are everywhere in the world buying up Factories and blue-chip companies. But do we have such financial capacity, the answer is no, because our Leaders do not understand that Government ought to be run like business that would make profit and affect the people positively, rather, they are at competition of who will “out-loot” the other of our commonwealth.

How many Governments in Africa can tell the Monetary value of all the Mines put together in their Country? So we have a Country like Nigeria that doesn’t know the estimated value of the various mine reserves or deposits that exist in the length and breadth of the country. Governments in Afrika should engage the services of Consultants to quantify these Mines and put Monetary value on them. That’s how you start to put value to your sovereignty.

Another major challenge to Afrikan Leaders are that they find it difficult to prioritize their budgets and they don’t like to spend money on A+ rated consultants to do proper surveys that can attract the much needed funds, they will rather have China do that even if the study is in Chinese Language they don’t care and this is SAD.

It’s not enough for us to be shouting; we are the mother of humanity, we are the cradle of civilization etc and we don’t know how much we are worth in terms of Natural Resources. Our Afrikan Leaders need to wake up and like our ESGADIA Chairman, the erudite Prof. PLO Lumumba would say, “Let us think even without the Box because we do not know who brought this Box that they keep talking about.”

Maazi Obinna Agommuo is my name and I am saying Afrikaans need Critical Thinkers and Entrepreneurs at the helms of Governments so they can run Governments like businesses. Let us have the profits generated as dividends for good governance, we are all shareholders and stakeholders in the Afrikan project

By: Maazi Obinna Agommuo
The Executive Director, ESGADIA.