Where Africa’s Resources Are
It is high time we rethought what our real resources are and how to optimise them, argues Ayodele Okunfolami
Nigeria’s northern neighbour has been in the news for two fortnights now. With the celebrated coup d’état that has suspended the poor nation’s constitution for a military dictatorship, I will simply call it Niger without the Republic. It’s the same way I question the ‘democratic’ in DR Congo. Anyway, although a couple of coups had happened before now in Sahel Africa having similar imprints. Nigeriens’ internal response as well as that of the international committee was a lot more extroverted than coups before it despite having similar imprints of being led by young soldiers, Islamic and mostly all being landlocked former French colonies.
Niger’s coup exposed what we have already known: agelong and continuous imperialism by mainly Western powers. The continuous and expanded Scramble for Arica with Russia and China in recent years wanting their slices. Nigeriens, like Burkinabe, Malians and Guineans used the Russia-facilitated coups as reason to break off the yoke of France and its puppet leaders. The Economic Community of West African States, the Western actors at the Berlin Conference of 1884 and America oppose the junta insisting on return to democracy better termed status quo.
Because of the gross misgovernance of those ousted leaders and their colleagues marking time in fear of a similar treatment, one struggles not to defend these overthrows, something that should have been summarily abhorred today. Alas, other Africans are asking God when their own ‘independence’ from election produced oppressors would come.
However, what I find indefensible is the way Nigeriens openly endorsed Russia. Ironically, they celebrated their 63rd Independence anniversary some days after the coup with equal number of Russian flags as Nigerien flags. It is to me, breaking from the French jail to march into Russian jail. Except if independence means ability to freely choose who will exploit your land. History has shown us that whether it is Royal Dutch Shell exploring Niger Delta’s crude, the Soviet pioneering the never completed Ajaokuta “Steal”, Chinese illegally mining here and there, West or East, democracy or dictatorship, capitalism or communism, their only target is to suck Africa dry.
The Niger situation has made Africans to begin to exaggerate their worth. We are awash with series of stories of the quantity and quality of the mineral resources making it the bride of the rest of the world. The question is, what are Africans themselves doing about their God-given resources? How does redirecting uranium to Russia simply because France powers their homes with it give you light? Russia will only sell weapons at inflated prices for you to continue killing yourselves.
There is a distasteful joke of angels pointing out God’s unfairness at creation for blessing Africa so much and God replying that he would balance it with the kind of people he would put there. I disagree. I rather say, God blessed every nation equally but differently. My father once told me, every land has gold, we have only not dug deep enough. Truly, Africa has the richest concentration of natural resources such as oil, copper, diamonds, bauxite, lithium, gold, hardwood forests, and tropical fruits. It is estimated that 30% of the earth’s mineral resources are found in the continent. At the same time, evaluating it individually no African country is in the top 10 countries with the most valuable resources worldwide. Surprisingly, Russia tops this list that includes United States, Canada and China. I pointed this out to tame our worth. After all, we once boasted to have crude oil, today, more and more countries are discovering it.
We claim to have all these resources and yet we are on our knees begging raw wheat from Ukraine and Russia. We boast of our land, which is the most arable in the world. We continue to push more people to join the over 60 percent that are on the farms, yet we are hungry. While the Netherlands that lies below water level has less than two percent of its population as farmers can feed the whole world. Agriculture has gone recruiting idle hands to cultivate agbado and cassava. What is the quantity and quality of yield we get per hectare? How much milk or other biproducts do we get from our restless cattle?
Africa cannot continue to brag about being rich in timber that we log, then are charged in tons to export in foreign ships only for them to return to us as lighter expensive furniture. We brag about cocoa that we sell at buyer determined prices only for us to buy more expensive chocolate from Europe. Singapore, a country less the size of Lagos state, produces 20,170 barrels of crude oil per day compared to Nigeria that has the capacity to produce over two million bpd refines 1.5 million bpd but oil producing Nigeria is still waiting for Dangote and Port Harcourt refinery phase One. Despite all the precious metals used to make batteries, phones, electronics and cars sourced from beneath us, we exchange our currency for dollars to buy cars.
More pathetic is that the Stone Age ended, not because man ran out of stones but because man found better and cheaper ways to achieve things. A time is coming, and has even come, when these so-called natural resources will mean nothing.
Hoping our leaders become sensible enough not to put us in other peoples’ wars, fighting against ourselves instead of fighting for us. This is an opportunity for them to introspect. The African revolution is not in taking France 24 off the air for Russia’s RT or pulling down the blue, white and red flag of France and hoisting the white, blue and red of Russia. The colours are the same. We cannot continue to produce what we do not consume and consume what we do not produce. It is high time we rethought what our real resources are and how to optimise them. We cannot continue to blame the colonial masters or expecting their affirmations more than half a century after their departure. India that is on its way to the moon was also colonised by Britain. So was Malaysia, Australia and many others.
Africa’s revolution lies in realising her real resource does not lie beneath her feet, but between her ears. It this population that should be harnessed for its greater good. And I don’t mean manpower I mean the empowered man. Not physical strength that worked in Western plantations, that has been replaced by machines, but in intellectual strength to produce African solutions to African realities.
Africa’s worth is in producing a new set of leaders that will represent Africa making decisions anchored on what is good for her and not what a former imperialist think. Of what use is ECOWAS and other subregional blocs if there is more trade by individual countries with its former colonial master than its neighbours? Is it not a shame that it is easier, cheaper and faster to fly from Lagos to Paris than to fly from Lagos to Yaoundé? It is like that along all African routes.
A generation that will combine its titanium, aluminium, tantalite, graphite and co to produce its own communication tool. A people that makes its cocoa into chocolate, crude oil into petrol and hides into shoes. An Africa whose products, brands and philosophy will be competitive on the global stage.
Okunfolami writes from Festac, Lagos
