Daily Independent Online.
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Monday, August 09, 2004.
African dictators and the Human Development Index
By Dan Amor
Interestingly, humanity has come to terms with the
reality that the world hitherto regarded as an imponderable mosaic of disparate
constituents with differing levels of human, social and economic developments,
has thawed into one monolith called the global village. With common concern or trajectory, the anguish
or ecstasy of one nation is seen as a possible inheritance of its next-door
neighbour. This humanistic
conviction undergirds the perception of the global community towards any nation
or group of nations. Hence the
emergence of certain international organisations with specific standards to
evaluate the superlative quality of life of citizens of respective nations of
the world.
Indubitably, and in consonance with this tradition,
the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] recently released its Human
Development Report 2004 in which 177 countries of the world are ranked from the
richest to the poorest in the quality of life of their respective
citizenry. In it, 55 countries led
by Norway, Sweden, Australia and Canada, are ranked in the “high human
development” category. Other
countries including South Africa, Gabon, Ghana, Botswana, Swaziland, Cameroon,
Egypt, etc, are in the “medium human development” category; while
the rest including Nigeria, Madagascar, Haiti, Djibouti, Gambia, Eritrea, Senegal,
Rwanda and Chad among others, trail behind as countries under the “low
human development group”. It
is interesting, again, to note that of all the countries in the high human
development category, none is an African country and that Nigeria which prides
itself as the giant of Africa is simply trailing behind war-ravaged nations
like Rwanda, Eritrea, Haiti and Chad.
Yet, in the uncanny dialectics of the African
condition, one fact has inevitably been ingrained in the consciousness of the
people: African dictators are
living fat at the expense of the people.
In the face of grinding poverty among the people and the fact that more
than 80 per cent of Africans are slum dwellers, African dictators still parade their fat cheeks, fat
bellies, fat bank accounts and highly expensive limousines and palatial
mansions in almost all the cities of the world. It was the great Indian sage and revolutionary Mahatma
Ghandi who declared several years ago that the worst form of violence that a
people can experience is rampant poverty.
And nowhere else but in Africa is this statement so realistic and all
embracing. The tragedy of the
African poverty crisis is so pronounced that the UNDP has raised alarm
imploring humanity to do everything possible to halt the trend.
A recent United Nations statistical data also shows
that nearly a third of the developing world’s population, or 1.3 billion
people live on less than one US dollar a day; more than 800 million people do
not have enough to eat, and people in sub-Saharan African nations die 19 years
earlier than those in East Asia.
According to the report, while China, India, Malaysia, Mauritius and
South Korea have sharply reduced poverty in their respective countries in two
decades, more than 440 million people in Africa live well below the poverty
line. The irony of Nigeria’s
giant status in Africa is that more than 80 per cent of her nationals are
languishing in abject poverty and gnashing of teeth in the rural communities
and in the various ghettos, squatter settlements and slums scattered all over
the urban centres. One frightening
dimension to the poverty crisis in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general
is that whereas the rich get richer, the poor become poorer, and no one seems
to care any hoot about how to extricate the people from this excruciating state
of hopelessness.
Indeed, the argument in certain quarters that the
cause of persistent underdevelopment and widespread agony in Africa can be
located in the absence or low supply of natural resources seems rather weak and
common-placed. This is more so
when viewed against the disturbing magnitude of the leadership crisis in
Africa. The continent has had the
misfortune of being misruled by intemperate dictators who are worse than common
thieves, and who have succeeded in carting away the continent’s heavily
endowed wealth abroad. Before the
dethronement of the late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, he presided over a
poverty stricken nation that became the contemporary symbol of human
neglect. Pictures of very hungry
and famine-ridden Ethiopians reminded the world of the great and devastating
depression of the 1930’s.
Yet, while this catalogue of deprivation was being enacted, Haile
Selassie himself was busy stock-piling millions of dollars in overseas banks.
Another tragic chapter in the annals of poverty
stricken nations of the world was co-authored by Somalia. Locked in the intricate politics of
ethnic rivalry, the Siad Barre regime consequently neglected agriculture to the
detriment of the people. The result
was that the poverty level reached a point that the nation fell apart and
warlords took control of the entire society. Barre was chased into exile in Nigeria where he died in
1996. The situation is the same
throughout Africa. But those who
keep the majority of the population in perpetual state of hunger will
definitely continue to lose their sleep. Samuel Doe of Liberia was butchered
alive by the enemies he created because of an arbitrary hike in the price of
rice. Jean Bedel Bokassa of
Central African Republic, who personally supervised the killings of primary
school children for protesting against a draconian law that forced them to buy
their uniform from his private shop at exorbitant prices, was one of the
shameless looters. Idi Amin Dada
of Uganda who died in exile recently was said to be the most notorious of
Africa’s tin pot dictators.
He did not only kill people mercilessly but also looted his
country’s wealth abroad.
In fact, our own President Olusegun Obasanjo, reputed
to be one of the most heartless of Africa’s iron-fisted dictators, who is
said to be dour, taciturn and without colour, has not helped matters. Five years into his messianic rulership
over Nigeria, he is yet to make a difference in the life of the people. His promise to tackle corruption head
on has turned into ashes in his mouth as the hydra-headed monster has suddenly
assumed the toga of a national anthem.
Even as it is evident that the $12.5 billion oil windfall during the 1991
Iraq war had been stolen by those who installed him as civilian president,
Obasanjo is still asking Nigerians to come out with proof that they stole the
money. The president is currently
the errand boy of Africa who is serving as chairman of African Union, chairman
of AU Security Council, chairman of the Commonwealth of Nations, chairman of
this, chairman of that, while Nigerians are declared the most poverty-stricken
people in the world.
For a nation widely acclaimed as Africa’s
second largest oil producing country and the sixth in the world, such a
summation is sure to contour many brows into thick lines of disbelief while
sparking off righteous indignation in others. Yet, in spite of whatever quake of apprehension that is
bound to erupt, there appears to be no cheery options in sight. A combination of two factors: greed and
docility among the leadership has further reduced Africa to a junk-yard that
only the most corrupt and powerful can breath an air of relief. These usurpers of power by treason, repression
and fraud, in their mad stupor, have shamelessly placed the African continent
in an asphyxiating condition. May
God in His infinite mercy pronounce a curse on these little Pharaohs for peace
and development to reign in this soulless continent. Only God can do it for us.
