Many African leaders have just concluded a meeting with president of the United States of America (USA) in Washington DC. The African leaders were in the USA between December 13-15, 2022 at the behest of the American President, Mr Joe Biden who had summoned them to his country for a tête-à-tête over a number of issues that the US President noted was in their mutual interests. The meeting which according to insider sources did not have any formal agenda turned out to be mainly on cancelling out the rising Chinese and Russian interests in Africa which the American government considers inimical to its strategic interests in the African Continent.
The meeting for all it was worth and despite the manner in which it was convened shows that the USA attaches only residual importance to Africa, at least. The only snag in the whole arrangement as observed by many notable African opinion leaders is that, it did not have any concrete African agenda like the USA enhancing socio-economic development in Africa, helping to end insurgency, terrorism and conflicts in the Continent and supporting democratic forces against African despots and ethnic champions currently ruling Africa. And a lot of the latter still abound in Africa and had sat at the round table with President Biden during the US-African Summit.
Instead, the African Leaders were called to be told about the socio-economic danger that both China and Russia pose to African countries and continent; perhaps tutoring them how to engage with the duo going forward. Indeed, many Africans are worried with certain ways and manners that China and Russia are interacting with some African countries through their leaders. This is not to say that there are no add-ons from the general interactions between some African countries with Russia and China.
China for example has granted bilateral and multi-lateral loans to many African countries for the development of critical infrastructure that are necessary for socio-economic development of concerned African countries and by extension, the African Continent. It does not matter if the conditions for granting the loans were slavish and skewed in favour of China. These are matters within the knowledge and competencies of the various African countries to discern and negotiate on more favourable terms; even though as we know, the greed and avarice of corrupt government officials that negotiate on our behalf do not allow them to extract favourable terms for us.
Neither will it be in the interest of China to deal with honest African government officials. We know all these already but despite those, some African countries recorded appreciable socio-economic progress using the Chinese loans. Time there was when the West through the IMF, World Bank, London Club, Paris Club etc ensnared and enslaved the African Continent with loans under terms that were more acerbic and exerting than those being offered currently which rendered most African nations bankrupt by the turn of 19th century. Nigeria was among such African countries affected by Western debt over-hang that stifled development and subjected majority of Nigerians to severe poverty and unquantifiable human suffering.
No Nigerian adult that is still living can forget the period spanning early 80s to late 90s in a hurry. It took vision and courage under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to obtain some reprieve albeit under opaque terms from our Western creditors while Nigeria paid only a fraction of the humongous foreign debt in what ought to be final settlement. I doubt if our dear country is indeed free of foreign debts given the penchant of President Muhammad Buhari's administration to run to creditors looking for money to borrow to fund even the most mundane item of public expenditure.So what is China doing differently from the West other than the fact that African Leaders and their officials have found it difficult to shed their garbs of corruption during negotiation and application of foreign debts. In the case of Russia, let us not forget in hurry too how it supported Africa during many liberation from colonialism struggles in the Continent, especially in South Africa.
While many Western powers at the time, including the USA through some of its policies, officials as well as individual investors and companies supported, reinforced and sustain South Africa's former Apartheid regimes, Russia was supporting liberation struggles in the region through training and logistical support to liberation organizations like the African National Congress (ANC), South West African Peoples' Organization (SWAPO) and Zimbabwean African National Union (ZANU) PF. Russia also supported Nigeria during its civil war when the country's colonial master (United Kingdom) was dragging its feet while France with other European countries took sides with secessionist Biafra. Similarly, when Nigeria was under international sanctions following human right violations under the regime of Nigeria's late military dictator, General Sani Abacha, it was the same Russia with its communist allies like China and North Korea that Nigeria ran to for help, especially for military hardwares and systems. Otherwise, some of Nigeria's unfriendly neighbours would have capitalized on the occasion to extract a pound of flesh from the charred body of our dear country. Where was the USA in all of these?
Was it the Apartheid regimes of South Africa that it supported overtly and covertly or nascent Nigeria that was of no significant strategic interest to it as our country's foundation was been eroded by an avoidable civil war? What about the Rwandan genocide or the unending conflicts in the Congos or famine in East Africa? Were and are all these not enough reasons to attract USA's full engagement with Africa all these while? Nigeria before now has shown the world through the ECOWAS Monitoring Group's (ECOMOG's) role in Liberia and Sierra Leone that Africa is capable of solving its problems; no matter how convoluted and demanding they are. Let us not forget that the USA only arrived in Liberia and Sierra Leone after Nigeria and her West African allies had burnt the brunt of the civil strives in those West African countries in huge human and material terms. In all the vague provisions on Africa in USA's foreign policy documents that I have read so far, there was never a time that the country had taken Africa seriously. Rather, the USA only identifies with any African country that has some current or strategic importance to it. Once this ceases, such African country also ceases to be of any relevance to the USA automatically. For example, the USA is Niger because it has its eyes on the impoverished West African country's rich uranium deposit both to prevent it from being exploited by terrorists and rogue nations and possibly to exploit it themselves for peaceful and war purposes in the nearest future.
Again, the USA's African Command was established principally to protect western business interests in the Gulf of Guinea and also keep an eye on the region's rich maritime zone and prevent it from the exploitative tendencies of China and Russia. Are you following my drift? Therefore, it beats my imaginative faculty hollow trying to fathom the reason why African Leaders rushed to Washington literally in loin clothes at the snap of President Joe Biden's feeble fingers to attend a summit without any concrete agenda on Africa. America may have taken a cue from Russia that held a similar meeting with African Leaders in the very cold resort town of Sochi in November, 2019 of which nothing concrete has emerged till date. For example, during a bilateral side engagement, Russia promised to help Nigeria revive its moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company through technical and financial assitance.
Ajaokuta is still out there in the weather as you read this piece gathering dust and moist with nothing happening around the steel project. I don't really blame Russia but the corrupt Nigerian officials with their dubious Nigerian businessmen cronies that only wanted to use Ajaokuta to fleece Nigeria as usual. Therefore, like Russia's Sochi Summit with African Leaders, our leaders have returned with shopping trunks in tow for family, friends with cronies, and nothing more. We however need to inform the USA especially its foreign affairs officials that Africa has come of age and our leaders deserve more respect and consideration than they are them currently. Let them also know that Africa has numerous developmental challenges for which majority poor and unprivileged Africans wished that the USA assists the continent more directly and tangibly to solve.
Consequently, whenever the USA or Western powers generally invite our leaders for a meeting, our leaders are coming along with hopes and yearnings of their citizens and this should be among the main agendas besides China and Russia. I also urge our leaders in Africa to learn to respect themselves and scrutinize every invitation to see if it carries African agendas or not before accepting. I saw the Senegalese President on TV scrambling on his feet for old man Joe Biden as the US President came to take his seat during one of the sessions while the Foreign Secretary of the USA, Mr Anthony J. Blinken sat bemusedly watching the giant African President struggling to stand up for the US President. Many African Diasporans were annoyed about it but let it be know to them that what the Senegalese President did accorded with African tradition of respect for our elders. He did it intuitively from all indications and the act was far from being awed by, or groveling to a powerful world leader as many interpreted it.
After all, as ideologically opposed as China is with the USA, they like the Japanese show respect to their American counterparts with a slight bow of the head when shaking hands. The soldierly instincts of President Muhammad Buhari of Nigeria never disappoints during such international outings. I noticed with amusements how he kept his left hand firmly by his side with his left hand knuckled in military salute fashion while shaking hands with President Joe Biden. That too did not amount to groveling to the US President but rather respect for the older man and out of our President's military background. As said previously, our leaders are representing over 1.4 billion Africans and therefore they should bear in mind that any international meeting under any pretext that does not have the interests of this huge number of Africans at heart is not worth the trouble please.
OGACHEKO OPALUWA IS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND A PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR
HE CONTRIBUTED THIS PIECE FROM ADDIS ABABA