ONYEKACHI EZE writes that President Donald Trump’s policies should be a wake-up call for African countries to enthrone purposeful leadership that will drive development and fix the continent
In line with President Donald Trump administration’s policy of “America First,” the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on February 5, announced a shutdown. USAID which was established in 1961, provides humanitarian aids to more than 100 countries in areas of disaster relief, health, medical aid, and emergency food programme.
The agency in a statement on its website, said all its “direct-hire personnel” are placed on leave except those on “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programmes,” while a plan is being worked out with the State Department to arrange and pay for return travel within 30 days for USAID personnel posted outside the United States.” The statement further stated that Personal Service Contractor (PSC) contracts and Independent Service Contractor (ISC) contracts “that are determined to be inessential will be terminated.”
The shutdown would have taken effect since February 7, but for a court order that stopped it. Billionaire businessman, Elon Musk who heads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), recommended the closure to cut the size of the federal government. Trump had signed a flurry of executive orders on January 20, immediately after he was sworn as America’s 47th president, and thereafter, including the deportation of illegal immigrants from America to their native countries. About 3,690 Nigerians are believed to be affected by the mass deportation.
The United Kingdom has also announced clampdown on illegal immigrants. In addition to Trump administration’s planned shutdown of USAID is the suspension of foreign assistance programmes for 90 days, pending a review of their “programmatic efficiencies.”
This, Trump said, is to ensure that the disbursements of funds are “aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.” He believes that the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.”
His argument is that international agreements and initiatives entered by America “do not reflect” the country’s values “or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives,” rather, they “steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people.” These and other policies, including the discontinuation of America’s contributions to the World Health Organisation (WHO), are believed to be targeted at African countries. Statistics have shown that about four million African migrants are living in America.
These are young Africans, trying to escape poverty or to avoid being victims of internecine warfare in the continent. In recent years, Nigerians, South Africans, and young men and women from other African countries, make America and Europe their points of destinations due to corrupt and bad leaderships in the continent. Leadership has been the greatest problem of many Africa countries.
This had led to corruption, insecurity, unemployment, hostile environment, abuse of power, inefficiency and incompetent leadership. Flawed electoral process and sit-tight leadership have also contributed to many wars in Africa, and the emergence of ethnic militia and resistance arm groups that led to displacement of people, poverty and destitution.
A survey conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2022, showed that majority of young Africans, mainly in Nigeria and South Africa, want to leave their countries due to economic hardship and insecurity. This is a departure from the past, when Africa known as the cradle of civilisation, hosted many scholars, religious leaders, businessmen and administrators from Europe and America.
Africa needs the right policies, investments, infrastructure, logistics and financing. We must make sure that this is driven by a highly skilled, dynamic and youthful workforce
Before Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, what is today known as America, the Sankore University and University of Timbuktu were great centres of learning and cultural identity in the ancient Songhai and Mali Empires.
The location of the Timbuktu University along the popular trans-Saharan trade routes, made the university centre of attraction for Muslim scholars for teaching and learning of Isamic education, astronomy, geography, mathematics and medicine.
The River Nile in Egypt, the longest river in the world, with about 4,160 miles, played crucial part in regional and international commerce. The river provided ancient Egyptians with fertile soil, water for irrigation as well as a means of transportation.
The Egyptian Pyramid was also the greatest wonder of the world, a symbol and belief of life after death. And in Nigeria, the ancient Kano kingdom was a flourishing centre of trade and commerce owing to Sultan Mohammed Rumfa’s innovations that placed the city on the world map before Columbus’ ships arrived the American soil that October 1492. This was Africa’s golden era. African youths have no need to travel to America or any other country in search of the proverbial golden fleece because the continent is rich in nature’s gifts.
From gold mines in Ghana, South Africa and Sudan, among others, to petroleum resource in Angola, Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Nigeria; uranium in Niger, Namibia and South Africa; bauxite in Guinea, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as crude steel in South Africa, Egypt, Libya and Algeria, Africa has what it takes to rule the world. A former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, believes that Africa has no reason to be poor given the continent’s abundant resources. Obasanjo blamed Africa’s impoverished condition, not on God but as a consequence of the poor mentality among Africans.
“We are steeped in poverty due to our poor mentality. We need to wake up because we have a wealth of resources. If you look back in history, you will see that whenever others needed to get work done, they came to Africa to transport black people to the so-called New World to make others rich. And that hasn’t stopped. “Even today, we continue to enrich others while we remain poor.
This cycle must end if we are to achieve true development,” he said. It is against the backdrop of this belief that President Trump’s policies should be a wakeup call to African leaders to begin to think of a new Africa. The policies are not only indictment on leadership style in the continent, but a challenge to African leaders to improve the lives of their people. Africa is rich in human and natural resources.
With a population of over 1.5 billion people or 18.3 per cent of the world ‘s total population, and about 30 per cent of mineral reserves; 12 per cent of the world’s oil and eight per cent of the world’s natural gas reserves, Africa has no reason to be a beggar continent. President of African Development Bank (AfDB) Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said with $6.5 trillion worth of natural resources, 65 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, and a vibrant youth population, Africa has no excuse to be poor. He, therefore, wants the continent to look inward to solve its many challenges.
His words: “Saudi Arabia has oil as does Nigeria. Kuwait has oil as does Nigeria. Qatar has abundant gas as does Nigeria and other countries. Yet, Nigeria is the country with the largest share of its population living below the extreme poverty line in 2023 in Africa.
Clearly, there is something fundamentally wrong with our management, or rather mismanagement of our natural resources.” Adesina called for the strengthening of good governance, transparency, accountability, and sound management policies to turn things around, adding “Africa needs the right policies, investments, infrastructure, logistics and financing. We must make sure that this is driven by a highly skilled, dynamic and youthful workforce.”
Africa needs a responsive and purposeful leadership to drive her development. She needs godfearing and foresighted leadership that will prioritise and advance the welfare and the expectations of her people. In the immediate past, Nigeria’s four refineries were working at full capacity, meeting the local needs of the people with surplus for export. Today, none of these refineries is working despite huge sums of money sunk on turnaround maintenance (TAM).
In the no distant past, universities in the country were centres of excellence, producing the manpower needs of the country, who was as well, in high demand globally. Today, due to frequent trade disputes in the nation’s ivory tower as a poor funding by government, no university in Nigeria is among the first 100 in the world. Not too long ago, Nigeria was an investors destination. Multinational companies and corporations compete with one another to invest in the country. Today, most of these companies have relocated due to harsh operational environment.
Before now, the craze to travel abroad by young people was not there because there was nothing attractive overseas. Those who got foreign scholarship and travelled out, eagerly looked forward to the end of their programme because there were better job opportunities that await them at home.
Nigeria, nay Africa, needs to evaluate her leadership recruitment system and weed out corrupt and self-serving leaders who are obstructing peace and development in the continent. Trump’s policies now provide Africa the opportunity to look inward for programmes and policies that can advance economic growth, social welfare and peaceful coexistence among the people.
Africa’s mineral resources had criminally exploited and exported to America and Europe, now is the times to use these mineral resources to serve and develop African continent. For centuries during the inhuman slave trade, African youths were conscripted and transported to work in plantations in Europe and America. In this century, African youths, on their own, migrate also to America and Europe to work in their factories. Now is the time to harness the energy of these young people to develop the African continent. What is required is the right and purposeful leadership. The time is now.
