Kenya’s former Director of Anti-Corruption Commission, Patrick Lumumba, has expressed his opinion on why Africa isn’t progressing the way it should. He said this is because Nigeria hasn’t realised its potential. While Lumumba’s comment may truly highlight the concern of many Nigerians, the same is politically inaccurate and non-factual. Rather, it oozes some of the sentiments by Kenyans toward Nigeria.
Lumumba was in Nigeria on Tuesday. He spoke as one of the guest speakers at a seminar organised by the anti-corruption committees of the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives in Abuja. Here are some the words of Lumumba: “Africa is behind because Nigeria has not released her potential. It’s time the leaders rose because one in every five Africans is a Nigerian.’’
The reaction of Lumumba is based on the fact that Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. Notwithstanding, it is very ambiguous for him to say Nigeria impedes the continent’s development since he failed to present any fact to back up his claim.
Nigeria’s population is definitely an advantage for the country to perform than its counterparts on the continent. But, the country’s inability not to have fully taken advantage of its population cannot be blamed for Africa’s woes. For Africa to develop, other countries don’t necessarily need to look up to Nigeria and the responsibility is not Nigeria’s alone.
Asia for example is a continent whose development is not solely driven by its most populous country, China. Today, Japan’s economy ranks third in the entire world, only trailing behind United States’ and that of China. In terms of population, Japan is Asia’s 7th most populous country, the same position occupied by Lumumba’s country, Kenya in the African population index.
Europe is also another continent which is driven by a very strong intra-regional trade which is lacking in the African context. Countries like United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and other smaller countries didn’t leave the continent’s development in the hands of Germany or Russia that have the most population in Europe. According to a statement by the African Development Bank Group, “the share of Intra-African trade remains low compared to intraregional trade in other parts of the world; unlocking Africa’s full economic potential would require economic integration—globally, regionally, and between rural and urban areas.” This is one of the topical issues that should have been raised by Lumumba, if he was sincere about his quest for a developed African continent.
The former Kenyan anti-corruption chief also failed to highlight how other factors are impeding the continent’s progress. Other factors like insecurity, political instability and lack of good governance plague most African countries.
In a research paper by Dr. Jean de la Croix Nkurayija of the Department of Political Science at the University of Rwanda, he presented that “Most countries in Africa remain largely primary exporters, aid-dependent and deeply indebted. In 1997, foreign debt burden was more than 80 percent of GDP in net present value terms. African is the only major region where investment and savings per capita declined, the savings rate of the typical African country has been the lowest in the world, the development challenges of Africa are deeper than low income, falling trade shares, low savings, and slow growth.”
Apparently, if Nigeria eventually realizes it could do better in terms of development and act towards it, while other countries in the continent lag behind; development in the continent will still be way far from coming forth. Moreover, the problem of corruption is not also peculiar to Nigeria.
Kenya currently ranks worst than Nigeria in the latest Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, where most African countries are faring poorly. Obviously, Lumumba’s advice would have been more useful and relevant if it were served to the government of Kenya.
Last month, the #KenyaVsNigeria social media war reared its ugly head once again, exposing the unexplained rivalry between the two countries. Considering the expertise and experience that a knowledgeable Professor of Law and Pan-Africanist like Patrick Lumumba has, his assertions about Nigeria are fallacious and inadmissible. In fact, it comes across as an official version of the spite on Nigeria by Kenyans. If we need to address the issues of Africa’s underdevelopment, sentiments need to be taken aside and all countries have to contribute their quotas.
