Billions of dollars of public funds continue to be stashed away by some
African leaders - even while roads are crumbling, health systems have failed,
school children have neither books nor desks nor teachers and phones do not
work.

-- SECRETARY GENERAL KOFI ANNAN, United Nations, New York, New York, March
14, 2000



If the World Bank is such a "monster," as President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe
claims, then African governments should not go to the Bank for loans. In
fact, if African leaders and the corrupt ruling elite were to disgorge the
loot they have stashed in foreign bank accounts, they would have more than
the paltry sum the World Bank lends to Africa. "According to one United
Nations estimate, $200 billion or 90 percent of the sub-Saharan part of the
continent's gross domestic product (much of it illicitly earned), was shipped
to foreign banks in 1991 alone" (The New York Times, 4 February 1996).

http://www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/features/perspectives/2000B2.shtml

-- Dr. GEORGE B.N. AYITTEY [In interview @ the Center for Finance &
International Dev., The University of Iowa -- "Multilateral Institutions and
African Development Q&A"]

****************************************************************************
Folks, the following quotes will give you an idea of how the REAL PEOPLE of
Africa -- not the stuffy, pompous elite -- see of events on the African
continent. Enjoy. http://www.freeafrica.org

-- Dr. GEORGE B.N. AYITTEY [[log in to unmask]], President, The Free
Africa, Foundation, Washington, DC, May 10, 2001
****************************************************************************

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.
There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is
nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything
else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders
to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are
the hallmarks of true leadership . . . We have lost the twentieth century;
are we bent on seeing that our children also lose the twenty-first? God
forbid!

-- CHINUA ACHEBE [in The Trouble With Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Press,
1985; p.3].



It has become trendy for enlightened writers on Africa to put all the blame
for Africa's backwardness on the West. I think the West should not be blamed
anymore for Africa's predicament...I may ask, what is our goal as Africans?
It sounds funny that a country like Nigeria cannot boast of any significant
supply of good drinking water even after 30 years of independence. One is
tempted to think that the goal for Africans is to drive a flashy car, and own
a house in Britain, US or France. This is very common among our leaders, some
of who think it is a mistake not to have a Swiss bank account or a castle in
France. It is not a shame to admit our failures, set our priorities right and
forget about blaming the West always for our woes. In fact it is a lazy
society which puts all the blame for its troubles on its neighbors. Let our
leaders set clear-cut goals for our countries, and not Swiss bank accounts. I
don't think George Bush would set himself a goal of owning a bank account in
Ghana or Nigeria.

-- OSA KINGSLEY in New African, August, 1990; p.45.



Three decades of dictatorships, phony and misunderstood political ideologies
have left a legacy of fear, poverty, refugees, outright political thuggery
and theft. The systems which have been in place for the last three decades in
Africa have produced the likes of Amin, Bokassa, Nguema and the remaining
political sphinx which strangle the African continent and its people. Since
assuming political power in their countries, these leaders have held their
citizens hostage, have run national economies like private chicken-runs and
created a national mentality of siege and a state of hopelessness.

-- GEORGE SONO, New African, Jan 1991; p. 41.



Africa's biggest problem today lies with the leadership. They are so removed
from the people that they are looked upon as foreigners. They are driven by
self-interest, so excessive that their peoples' interests are forgotten --
hardly different from the colonial masters.

-- JOHN HAYFORD, New African, April, 1994; p.7.



The problem in Africa is precisely that there is no state to speak of. What
exists are ramshackle gangs, presided over by political thugs and military
adventurists, generals who have never been to war, and rickety old men who
lack vision, who simply pretend to be governing, talk less of ruling, a
society. In no African social formation has this body, by whatever name it
goes, been able to operate as a state.

-- JULIUS O. IHONVBERE  [Nigerian scholar, currently at The Ford Foundation,
in a keynote address at The All-African Student's Conference, University of
Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, May 27, 1994. "Pan-Africanism: Agenda for
African Unity in the 1990s."]



Three decades after independence, uncertainty and fear still rule the African
continent. The freedom and justice that many people sacrificed their lives
for have been replaced by tyranny and oppression. And the promises of a
decent living has been betrayed by misgovernance and corruption. Most
Africans fought so hard to liberate themselves from colonial rule only to be
used and abused and their nations ruined by their own leaders. Today Africa
has very little to show for its independence because of inhumane and
incompetent leadership.

-- STEVE MALLORY, Publisher, The African Observer, May 2-15, 1995; p.3



Nigeria, the comatose giant of Africa, may go down in history as the biggest
country ever to go directly from colonial subjugation to complete collapse,
without an intervening period of successful self-rule. So much promise, so
much waste; such a disappointment. Such a shame. Makes you sick.

-- LINUS U.J. THOMAS-OGBOJI, The African News Weekly (May 26, 1995; p.6



No military coup in Africa has produced a vibrant economy to replace the
bankrupt one it set out to redeem. In almost every case, the army boys have
imbibed the ways of the corrupt politicians they pushed out of office and
even taken their crookedness to a higher level.

-- AFRICAN NEWS WEEKLY, September 1, 1995; p.7



Many a time we have wondered if the so-called African leaders sometimes lack
the capacity to think and understand the ramifications of their actions . . .
After all the bloodshed in Rwanda you would think we have learnt a lesson but
no! Idiocy of our power-hungry leaders seems to triumph over pragmatism and
common sense. The rationale for the current fighting defies any logic . . .
The world must be getting tired of us (Africans) giving our self-inflicted
tragedies galore.. We seem to lack any sense of urgency to handle problems in
an expedient manner devoid of bloodshed. Lord Have Mercy!

-- GHANA DRUM EDITORIAL, November, 1996; p.2



Every military regime is a fraud. Anybody who heads a military regime
subverts the wishes of the people.

-- Gen. I.B. BABANGIDA (rtd), Former Head of State, Republic of Nigeria in
The African Observer, Jan 18-31, 1999



I heard we have a new government. It makes no difference to me. Here we have
no light [electricity], we have no water. There is no road. We have no
school. The government does nothing for us.

-- SIMON AGBO, a farmer in Ogbadibo, south of Makurdi, Benue state capital in
Nigeria in The Washington Times, Oct 21, 1999; p.A19.



LOOT RE-LOOTED IN NIGERIA

What baffles me is that even the money recovered from Abacha has been stolen.
If you recover money from a thief and you go back and steal the money, it
means you are worse than the thief.

-- UTI AKPAN, a textiles trader in Lagos in The New York Times [Aug 30, 2000;
p. 10].



MUGABE MUST GO!

If you had told me a year ago that I would be in the streets rioting, I would
have said you were insane. But then again, if you told me I would be praying
to God to deliver us from [President] Robert Mugabe a year ago, I would have
said the same thing. I am not a violent man; I am not an especially religious
man. But whatever it takes for Zimbabwe to finally be rid of this man, I am
willing to do." -- Josiah Makawa, a 24-year-old warehouse worker in Harare
(The Washington Post, Nov 23, 2000; p.A45).



AFRICAN ELITES

They all want to wear Western suits. They are ashamed to wear African
clothes. When they come to power and think that everything that comes from
outside Africa is good, they are no longer Africans. All that a president
wants to do is put on a suit and meet Chirac (French president). He has to be
like Chirac.

-- PATHE OUEDRAOGO, a tailor in Abidjan (The New York Times, Nov 13, 2000;
p.A4



Enough is enough. I have never participated in a demonstration before. I'm
sick over this. It's a masquerade, a fraud. General Guie has to leave power.
If he doesn't, it's war.

-- JULIETTE ADJOUA KOFFI, The New York Times, October 25, 2000; pA5.



DIRE CONDITIONS

My family has not eaten meat in months. Sometimes we eat only raw vegetables
for supper because we have no money to buy [fuel] for cooking. This
government has had 20 years to do something about the land problem and they
did nothing. Now that's all they want to talk about. No one is listening.

-- JOSIAH MAKAWA, a 24-year-old warehouse worker in Harare, Zimbabwe (The
Washington Post, Nov 23, 2000; p.A45).



At a press conference in London in April, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
lambasted African leaders who he says have subverted democracy and lined
their pockets with public funds, although he stopped short of naming names.
"Billions of dollars of public funds continue to be stashed away by some
African leaders - even while roads are crumbling, health systems have failed,
school children have neither books nor desks nor teachers and phones do not
work," he complained.

-- The AFRICAN-AMERICAN OBSERVER, April 25 - May 1, 2000; p.10.



Former South African president Nelson Mandela urged Africans to take up arms
and overthrow corrupt leaders who have accumulated vast personal fortunes
while children have gone hungry. He urged the public to pick up rifles to
defeat the tyrants.

-- The WASHINGTON POST, May 7, 2000; p. A22.



Africans want change because there is so much suffering here. But Africans
are above all else devoted to their ancestors, and they do not want to betray
that by becoming something that they are not.

-- PATEKILE HOLOMISA, an inkhosi (a chief) and head of the Congress of
Traditional Leaders in South Africa (The Washington Post, Dec 18, 2000).



Workshops and seminars (don't let the politicians and the elites ever pull
the wool over your eyes) are not a monopoly of academics. They are very much
the equivalent of a baraza -- that traditional African democratic forum,
where decisions took place with everybody contributing their piece so that a
fair and viable conclusion could be reached.

-- AKINYI, PRINCESS OF K'ORINDA TIMBO in New African, March 2001; p.6.



When I listen to African leaders at international gatherings I cannot but
feel ashamed at their quickness to blame the white man for all the woes of
Africa. This, to my mind, is nothing but a childish case of passing the buck.
Rawlings blamed European industries for thwarting Africa's attempts at
industrialization. He cried that they continue to flood African with more
sophisticated goods at cheaper prices than we produce. And I covered my head
in shame. I asked myself, are the ports of entry no longer under government
control? Even Japan, as industrialized as it is, does not allow certain goods
into its borders. It will be funny if, in this millennium, we continue to
blame the white man for our woes when we are actually the ones responsible
for our backwardness.

-- ADEDEJI ADEYEMI, Kaduna, This Day, Vol.6, No.1900, July 5, 2000; p.13.



Your murderous military campaigns and strong-arm tactics have robbed African
children of their youth, robbed African countries of hope and, in many
instances, sentenced African people to lives no better than those of
animals." -- Anne-Marie Kabongo, a 25-year-old law student from Congo,
lambasting African leaders at the Eight Summit of the Francophonie in
Moncton, New Brunswick (August 31 - September 5, 1999). Wiping tears from her
eyes, she said: "I don't care what they do to me. The truth had to be told.

-- The WASHINGTON POST, September 6, 1999; p.A21.



As hopes wither and economies flounder, a new generation of Africans are
turning their backs on the continent's old guard political leadership. From
Zimbabwe to Uganda, Angola to Kenya, post colonial leaders and
pre-independence political parties are falling from grace. Desperately
holding onto power by political manipulation and old western-bashing slogans
of the 1960s, they blame their nation's financial ills on foreign
exploitation rather than on their own failings -- but with a new generation
of educated African citizens, such transparent rabble rousing rings
increasingly hollow. Economic progress, not political slogans is their
concern."

-- MILAN VESELY, in African Business, April 2001; p.41.


To hear MORE African Voices, please go to:

http://www.freeafrica.org/africanvoices.html


MULTILATERAL INSTITUTIONS AND AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT Q&A

by George B.N. Ayittey
http://www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/features/perspectives/2000B2.shtml

QUESTION #1 Foreign aid by multilateral institutions such as the IMF and the
World Bank has not brought an effective result to African development. Some
argue that external interference, in the form of loans or grants, has
actually disrupted African development because it prevented African countries
from setting their own pace and direction of development. What is the
appropriate role you think, or the majority of people in your country would
think, multilateral institutions should play in the context of African
development? If you think multilateral institutions should continue to
provide financial aid to African countries, what is the most effective way of
using the aid by multilateral institutions to encourage African development?

AYITTEY: While there is sufficient blame to go around, the failure of foreign
aid and loan programs by the multilateral institutions needs to be placed in
proper perspective. Fact is, these institutions cannot disrupt African
development without the acquiescence of African leaders and governments. That
is where the emphasis must be placed. There is no law which requires African
leaders and governments to accept foreign aid or loans from the World Bank.
Nor is the World Bank the only place where African governments can borrow
money. If the World Bank is such a "monster," as President Robert Mugabe of
Zimbabwe claims, then African governments should not go to the Bank for
loans. In fact, if African leaders and the corrupt ruling elite were to
disgorge the loot they have stashed in foreign bank accounts, they would have
more than the paltry sum the World Bank lends to Africa.

"According to one United Nations estimate, $200 billion or 90 percent of the
sub-Saharan part of the continent's gross domestic product (much of it
illicitly earned), was shipped to foreign banks in 1991 alone" (The New York
Times, 4 February 1996).

The most effective way of using foreign aid to encourage African development
is by "opening up the process." Conventionally, a foreign aid program is
designed behind closed doors. An agreement is usually reached between a
Western donor and a corrupt and undemocratic African government. There is no
input from the people and billions of loans are contracted without their
authorization. This process needs to be opened up. For example, before the
World Bank grants a loan to say Ghana or Kenya, there should be an open
hearing to allow those who believe the loan proceeds might be misused the
opportunity to air their views.



QUESTION #2 Over the past few years, people have been increasingly critical
of the multinational's policies in Africa and elsewhere. Picketing and
marches have become more common in both Europe and the United states during
high profile meetings. What do you believe is the proper role of average
citizens around the world in affecting policy change? How can a concerned
citizen in the world community help to promote development and work to end
the cycle of poverty in Africa?

AYITTEY: Picketing and marches are useful in focusing attention on Africa's
plight. However, they have become one-sided. It takes two to tango and most
Africans recognize that bad leadership has been a major cause of continuing
poverty in Africa. "Billions of dollars of public funds continue to be
stashed away by some African leaders -- even while roads are crumbling,
health systems have failed, school children have neither books nor desks nor
teachers and phones do not work," said Kofi Annan, U.N. Secretary-General at
a press conference in London in April 2000 (The African-American Observer,
April 25 - May 1, 2000; p.10). Then at the July 10, 2000 OAU Summit in Lome
on July 10, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan told African leaders
that they were to blame for most of the continent's problems. "Instead of
being exploited for the benefit of the people, Africa's mineral resources
have been so mismanaged and plundered that they are now the source of our
misery" (Daily Graphic, July 12, 2000; page 5).
If they are sincerely concerned about the plight of the African people, those
who organize pickets and marches in Western capitals need to organize a few
against African leaders.


QUESTION #3 While everyone agrees that many obstacles need to be overcome
before long term sustainable development can be effectively realized in
Africa, many disagree on what needs to be addressed first. Where should our
priorities lie? Are certain goals more primary than others? Should we address
education before legal reform, basic health care before promoting, for
example, venture capital? Or do you believe, for instance, that promoting
foreign investment is the fastest way to achieve reform in these other areas?

AYITTEY: Consider the development process as embarking on a journey in a
vehicle, leaving Point A (state of under-development) to Point B (developed
state). The road is strewn with obstacles. Development literature has not
hash a host of obstacles: low income, low investment, low savings,
illiteracy, high population growth rates, and so on. The interplay of these
factors produced the notorious "vicious circle of poverty."

The vehicle for this journey may be private or state-owned. In virtually all
African countries, a state vehicle was taken in the 1960s but this state
vehicle has now broken down. It is a motley collection of obsolete, discarded
parts scrounged from foreign junk yards and operates on borrowed ideology.
The carburetor was a gift from Norway and the battery was donated by Austria.
The tires came from Britain and China and are mismatched. A headlight is
broken and the electrical system malfunctions. Turn the ignition switch and
the wipers fall off. The engine sputters and belches thick smoke that
pollutes the entire country. There are no brakes or shock absorbers (no
checks and balances). The fan belt is ripped, which means its cooling system
is inoperative.

Clutching the wheel of the state vehicle is a reckless and unskilled
egomaniac who proclaims himself "driver-for-life" and insists that he, and he
alone, must be the driver till kingdom come since the vehicle is his own
personal property. Aboard are his ministers, cronies, tribesmen, mistresses,
sycophants, and other patronage junkies, who, in turn, have brought along
their relatives, tribesmen, and friends. A goat, stolen from the people, has
been tied to the rear bumper for a future feast.

Somewhere along the journey, the smoke-belching, dilapidated state vehicle
broke down: dead battery, overheated radiator with the coolant boiling over,
and tires flat. This is a crisis situation which must be resolved before
continuing on the journey. But it seems nobody is looking at the condition of
the vehicle -- not the World Bank or western donors, who are more interested
in laying down an 8-lane super highway. Nor are African intellectuals and
politicians who argue ferociously about who should be the driver. Somali
warlords are still battling to determine who should be the president of the
country, even though the country has been reduced to rubble after years of
civil war.

Clearly, changing the driver through democratic elections or coups d'etat
would not make any difference to the journey (development). Removing the
obstacles on the road (building schools to improve literacy rates or sinking
bore holes for drinking water, for example) would not make any difference
either. Adding super high-octane jet fuel, installing brand new shock
absorbers or emission control devices to cut down on the pollution would be
futile. That state vehicle is going nowhere fast. In fact, if it moves at
all, it will land in an economic ditch. It has to be junked or completely
overhauled.

Therefore, questions of "accelerating" development (getting to Point B
faster) must be deferred until the vehicle is fixed (reformed). That cannot
be done until the cause of the vehicle breakdown -- that is, the cause of the
African crisis -- is determined, which, in turn, requires an understanding of
how the vehicle operates and knowledge of its component systems.
Systems such as cooling and electrical are to a vehicle what institutions are
to society. The institutions that are critical for society are: an
independent judiciary (for the rule of law), an independent central bank, an
independent and free media, a neutral and professional armed/security forces,
an independent electoral commission, among others. These do not exist in many
African countries. Until these institutions are reformed, the development
journey will be extremely slow, interrupted by constant breakdowns of the
African state vehicle.


Question #4 Are there specific social, cultural, or geographic
characteristics in Africa (or in a specific African nation) that the IMF and
World Bank have neglected to address and need to address in order to foster
greater and more equitable development and wealth creation in Africa?

AYITTEY: The World Bank and the IMF need to know that there were free
markets, free enterprise and free trade in Africa before the colonialists set
foot on the continent. It is not the World Bank which has to teach Africans
about free enterprise and free village markets, which still exist in
traditional Africa. Furthermore, in Africa's traditional village system of
government, decisions are taken by consensus. No African chief, waving a
bazooka, declared himself "president-for-life" and imposed his will on his
people. The Bank should be extremely careful about giving loans to African
leaders without the authorization of their people, as such loans can be
repudiated. The billions of loans the Bank gave the late Mobutu Sese Seko of
Zaire did not benefit the people of Zaire (now Congolese), who never gave
their authorization in the first place to Mobutu to secure the loans.

http://www.ghanacybergroup.com

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