At 5th Africities Summit in Morocco

Rawlings fumes over Africa under-development
Posted:The Chronicle | Friday, December 18, 2009

By Charles Takyi - Boadu

Former President Rawlings was fuming with rage when he had the opportunity to address his colleague ex-Presidents and diplomats at the 5th Africities Summit in Marrakech, Morocco, on Wednesday.
He could not fathom why and how the Africa had been made to sink to its lowest ebb in terms of development.

Delivering what has been touted by his own communications team as a thought-provoking keynote address, under the theme, ‘The Global Crisis, An African Perspective’, in front of a capacity of 3,500 audience in the magnificent La Palais Congress in Marrakech, the former President did not mince words, when he said corruption and the failure of some African leaders to be nationalistic, had led to Africa’s current economic predicament.

Amidst intermittent applause, he accused some of these African leaders and their so-called development partners, especially the Western powers and financial institutions, of having let the continent down, through their deeds and actions.

Mr. Rawlings was of the belief that Africa has been vulnerable for the fact that it lacked what he described as “national tenacity, accountability and a spirit of patriotic fervor,” noting that “Africa has been unable to stay united and assertive, because a good number of us in leadership positions, rather than uphold ideals that protect the sovereignty of our countries, have fallen to the dictates of our colonial and development partners, and of late through their multi-national organisations who come in with promises of employment, capital and infrastructural development.”

What seems to bore him most is that “some of these foreign influences even dictate what political directions we need to take, and sadly, we have also embraced their cultures with patronising arrogance.”

Whilst appreciating the fact that corruption had become a major drawback to any developmental process that the continent embraces, Mr. Rawlings noted: “Some of us have created a culture of impunity that allows us a right to employ all manner of methods to fleece our countries of its resources.”

He asked: “if we cannot improve on the corruption index each year, on what basis do we cry about the negative effect of the global economic crisis?”

According to him, the soul of some parts of the continent had literally been sold over the 30 to 50 year period that most African countries have been supposedly independent from colonial rule.

“Most facets of our sovereignty seem to have gone back to our colonial and development partners and some of their corporate entities,” he noted.

Mr. Rawlings therefore called for a concerted effort for decentralisation and regionalisation on the continent, since according to him, prescriptions by international financial institutions on the management of African economies, had failed the continent.

“In Africa, more than anywhere else, arguably, we need a strong developmental state that can protect Africa’s right to contribute to the global economy, and not just as suppliers of raw materials, or as hewers of wood,” he emphasised.

To do this, he stressed the need for Africans, from the north and south of the Sahara, to come together as one people, and build one viable and beautiful political and economic space that can support the creativity and ingenuity and initiative of its diverse and talented people.

He wondered how many governments were not grappling with expensive public relations exercises to convince people with all sorts of excuses about failed projects, noting: “If the decision to implement those projects were not done in a top-down approach, but in discourse with the people in a decentralised environment, there would have been no need to waste scarce resources protecting government’s reputation.”

Mr. Rawlings used his own country, Ghana, as a case study, where decentralisation was achieved by establishing democratically-elected District Assemblies and their sub-structures, through a system of elections and consultative appointments.

While the world ponders over how to modify capitalism, the former President said: “we might consider that now is a good time to emphasise a return to African values, and to seriously question the emphasis on the self-interested individual, which is at the heart of the capitalist model, and which has brought us to this parlous state of affairs globally.

“We need a return to community values, and move away from the values of the selfish individual. This is a time to insist that there is still a great deal that Africa can teach the world, if we believe in ourselves, and value our cultural and spiritual heritage,” he stated.