With the advent of mobile phones, the internet and other swift means of communication,interactions among the 7 billion people on earth have increased. Before visiting Kenya, Iknew about its rich wildlife and some of her notable leaders via the Internet.
Globalization to Birdsall (1999) “is the trend of increasing integration of economies in terms not only of goods and services, but of ideas, information and technology which has tremendous potential benefits for developing countries.” We cannot deny the fact that the world has gone global but yet again, for developing nations of the world, focusing on Africa this time, it has done us more harm than good courtesy of leaders who lack vision.For over almost two decades now, we have been singing about REFORMS! Be it political, financial or otherwise.
On market reforms, we have to liberalize trade, privatize public corporations and liberalize our financial system. Trade liberalization makes economies more competitive; generate new labour-intensive jobs in agriculture and manufacturing, provides cheaper imports, reducing the consumption costs for the urban poor who unlike the rich use most of their income for consumption. Unfortunately, this widens the wage gap between the educated and uneducated, especially in developing countries. Privatizing government institutions that have created an inefficient monopoly and ran basic services like power, water and telecommunications for many years was imperative. Prior to privatization, publicly managed institutions were in debt and their services were ineffective. The rich had access to water to fill their swimming pools while the poor paid more to purchasefrom private trucks. African nations are handicapped by weak institutions, lack oftransparency, and high concentrations of economic and political power, which ruined the privatization process. In the financial sector, those who already have assets, control this sector thereby starving the informal sector comprising of small-scale businesses the requisite funds for growth. This tends to increase the concentration of wealth again among the “powers that be“. In Kenya, they call them “cartels” and in Nigeria “cabals”.
With the economic recession and current EURO crisis, developing nations feel the heat the most. African nations export similar products (mostly raw materials) and scramble for the same export market, which has greatly depleted our foreign exchange earnings. An average citizen of Greece will remain in Athens than take a vacation to see the beautiful safaris of Kenya. African nations are forced to introduce austerity measures, which they literally CANNOT implement. Nigerians will recall the fuel subsidy debate that grounded the economy in the early part of 2012. Government failed on his part to put in place palliatives to cushion the effect of the ‘so-called’ subsidy removal.
This evil of globalization boils down to lack of political will on the part of our leaders.Instead of seeking foreign investment, our leaders go about seeking foreign banks to invest their loot. Our focus must be to strengthen institutions to fight corruption, distribute wealth equitably, INVEST HEAVILY IN HUMAN CAPITAL, infrastructure, and massive employment generation through industrialization. African nations should put in place frameworks to trade among her over ONE BILLION people and stop the habit of begging for foreign aid or grants.
We should learn to make sacrifices and not live beyond our means. Success is not a destination and is not measured by material wealth. We take pride in consuming foreign goods and forget that we are exporting employment and killing our local economies. In football, after 90minutes regulation time comes the “injury time”. We can make a difference in this “injury time” of our existence.
God bless Africa.
Anthony Ebitimi Owei
Writes on www.tonyowei.wordpress.com
@TeeWhyOwei on twitter
