OF DONORS AND PLUNDERERS

OF DONORS AND PLUNDERERS

                               The historic 27^th OAU Summit has come and gone.  It was historic in many respects.  For the first time, Abuja, the fledgling Nigerian capital with a traditional panoramic view of concrete and greenery, opened up with flags and hunting to host more than 20 African heads of government.  Also for the first time since the OAU was founded in 1963, a summit of this type recorded unprecedented attendance by incumbent heads of government as opposed to the usual jamboree of representatives.

                               Most importantly, the just-concluded summit not only afforded Nigeria the chance of leading the organization but also gave us the opportunity to advertise our leadership position in Africa, a position rightly ours by virtue of our vast resources, population and demonstrable concern on issue relating to African in particular and blacks in general. Indeed Nigeria’s chairmanship of the OAU is a sort of crowning glory in her various efforts in furthering the cause of the black man anywhere in the world. It was a fine hour the President Babangida and the rest of us.

                               Now that the summit has ended and the attendant pomp subsided. Weightier issues come to the fore.  The new OAU agenda as enunciated by General Babangida cannot be more salient.  Apartheid must be dismantled, peace and security must be restored to the continent, economic development and integration must be accelerated through the African Economic Community and the knotty issue of reparations must be tackled and carried to a logical conclusion.

                               These are by no means easy tasks but they can be achieved and in record time too.  There will be many obstacles natural and manmade, but such obstacles must be surmounted.

                               We only need the moral resolve and the political will to move ahead and the chips will fall into place.  What we should be wary of is the apostle of negativism both within and without.  Africa should be aware that it has no friends beyond the shores of the continent. In fact, it is in the interest of the developed world that Africa remains in abject poverty in order to sustain the rich lifestyle of the Western world. The Western world will resist all moves by Africa to better its lot.

                               An example of Western resistance to Africa’s economic progress was given right at the Abuja summit by no less a person than Barber Conable. President of the World Bank an archetypal Western institution for the protection of Western interest. Aware that the clamour for reparations to Africa and Africans in the diaspora has gained tremendous momentum since Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola fired our imagination last December, the culprit Western world has become so jittery, so frighten of its implication to compel Conable to declare that, “….it is unlikely that Western donor countries will have a change of heart on Africa’s past.

                               And the man went on to say that ‘there is nothing anybody can do about it.’ Do we Africans have look elsewhere for our enemies? Ordinarily, such a blatant statement of rejection from President of the World Bank can discourage and disillusion the soft-hearted. However, in our cast, the reverse should be the case.

                               I am glad Barber Conable made that statement because it shown early enough what Africans are up against in their fight for emancipation and economic progress. The statement also exemplifies that double standards and the palpably unfair global arrangement where in Africa is to be perpetually subjugated. Why, for instance, is it not feasible or possible for plunderer countries to pay reparations by American and European government of pillaging? Why was it possible for Japan to be paid reparations by American and European why was Israel with an estimated loss of six million Jews paid up to seven hundred billion dollars reparations while Africa, which has about 130 million people, is not reparation?

                               This is an unjust system in an unjust world. Conable has shown us that we must fight for our rights and nobody, least of all the Western countries, would grant us our rights on a planter of bronze, let alone of gold.

                               In a sad twist of logic, the countries that plundered, pillaged Africa’s economic and still continues to do so through institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other agents of neo-colonialism are referred to by Conable as donor countries. Can anyone beat this brazen attempt to redefine the situation? Our people were carted away as slaves to Euro-America. Our human and material resources are being used to sustain the extravagant lifestyles of Euro-Americans. Our cultural heritages in the form of artifacts are being used to their museums for their pleasure.

                               So, because a minute fraction of our stolen wealth is being funneled back in the form of aid, who should be grateful? No, Conable these not donor countries but plunder countries.

                               We cannot be discouraged in our fight for reparations and other rights by the prospect of Western resistance. Rather, we should rededicate ourselves to the struggles ahead. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Three years ago, the prospect of Mandele’s freedom looked very bleak. But today the man is free. Two years ago, apartheid seemed impregnable, but today apartheid is on its last leg. The phenomenal politico-economic developments in the world in the last couple of years have demonstrated that there is virtue in tenacity of purpose. Our resolve is stronger even in the fact of daunting odds. Africans must move on and press for their rights in all areas, and who knows sooner or later, the Conables of this world may eat their words.

By

Eguriase S. M. Okaka