One of the greatest signposts of shame on the face of Africa is the dependency of most of its member nations on foreign aids. Unfortunately, Nigeria, the much touted “giant of Africa”, is one of them.
Evidence of this was the recent provision of N700 billion by President Bola Tinubu to cover for the scrapping of the United State Agency for International Development, USAID, by President Donald Trump over allegations of widespread corruption, waste and abuse.
Nigeria also receives millions of dollars in support of her democracy. For instance, the European Union funded the 2023 general elections in Nigeria to the tune of 39 million euros (or N17.94 bn as of that year). As a result, the EU also sent a high-powered delegation which spent about four months and produced a scorecard that basically damned the conduct by Professor Mahmood Yakubu’s INEC.
Aid dependency came up for discussion during the Financial Times’ Global Risk Roundtable at this year’s World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland in January this year. Vice President Kashim Shettima represented Nigeria at the Roundtable. He decried the “bowl in hand” syndrome of African countries in their relationship with the advanced offshore powers, saying it is better for sovereign nations to carry their poverty with dignity than depending on foreign aids.
He pointed out that Africa, being the most highly-endowed in terms of natural resources and vibrant youthful population, has no business depending on foreign aid. He also called for equal partnership between nations rather than master-servant relationship.
It needs to be stressed that a sovereign country that receives aid betrays its independence and sovereignty, unless that country is in crisis or war. Nearly 65 years after independence, why should Nigeria still be receiving foreign donations to “support” our democracy? It also gives the donors the legitimacy to come and mark our election scripts, which we have no power to do concerning their own elections.
It was also our dependency that gave the Barack Obama regime the gumption to meddle in our elections in 2015. Foreign powers have hidden under the guise of providing aid to flood the North- East (especially Borno State) with their agents to sustain insurgency and terrorism in Nigeria.
African leaders have betrayed and devalued the continent through aid dependency, and this must stop. The worst part is that most of the aid ends in private pockets. It greases the wheel of indolence and corruption, and leaves the continent vulnerable for abuse and exploitation by the major powers.
The Federal and state governments of Nigeria must go beyond VP Shettima’s admission of the shame of aid dependency and pull out of all foreign aids. Enough of self-abnegation.
We must dignify our sovereignty as an independent nation and be an example for the continent.
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