Akufo-Addo Takes His Mantra To Dakar; Can Africa Nations Wean Themselves Off Foreign AIDS?

Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo has reiterated his call on Africa nations to wean themselves off donor support. “Africa can no longer depend on aids,’ he chanted. But is this feasible?

Perhaps we wouldn’t be here if we’d open our eyes wide. Then the fraudsters and t multinationals wouldn’t have gotten away with their loot. If we’d not been complicit thus involved with others to rob Peter here to pay Paul there our story would have been told differently. Indeed if our leaders had put the continent’s interest first and not launder monies outside Africa, we would possibly not chase the west or donors for support.

Over the years, our survivability to say the least has been dependent on donor support. We fall on donors for educational support, support for energy, health, budget, poverty reduction, capacity building and the list goes on. But it’s likely we would have done things differently if we’d not lost our guards or stoop too low. Possibly we closed our eyes far too long when they asked us to say the Lord’s Prayer. And then when opened our eyes we found ‘grabu.’ There was nothing left!

Who does business say in Europe, Asia or North America and wouldn’t pay taxes?

You’re guaranteed to face the full rigors of the law. Sure you cannot go scot free if you indulged in any sort of financial impropriety. Ironically, in Africa, our leaders rather help these multinational to evade taxes resulting huge financial outflow from the continent. Consequently, it leaves the majority of its people impoverished.

So how do you cure a continent which has been plagued with corruption?

And how can you stop African corrupt leaders from looting?

All this can be described as Africa’s dark side. And I believe it takes leaders with clear vision to do that. In Dakar, Senegal on Monday President Akufo-Addo once again called on African leaders to be ready to wean themselves off donor support. Mr. Akufo-Addo had been invited there by Senegalese President Macky Sall, French President Emmanuel Macron and other chairs of the Global Partnership for Education Conference.

According to him Africa could do better if its leaders would seriously address illicit capital flight. The continent has the youngest population in the world and it’s the most endowed on the planet. But it has the worse living conditions than any continent of the planet.

“We’ve the youngest population of the planet. The youngest population on the richest continent but it has the worse living conditions than any anybody on the planet. That paradox can only be broken by education. We are going to have to make sure that every young child boy and girl has an access to education. Not only that but to have an education that allows them to be able to address the challenges of the 21^st century,” Mr. Akufo-Addo said.

The way forward he said, is to confront the problem head on. “It’s two prong objectives: Access and Quality. We must provide quality education that would prepare this young population for the life into the 21^st century. Large economies such as Japan, China, and India all did it through science and technology and that’s how we will be able to make the transition from poor to prosperity.

Then we face the conundrum that’s brought us here. How’s this to be financed? But we cannot depend on other people to finance education of our continent. If we make our policy dependent or people or other people when their policy changes we will suffer. But if we make the policy for ourselves then it means that in all time will be in control of our destiny.”

So how do you get the monies to provide access and quality education that the president is talking about? Mr. Akufo-Addo said Africa is not poor. Africa has the money to prosecute its ambitious project. The problem is that leaders of the continent have failed to do things right.

“And the monies.. are they available on the continent?? Yes, they are in abundance,” he said. He suggested that to be able to realise that: “We must eliminate corruption out of our public lives; prevent the flight of capital out of the continent etc.”

In February 2015 an African Union’s (AU) high-powered panel on illicit financial inflows and the UN economic commission for Africa (Uneca) report showed that an estimated that Africa is losing more than $50 billion every year in governments and multinational companies engage in fraudulent schemes aimed at avoiding tax payments of the world’s poorest countries—impeding development projects and denying poor people access to crucial services.

The meeting which was chaired by former South Africa President Thabo Mbeki also established that in total the continent lost about $850 billion between 1970 and 2008. Illegal transfers from Africa countries have tripled since 2001 when $20 billion was siphoned off according to the report.

Speaking in Dakar President Akufo-Addo made reference to this stark reality to buttress his point that Africa isn’t poor. It’s rather the wanton loot, fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, corruption which has deprived Africa of its rightful place. No doubt a continent that’s’ so rich in natural resources and manpower richer than any other continent on the planet shouldn’t be dependent on donor support, hence president’s Akufo-Addo mantra ‘Africa can no longer depend on aids.’