It is sickening, but our home, Africa, illustrates & highlights the ‘Resource Curse’

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As I write, our comrades in the Democratic Republic of Congo are experiencing what, without urgent intervention, will become the largest outbreak of the deadly Ebola epidemic faced by a single country. With more than 2190 confirmed cases and over 1,446 deaths by late June 2019, this is truly devastating. Our comrades are falling and with it all their potential to develop the Motherland. My thoughts are with the families of the bereaved and the afflicted. While there’s a marginal chance at being cured, fatality rates are up to 90%. In every sense, prevention is better than cure. Consequently, I humbly plead with our folks in the DRC to heed keenly the advice of experts on the epidemic. Frequent hand washing and a refrain from the bodily fluids of infected persons are believed to help. Early detection also reduces the risk of contagion. I, therefore, appeal to our lovely, sweet and incredibly caring women whose daring attitude truly epitomises our rich culture of hospitality to mitigate their own risk of contracting the virus by referring suspected cases to health authorities rather than taking matters into their own hands. Just to be sure, potential cases are marked by fever, fatigue, sore throat, diarrhea to name a few. This signs are synonymous with common diseases like malaria and typhoid. So, the only way to be sure is to seek expert help.

For the daring, incredibly brave health personnel and all other parties working to extend support to the DRC in this dire hour of need, I appreciate and salute your efforts. Some painful lessons were learned following the West Africa outbreak that obliterated more than 7,500 lives and I hope that you can stand on these gaint shoulders to bring greater meaning to your arduous efforts.

To the generic public, indeed, no token of help is small in this dire time. We all need to do our part, and I encourage you to contribute in any way possible and extend solidarity to our comrades in this testing time. You can make donations to support relief efforts aimed at ameliorating the melancholic cries of our folks in the DRC. For all who are able to do this, your sacrifice and selflessness is a lesson to us all and a timely reminder of the type of dedication required to make our beautiful home worthy of its resource endowments.

Still, it is really difficult to understand why we have not already achieved the dream of using our natural resource wealth to transform our lovely continent into a resilient place capable of responding in a timely manner to an epidemic like Ebola. Reports hint that poor infrastructure – health facilities, road networks and communication – complicate preventive as well as reactionary measures. But these are not peculiar to the DRC. It seems to be the norm in Africa at large. For example, oil-rich Mozambique is still reeling from the impact of a cyclones Idai which claimed more than a 1, 000 lives in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. A couple of years ago, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone were also devastated by an outbreak of Ebola which claimed more than 7, 500 lives. So why have we not used our natural resource wealth to prepare for these calamities?

Africa is a place of paradox. A poor continent amidst riches. She owns an estimated 30% of global mineral resources, including the richest deposits of diamonds, cobalt, platinum, phosphate, and coltan (columbite-tantalite). Coltan is a base resource for microelectronics, and in an age of digitalisation, your guest is as good as mine on the possibilities presented by this endowments. The continent also has her fair share of oil and gas as well as fisheries, forest and arable land. Despite this resource endowments, the continent seems to have become an archetype of poverty amidst plenty. A land of hunger and disease. A continent to be exploited. A  playground for testing all sorts of heinous schemes crafted and delivered under the disguise of aid: A guinea pig.

What happened? Where did she go wrong? Is there any chance at her redemption? Where does she start and whom shall she call upon?

Honestly, there is no Messiah, but you and I. We cannot look outside for help because history makes it crystal clear that the world only sees us for what it can take from us. Besides, Africa is all we have, and we are all she’s got. Before proceeding, I would like to reflect critically on where we are, how we got here, and what we can do to evade the shackles that keep us from not merely seeing the light of day but becoming the light that illuminates the world itself. Given the amount of space required to delve into this, I will discuss it in two parts. Part I (below), explores the resource curse in Africa with a concrete example from Equatorial Guinea. Part II, which will be published in a couple of weeks, will offer practical insights on entry points for exorcising the resource curse. So, let’s begin with a little history.

At the turn of the 19^th Century, the powers of Europe resolved at the Berlin Conference of 1885 to consolidate their foothold in Africa. Although their primary interest was to exploit the Continent´s resources for their economic development, they assumed the position that it was their responsibility and moral obligation to civilise Africa. And so, under the flagship of civilisation, Europe rushed into Africa and colonised its people. For a long time, the continent was divided among European powers who with much alacrity looted the continent’s resources and inflicted unbearable pain on her people. It took decades of fighting and bloodshed for the winds of liberation and independence to blow through the continent, starting with Ghana in 1957.

Many people, as I did in the past, believe that the cancer, colonialism, is the root cause of Africa’s problems, including our inability to presently transform our resources into wealth creation. This, however, is not entirely true. Yes, colonization is a dread that eroded Africa and her people, of self-confidence, valuable manpower and natural resources. It also true that colonization balkanised Africa, damaged her institutions and left us with a structural pluralism that continues to haunt us in the present day. In many ways, colonization knocked Africa out. Like a stone that has been subjected to unbearable heat and pressure, however, it metamorphosized us, and perhaps, made stronger.

One could, then, say that if we have been through the worse, it can only get better from there. We also gained some insights into otherwise unknown paradigms. Most importantly, it enabled us to painfully inculcate the enviable attribute of resilience. With this resilience, our founding father fought and won for us political independence which their words, ‘is the foundation of economic liberation’.

Today, however, the zeal and goodwill with which we fought for political freedom is not the same as that which we are pursuing economic independence. I am convinced that this is how we came to be plagued with the malignant resource curse. Put simply, the resource curse inflicted us when we got comfortable, complacent, and greedy post political independence. It took roots when we lost the patriotic, fighting spirit of our founding fathers in pursuit of our selfish interests and it has began bearing the fruits of dejection and destruction now that we are in bed with our erstwhile colonial masters to free grant them the resources they colonised us for.

I will use Equatorial Guinea (EG) to illustrate my point. I choose EG due to its small size, low population and high per capita GDP, availability of literature, and my personal belief that with some work, we can easily transform EG into our own model Singapore, Malaysia and related countries that are often used to point to our inability to manage our own affairs.

Equatorial Guinea is a small but very rich country. Strategically positioned between Western and Central Africa, it is bordered in the North by Cameroun, in the East and South by Gabon on the West by the Gulf of Guinea. It has a land area of about 28,000 km₂. The World Bank places its current population at 1.3 million. A figure that pales in comparison to the population (in millions) of African cities such as: Abidjan (4.9), Accra (2.4), Addis Ababa (4.4), Cairo (20), Dakar (2.9) Johannesburg (5.4), Lagos (13.4), Luanda (7.7), Nairobi (4.3), Kinshasa (13.) Yaoundé (3.6).

Despite its small size, Equatorial Guinea’s geographic positioning means that it is very rich in oil, natural gas, forests, gold and coltan. It ranks among the top five (5) oil-producing countries in Africa with an estimated 269,000 barrels per day. Production is forecast to further improve given plans to drill 11 additional wells this year, 2019. Oil accounts for up to 90% of the country´s GDP with manufacturing accounting for a mere 6%.

A former, Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea gained independence in October 1968 with Francisco Macias Nguema as its first president. An economic collapse under his watch led to his deposition by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in 1979. He remains the country´s leader till date and this makes him the second longest ruling leader in Africa. Paul Biya of Cameroun is the longest serving leader. Paul Biya of Cameroun is the longest serving leader.

Under Nguema’s watch, Equatorial Guinea´s oil endowments has not led to the overall welfare of Equatoguineans, rather foreign actors. Despite the country´s high GDP per capita of USD 11,486 (second best in Africa), it remains one of the continents´ poorest. The country seems to have developed a knack for performing dastardly on all positive indicators of development.

It ranks a meagre 141 out of 189 countries and territories assessed in the for Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is a measure of long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. Per Transparency International, it also ranks amongst the 10 ten corrupt countries in the world (behind Venezuela, Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq) on the 2018 Corruption Perception Index.

In 2011, the US Department of Justice filed for the confiscation of, a USD 30 million estate includes a swimming pool, a tennis court, and a four-hole golf course; and USD 41 million worth of speedboats, cars and Micheal Jackson memorabilia. These belonged to government worker from Equatorial Guinea who was making an official salary of about $80,000 a year: Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the oldest son of the country´s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. In a settlement deal, it became apparent that he had used his position to amass more than USD 300 million of wealth in the USA. He agreed as part of the settlement to sell his 30 million houses and donate USD 20 million to charity and forfeit another USD 10.3 million to the US government, who would then use it to the benefit of Equatoguineans to the extent permitted by law.  

Theodoro, AKA, ´Theodorin´ was also found guilty of embezzlement of public funds by a French court in 2017. The court ordered the seizure of an estimated 100 million euro worth of his assets in France. In September 2018, Brazil also seized $15 million worth of watches and $1.5 million in cash from Obiang’s eldest son and (now vice president), whom authorities said brought the valuables to the country in a private plane without declaring them in accordance with the law. But these are not the only instances where Equatorial Guinea´s oil wealth has found its way into the hands of a few elite while its populace wallows in poverty. Money that rightfully belongs to Equatoguineans has also found their way into the hands of greedy bastards on the North of the Atlantic as well.  

A USA Senate investigation completed in 2004 revealed that Exxon Mobil (EM) had partnered with Riggs Banks and other companies owned by Equatorial Guinea´s president, Mbasogo, to steal money from his people, Equatoguineans. Under the arrangement, EM paid a 15% share of profits from its engagements in the country into the private funds of the president.

Other senior officials within Mbasogo’s administration were found to have laundered more than USD 700 million of oil money through the Washington branch of the Riggs Bank. All these were happening when more than half Equatoguineans had no access to clean drinking water, primary education and health care.

Most African countries seem to perform in other sectors like agriculture until they discover oil. Instead of oil revenue being invested in the further development of other sectors, a fanatic rent-seeking behaviour ensues. Elites garner around oil rents and use them to compromise the local economy and democracy. For example, with ill acquired oil rents, the Mbasogo has made himself untouchable and left the democracy of his country in tatters. Reports of rigged elections and human right abuses though largely understated are already horrifying. The people’s wealth that that should transform their lives end up funding the lavish lifestyles of the kleptocrats. The result is a rich but highly vulnerable country owning to an excessive reliance on oil (Fig 1).

Corruption remains a canker in most African countries. However, Equatorial Guinea exemplifies and typifies it. Nepotism seems the order of the day, with most of the country´s leadership positions held by the leader Mbasogo and his family. His son, Thedorin remains vice president despite evidence for conviction of bribery and embezzlement. Both vices seem to be a norm, not an exception. The 2004 senates report is one of many reports. But Equatorial Guinea is not alone, a similar trend is reported in oil-rich countries like Angola, Mozambique and Nigeria.

Corruption thrives in the absence of transparency. Without transparency, citizens have no access to information, and very little basis to contribute to or interrogate governance decisions. Accountability becomes a façade. Recognizing the crucial role of transparency and its associate, accountability, for good governance a recent constitutional review committee in Ghana, noted that

“a political system in which the public surrenders these rights to a political party or government cannot hope to remain democratic. The public must, therefore, be guaranteed the right to know, the right to access information, as a basic human and constitutional right.”

However, most African countries have yet to institute a right to information legislation. Even in contexts like Nigeria where such provisions are available, resources are usually not provided to ensure their implementation. It is not surprising that Africa performs poorly on the annual global Corruption Perception Index.

Institutions transcend physical structures and spaces to embody socially accepted rule, norms and traditions germane to the effective functioning of a society. The resource curse continues to prevail because we have not developed the right institutions to manage our resources. Emerging narratives on corruption from Africa alone points to the weakness of our institutions. A lot is written about how corruptions have been institutionalised in most African countries, particularly resource rich areas such as Angola, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Congo. However, these countries are not an exception to the rule. In several other countries, democratic and independent institutions that promote the rule of law are completely missing.

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Sustainable Development Goals addressed in this article