Lamentations of David Cameron

By Kofi Akordor
The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, while on an African tour last month had the opportunity to address very important personalities at Nigeria’s Lagos Business School. He used the occasion to say what has become a refrain of many Western leaders by  warning African countries to be careful about the Chinese invasion of Africa.
Ever since China’s dominance on the world stage became a phenomenal reality, leaders of the big powers in the West have not spared the continent the warning against the Chinese scourge because of its communist ideology and disregard for human rights.
Western propaganda against China started many years ago and got to its peak during the Cold War when it pitched camp with the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). They even came close to sabotaging the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games which ended up showcasing the might of China.
One of the greatest crimes committed by Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, was his association with China and countries of Eastern Europe under the Soviet orbit.  The story was that Nkrumah was about introducing communism into the country on the lines of  China’s communist system.
The establishment of the Ghana Young Pioneers Movement as it were, by Nkrumah to instil discipline, nationalism and patriotism in the youth and other socialist movements such as the Ghana Federation of Women and the Farmers Council greatly lent credence to the anti-Nkrumah propaganda.
When the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) finally toppled Nkrumah using local collaborators, there was celebration of a good riddance of a bad lot.  Many years later, China defied all odds to blossom into a world economic and industrial power that no country including the Western democracies could ignore.
China’s rise to world economic power did not happen by accident.  It was a deliberate policy to attract foreign investment capital coupled with determination by a hardworking population.  But should China’s growing influence be a worry to the West?
Unlike the West which set preconditions for aid, using democracy, human rights, rule of law and others as an excuse, China has nothing to bargain for, but to go into direct business with its African counterparts.  Instead of pretending to be crying for Africa, the West will do well to worry over their dwindling influence on a continent they have controlled and pillaged for  centuries.
Looking back, many African countries have suffered more from the long association with the Western colonialists than could be imagined.  The Chinese are not in Africa for pleasure and no one should expect them to come and sprinkle money around without returns.  But their approach to development projects is quite different and more mutually beneficial and should be exploited by African countries.
In Ghana, the Chinese are helping with the construction of the Bui Hydroelectric Dam.  They are very much present in the transport sector, since most of the vehicles being used by the Metro Mass Transport come from China.
Hopefully, the Eastern Corridor road project and other major projects will see the light of day, after the Chinese loan package is approved by parliament.
In any case, the West cannot claim to love Africa more than the Chinese, since for every dollar given as aid, three dollars are taken away from Africa, leaving the continent in perpetual debt.  Moreover the West has never been interested in infrastructural development on the continent, preferring to support those projects that would boost the continent as producers of raw materials.
A former Nigerian Finance Minister, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, speaking for Africa said, “China knows what it means to be poor and has evolved a successful wealth creation formula that it is willing to share with African countries”. It is up to individual African countries to negotiate and enter into agreements with their national interests being paramount.
Incidentally, the Western countries  which are crying  their head over Africa’s association with China, are desperately relocating most of their industries in China.  Africa cannot afford to remain victims of Cold War propaganda about its relations with China.
African countries, however, have a big lesson to learn from China.  That over-reliance on external assistance does not help.  African countries must begin to chart a path of independence and self-reliance while collaborating with others.
African countries have more resources than China and if there are any lessons to be learnt, it is that China refused to accept its fate as a poor and primitive country that cannot make it without succumbing to capitalist interests.
As for David Cameron and his like who think China’s link with Africa is a “new scramble for Africa”, they should spare us that agony.  They say man under water fears no cold.  We have suffered enough from colonialism to worry about what the Chinese will do to us.  So far, the Chinese strategy of give-and-take has worked for all the parties and Africa can position itself properly to make the best out of the China alliance.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com