AN APPRAISAL OF THE IMPACT OF NEPAD ON NIGERIA’S RELATIONS WITH WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES, 1999 – 2007
Abstract
Development has over the years appeared to be an elusive milestone for Africa as states in the continent, since independence till date, are still battling with various development needs and challenges such as a rapidly growing poor population, inequalities, unemployment, environmental degradation, unstable economy and a recurrent problem of civil unrest and insurgency. This paper considered a few perspectives that have been proposed to enhance social and economic development in Africa, particularly the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) which seeks to create a self-reliant and developed Africa. In this paper, we argued that NEPAD, like prior growth plans for Africa, has been unable to meet the renaissance needs of the continent particularly because her development plans are designed and strung around exogenous influences. From the standpoint of the Dependency theory we have argued that the current externally focused model for African socio-economic development is not effective. No continent or country ever developed relying on foreign aid and assistances; rather such dependence deepens the disarticulation of the economies of states in Africa. On this note, this paper suggests that Africa, as a matter of urgency, needs to rely less on foreign aid, and begin to extensively increase domestic investment to finance its development.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Introduction Over the years, Africa’s inability to surmount its development challenges has remained an issue of discourse in world politics and development sociology. Notable is the fact that since independence till date pervasive poverty and underdevelopment has remained a prominent feature of states in Africa; and in spite of Africa’s status as the world’s second largest and a resource-rich continent; with an abundance of human and natural resources, its inhabitants have the world’s poorest (Arieff, 2015; World bank, 2016). In March 2013, Africa was identified as the poorest inhabited continent in the world, with most of her countries such as Mali, Sierra Leone, Togo, Madagascar, Burundi, Somalia, Zambia, Liberia, Malawi, Burkina Faso, and Niger, including Nigeria, still struggling with extreme poverty, civil unrest and poor standard of living (African Vault, 2016; World Bank, 2016). Ekpo (2002) in his work “Economic governance and the New Partnership for Africa’s development” posited that the development challenges in Africa are even much deeper than issues of low income, falling trade shares, low savings and slow growth; they include high inequality, uneven access to resources, social exclusion, insecurity, environmental degradation, and HIV/AIDS pandemic, in addition to an immensity of qualities which have left states in Africa politically and economically weak. In Nigeria, for instance, issues of poverty, unemployment, non-representative governance, poor standard of living, environmental pollution, pandemics, civil unrest and general disaffection, coupled with an unstable gross domestic product and a terrible national debt to richer countries has remained a critical issue of concern since independence as against her founding leaders original intention to take over the driver’s seat of their own development destiny alongside tackling the problems of poverty, inequality, unemployment, ignorance and diseases in the country. This seemingly intractable challenge of underdevelopment in Africa has attracted the attention of world leaders, politicians, scholars and the international community with many of them suggesting ways African countries can surmount their growth challenges. While some have suggested African states recreating themselves in the image of advanced capitalist economies and others encouraging the reliance on foreign aid and investments, African leaders have been urged to craft their own indigenous development paradigm in the light of their own perception; a position that, according to Adedeji, (2002) and Epko (2002), has resulted in the creation of five landmark strategies specifically designed for Africa’s development: the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) and the Final Act of Lagos (FAL) of 1980, Africa’s Priority Programme for Economic Recovery (APPER) of 1986, the African Alternative Framework for Structural adjustment Programme (AAF-SAP) of 1989, the African
Charter for Popular participation for Development of 1990 and the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa (UN-NADAF) in the 1990s. But in spite of these efforts, countries in Africa appear poorer than they were since independence; diseases that had been eradicated from the face of the earth after the advancement of science in the post war period are currently ravishing the continent, majority of the people still have no access to modern knowledge while poverty and social inequalities abounds in awful proportions amidst a recurrent crisis of civil unrest. The constant question that troubles the mind is why Africa has remained in a static state of development in spite of various development policies and strategies employed over the years? This paper reviews critical issues in achieving the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) particularly as it manifests in the intensification of development in Nigeria. The study also highlights considerations relevant to leaders and policy makers in African states in the areas of poverty eradication and the intensification of growth and development. Pre-NEPAD policies and the need for accelerated development in Africa Achieving socio-economic growth and sustainable development has remained the premier aspiration of states across the globe. The race towards development has seen countries adopting various methods and strategies to ensure an ample supply of infrastructure, social justice, security, environmental justice and quality life for its entire population. According to Adeyemi (1999) no country can be said to be developed if it cannot provide its entire populace with life sustenance and essential infrastructure such as housing, education, clothing, food, security, health, and employment opportunities; and above all that chart out plans for socio-economic development. Recall that at independence, states in Africa declared war against three enemies of development: poverty, ignorance and disease, with a view to ensuring a better life for their people. However decades down the line many African states have found it near impossible to attain self-sufficiency, with over 50%
PAN AFRICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW PASSR Journal of the Department of Sociology, University of Portharcourt, Rivers State ISBN: 978-37374-4-9 No 13/DECEMBER 2016 TERRORISM, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT 95 of their people living under remarkable deprivation, impoverishment and oppression (Nyong’o, 2002; Beegle, Christiaensen, Dabalan and Gaddis, 2016). This situation is exacerbated by a rapidly increasing population, debilitating inequalities, climate change and serious issues of civil unrest. To further add insult to injury, African states are plagued with leaders that are not gifted in identifying and serving national and continental needs or implementing policies that will help eradicate poverty and underdevelopment, provide knowledge and give the people universal access to healthy living (Nyong’o, 2002; Mohammed, 2016). In July 1979, African leaders, in a meeting in Monrovia, resolved that it is crucial for Africa to seek ways to promote economic and social integration of African economies particularly to enhance self-reliant and self-centered development, create national, sub-regional and regional institutions in pursuit of this self reliance, give primacy to human resources development, and amongst other things undertake proper planning in all sectors of development – particularly agriculture, industry, an environmentally sound use of natural resources – with the aim of achieving modern economies at the national, sub-regional and regional levels by the year 2000 (Nyong’o, 2002). These considerations gave birth to the various strategies employed by African leaders to stimulate development in the region, signifying a total shift from issues of political independence to economic emancipation driven by the African union (AU). First was the adoption of the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) – and the Final Act of Lagos (FAL) – which was developed in July 1980 in Nigeria, as a blueprint through which Africa could, based on the principle of collective self reliance, achieve rapid economic and social development (Adedeji, 2002; Madziwa, 2005; Africa Action, 2006). The basic philosophy of self-reliance, as espoused by LPA, was the concept of internally generated, self-sustaining development especially as past policies were not viable and sustainable for the realization of the objectives of self-reliance, poverty eradication, reduction of unemployment, equitable distribution of
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