Africa cannot be secure and peaceful till she eradicates poverty By UMAR ARDO PhD

Currently, virtually all African countries are under challenges of peace and security. With respects, peace and security in Africa can only comeby if Africa takes it’s rightful stance in the global power structure, even against its disproportionate weak position in the evolution of this power structure. And this will only happen if African leaders truly put the interest of Africa and African peoples the primary reason and base of their leadership, and also make it the foundation of Africa’s relationship with itself and the international community. Notwithstanding its weak historical background, Africa can today leverage on two factors to its advantage in playing its card in the world power equation – i.e. its huge population and its abundant natural resources, both of which are instrumental in the development and sustenance of the extant world economic order. This therefore puts Africa in an advantageous strategic position to step onto the world scene as a strong contender and equal development partner.

Taking a cue from China, Africa can develop its economy and lift almost its entire population out of poverty. How did China in a spate of about 30 years lift about 800 million of its citizens out of poverty and become a key factor in world economic, scientific, military, etc. balance of power?

Looking back at China’s national policy over the years, beginning from the cultural revolution towards self-reliance, it can clearly be seen how they largely leveraged on their huge population to create the key indices for their development – i.e. turning their large populace into “enterprising self-entrepreneurs”, so to speak – their educated youths into skilled pools of administrators, economists, scientists, engineers, architects, accountants, ITCs, etc., generally making the mass of their population acquire knowledge, technology and innovation. They then turned again to their huge population for the needed massive labour and workforce in production, agriculture, infrastructure, factories, sports, athletics, etc. further turning mass populations into large markets of producers, consumers and service providers. Thus, the necessary economic environment to pull mass populations out of poverty had been created; stimulating further economic activities and creativities in the skills and talents that abound in the large populace.

If Africa can replicate this then it even has an additional advantage of having abundant natural resources and raw materials than China to leverage on. It can therefore much quickly pull more people out of poverty in a short period of time. The only major impediment against Africa is its several sovereign states against China’s single sovereignty. That is the biggest problem of Africa. It means therefore Africa must unite on this common purpose. If it fails to do so then it will remain weak, poor and susceptible to foreign interference, manipulation and dictation.

But even at that Nigeria 🇳🇬 as a single sovereign, with its huge population, talents and natural resources, can as a country pull through this obstacle and attain the development measure, maybe not on the scale of China, but on a scale that will earn Nigeria and the Black race respect and admiration, and further accelerate the unity and growth of Africa. All Nigeria needs is the requisite leadership to get it done ☑️. And by all standards, I believe we have in us the needed requisite leadership skills, character, intelligence, competence, exposure, experience and connections to pull us through. All that is lacking in us is the requisite courage and path to pull out of the stranglehold of the parasitic vested interests that have kept down all this while.