The first month of 2014 was greeted with the diplomatic row between Japanese and the Chinese diplomats around the globe. This however, was kicked off by Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, who visited the African continent in order to drum up a new economic strategy towards Africa.
These journeys to Africa by the East Asian nations over the past couple of decades are meant to secure raw materials and business contracts and they are becoming interesting and competitive with the renewed pledges to Africa by the Japanese.
Among Asian countries Japan was the first to visit Africa, which gave birth to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) as a result of the emergence of second generation African leaders (who stressed economic development over liberation ideology) after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Under TICAD, Japan stressed economic cooperation over humanitarian and military aid. China’s as a counterpart to TICAD, only started in 2000. No doubt at this very moment, Chinese trade and investment in Africa has grown rapidly.
However, this became more impressive and an eye-opener to Africans, after both sides ruthlessly exposed their foreign policies towards Africa. Abe, while in Mozambique, indirectly making reference to China, said that Japan will not just extract resources from Africa but also create jobs. This, to an extent, had some element of truth, as China had been criticised for her diversion of Africa resources and profits to itself.
Apart from that, many Chinese companies import semi-skilled or unskilled workers from China to work in Africa. This can be seen as a system by the Chinese government using the African continent as a background to address its own increasing unemployment and poverty ratings.
While the few African youths were paid peanuts as salaries despite the huge infrastructural deficit in Africa, many African youths are still roaming with no jobs.
To further worsen my partial good feeling for the Chinese, the reaction by Hua Chunying the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs indirectly gave a warning to his Japanese counterpart on January 10, that “… if there is any country out there that attempts to make use of Africa for rivalry, the country is making a wrong decision.” This ungentlemanly statement made me to draw my conclusion that the Chinese are satisfied and okay with the kind of system of government (corruption, looting, bribing, etc.) we are running in Africa.
This means that the Chinese are fully ready to support or are already supporting corrupt administrations that will give them easy access to the abundant resources in Africa. There is no gainsaying the fact that the ongoing crisis in South Sudan was due to the Chinese modus operandi in South Sudan (which may be characterised as extractive, exploitative and conducive to corruption).
Once again it wouldn’t be a surprise if one of Abe’s spokesmen, said “Japan cannot provide African leaders with beautiful houses or beautiful ministerial buildings.”
Instead, Tokyo’s policy was to “aid the human capital of Africa.” And the response to that by the Chinese diplomats who needed to work on a better strategy to safe their country’s image was to attempt to expose the Japanese past by holding up photographs depicting Japanese atrocities during the Second World War.
Enough of all of the diplomatic chaos; my concern is to my beloved continent. Now the question is, would the African leaders see this as an opportunity to sit down at a roundtable and iron out some aggressive policies to bring about real development? African leaders can still retain the goodwill of both parties (Beijing and Tokyo) without sentiments if they utilise the opportunities well.
Therefore, Africa’s leaders perhaps should allow the Chinese to continue providing the required infrastructures such as, constructions of roads, bridges, railway system to mention few. In fact, with the radical coming of the Japanese it would rather make the Chinese to seat up on the quality of infrastructural development that are popularly called “China Roads” and lots more.
In the same vain, Beijing, instead of importing their own labourers from China may change her policy or strategy to engage the African youths and thereby create more jobs for African countries. Japan on the other hand, with their vast knowledge in science and technology, if the said human capital development is fully implemented in Africa, will in no time bring about a technology transfer on the continent.
Lastly, as the competition between the Asian giants continues to build, other developed nations wouldn’t want to be left behind, but will seek to explore opportunities in Africa, fast becoming the world’s growth frontier.
By: Afolabi Banjoko
