A development narrative

I had a beautiful experience growing up in Lagos. My neighbourhood was littered with houses that had low fences on well-planned streets, marked with lovely large green fields on which kids played freely without fear. Though we had our issues, life, as l remember it, was pretty sublime. Funny enough, most of those issues like electricity outages, dilapidating infrastructure, poor education, and healthcare system, amongst others persist till date. The miracle of progress seems to have eluded us for the best part of our existence. As the years go by, I sometimes get the sense that the inaccessibility to elements of development by the majority may be in itself a wilful act of self-destructive leadership waiting to manifest sometime soon.

Africa has been burdened with many challenges, starting from slave trade, colonialism, apartheid, civil wars to famine. Traversing some African countries, you will find fundamental similarities in development, such as poorly developed infrastructure or a complete absence of one plus a wide gap between the rich and the poor.
I look around the world and get somewhat exasperated at where we are with the rate of human development. The pace appears slow, and in many instances, we have seen regression and an inability of leaders to provide the direction to a path of sustained development decisively. The 2013/2014 global fall in commodity prices affected the oil-producing giants of Africa. This shouldn’t have been the case as the potential for diverse socioeconomic growth within the continent is immense.
It has not been all sorry news. Things progressed rapidly in the early 2000s, with the African narrative evolving positively. Nigeria’s socio-economic status changed for the better. A reformation agenda driven by the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) was birthed. Foreign Direct Investment flowed back into the country with jobs created and a middle class emerging. The banks consolidated, and loans, which were the sole privilege of the ‘rich and mighty’, were made available to those who could assure repayment. Hence, though living standards improved for many more, it still wasn’t widespread enough.
We also experienced improved governance at the state level, especially in states like Lagos, Cross River and Kwara, where a crop of younger governors took the helm of leadership and contributed to reinvigorating socio-economic policies. The improvement experienced in the telecommunications sector had a triple effect not restricted to job creation alone, but also to innovation and technological advancement in the country. We now have easy access to telecommunications with no more preferential treatment given to those who ‘know someone’ or could bribe someone to get the telephone lines working. These changes give me hope that my country can address the plethora of problems that plague our development. We can make things work if we have strong leadership and the willpower to do that which is right.
We also began to see many governments settling down to a degree of political stability and some level of economic development. The economic upheaval in developed countries, which saw many countries stagnating or declining economically, caused many investors to look to Africa for expansion and growth.
We, therefore, experienced a miraculous turnaround of sorts – a situation where we as a continent moved from needing development support from many international NGOs, celebrities, and multilateral agencies to that which has value to offer.
The inflow of investment created jobs for a population which has a teeming number of young persons. In many instances, however, increased growth in population erased the economic gains that these investments would have otherwise brought. Hence issues like poverty remain a problem.
There is still a long way to go and a couple of things strike me as being instructive. One is the fact that African countries must articulate their critical areas of focus for development in the next decade and how they wish to go about sustaining it. For those who have, we need to ensure success. The Sustainable Development Goals offer a unique platform to do this. A brighter future for Africa must be laid today; actions that will drive that development must begin now. Each moment counts.
The power is at the grassroots. The people at the bottom of the pyramid are the vehicles of political power. They need to be educated about the potential that lies in their hands to determine the good of their future. This power, if used wisely, can bring about the future we fervently speak of but as followers fail to act to achieve. Ethnic and religious divisions often truncate the seemingly peaceful path to harmonious development – they appear to be instruments used by unscrupulous entities to destabilize the polity and entrench personal or sectional desires that are detrimental to the good of the general populace.
We have to take our future in our hands and act now. We must not depend on aid from foreign countries, and we must learn to empower ourselves and our citizens. We do not have much to show for the trillions of aid money pumped into the African economy over the last couple of decades. The multilateral agencies should drive for performance and demand for a return on investment based on measurable, positive individual and collective impact.
I, for one, am tired of all the sorry pictures of Africa that we see in the media – it must change, and it can be done. With a renewed focus on democratic governance in most parts of Africa and advancement of technology, citizens can get involved in advocacy through the social media with a reach to a broader audience than previously experienced. We should focus on getting necessary things such as sound institutionalized reforms, strong leadership that can ensure the rule of law and order, accountability, and transparency on the right track. Citizens should demand performance from governments. We need inclusive policies which take cognizance of gender and push for enterprise and innovation for a growing young population.
I believe that we can solve this development challenge, not by taking up arms but by making our voices heard and doing whatever we can in our small corner. Our model of propelling socio-economic progress forward need not be the same age-long style everyone is used to. A million concerted actions towards change by individuals and organizations will make a positive impact. Collective leadership requires that we all shape our future and leave a long-lasting positive legacy for Africa.

Oluwasoromidayo George

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George is a member of the CSRG Institute.