Who’s afraid of China’s loans to Africa?

 By Tunde Obadina

China’s growing economic relationship with African countries has received much negative media coverage in recent years. Critics of the fast-rising Asian economic superpower present the Chinese state as the new imperialist threat to Africa. As did yesterday’s European colonisers, China is today seeking to capture Africa’s vast natural resources and exploit its labour-force for the aggrandisement of the world’s most populous nation, so say the critics.

A strategy purportedly being deviously used by Beijing to capture African resources is debt. Critics see China as offering cheap loans to African governments, hoping they will default on repayment, enabling the Asian giant to gobble up assets used as collateral. China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure development strategy, is described by the critics as a debt-trap diplomacy, part of a campaign for global hegemony.

Concerns over the safety of Nigeria’s struggling economy in the face of the envisaged encroaching dragon led the country’s House of Representatives in May to launch an investigation into all China-Nigeria loan agreements since 2000. The lawmakers want the contracts reviewed and where necessary, cancelled. The legislator who spearheaded the action said there is widespread global concern about the alleged fraudulent, irregular, and underhand characteristics of Chinese loan contracts with African nations, which have resulted in a new form of economic colonialism foisted by China.

Racism, a vile form of collectivism

 What unifies black people is a racial ideology that denies their individuality

By Tunde Obadina

Racism is grouping people according to their genetic origin or physical appearance and assuming that members of each group share common traits, such as behaviour, intelligence, and capacity. Stemming from this is the notion that one group is inferior or superior to other groups. Racism is a way of viewing the world.

Racists are not only individuals who view members of other groups contemptuously, but also those who view them favourably. Declaring that black people are angels is as racist as castigating them as evil. Racism is a variant of collectivism–it is a denial of individuality. As the novelist Ayn Rand observed, “Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.”

The only two traits blacks have in common are, firstly, the skin complexion that defines blackness and secondly, being subjected to racial ideologies and the actions of others that stem from such beliefs. Racial ideologies are ideas that attribute certain innate characteristic to being a black person. But black people do not share common history, psychology, culture, language, intelligence, behaviour, and any other characteristics associated with individuals. By the same token, there is no such thing as white history, psychology, culture, language, intelligence, behaviour, etc. We are all individuals, each with unique sets of characteristics.

The injustice of state-funded elite prosperity

 Government policies that favour the middle-class and elites, worsen inequality

By Tunde Obadina

In a 1955 report on the Nigerian economy, a World Bank mission to Britain’s west African colony noted that the attitude of the local population to the state could impede the country’ progress. They observed that while Nigerians desired material progress, many did not realise that wealth creation is only achievable through the efforts of the people.

“No progress can be made unless the people themselves are willing to assume the main burden of the development effort. The mission found this not fully appreciated in Nigeria. Nigerians in all walks of life tend to look too much to the government, more specifically to the British colonial officials, for the fulfilment of their aspirations. The heavy reliance on government is frequently coupled with a strong distrust of its actions and motives…”

“The need for self-help is not understood by the African businessman who looks to the government, and the government alone, for financial assistance in the expansion of his business instead of joining with others in a partnership or other form of common enterprise. It is not understood by rural communities and their leaders who demand school and hospital facilities but are not ready to pay for them by increased tax assessments. It is not understood by those who deplore graft and corruption in the hospitals, in the produce inspection service, in the railway and in private business, yet are unwilling to take effective action against these abuses.”

At the time the World Bank made these observations, Nigerians could dismiss them as bigoted rantings of agents of imperialism. Over sixty years later, we know differently. The belief that it is the responsibility of government to provide citizens with the conveniences of modern civilisation remains strong, especially among the elite. The expectation is that the state will deliver free or subsidised education, healthcare, electricity, transport infrastructure, water and sewage system and other items and services that come with economic development. Yet there is aversion to taxation.