Beware of Western Democracies

There is no doubt about the fact that for any major economic investment such as the Ajaokuta Steel company to work, it will need high dose of political will on the part of the president of the federal republic of Nigeria. Every nation on the face of the earth is faced with mountains of challenges from within and outside. Chief among these challenges are corruption and global politics of economic interest.
In Nigeria, corruption has made it very difficult for most government policies and investments to yield commensurate dividend. Despite the huge efforts put in by government to wage war against the negative culture of graft, very little has been achieved in the last ten years. The reason is not far-fetched. Corruption has eaten too deep into the fabrics of our national culture. It will therefore take only a determined effort by government to stamp out, or at least reduce it to an insignificant level.

It will not be enough to condemn the menace of corruption without highlighting its foundation. To a very large extent, corruption is a seed sown by the retreating British colonial administration to keep Nigeria’s socio-economic framework weak. Through this way, Nigeria can only be politically independent but economically dependent on London and other western societies. That’s the reason why the colonial authorities did not lay any meaningful foundation to discourage graft in government businesses. Political independence without a vibrant economy is close to not being independent. It’s on the head of the economy that a society grows.

Another thing the colonial Britain did to keep Nigeria underdeveloped was the sowing of seeds of discord by discreetly fueling ethnic and religious sentiments among the nation’s numerous nationalities. London did this by deliberately refusing the various nationalities to come together and discuss their union before creating Nigeria. Such frank dialogue would have clearly established safeguards for all the component unites. In forcibly bonding the several nationalities together, the Queen knew quite well that Nigeria will be plagued by the seeds of corruption, ethnic and religious discord.

Even with all the pressures from the United Nations and Human Rights groups, western democracies have continued to hide behind several platforms to colonise third world countries, including Nigeria. What they- western democracies do is to work with some corrupt citizens to sabotage critical sectors of the national economies of strategic third world countries. This is the reason why our refineries are not working at optimum capacity. Though we have crude oil and refineries all over, we still rely on the important of petroleum products. It’s the same reason why our power sector is dilapidated. Western countries are making huge gains from the export of electricity generating sets.

But for the strong political will invested by government, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) project wouldn’t have taken off. Even now, western democracies are fighting to see that Nigeria stop exporting natural gas so that she would import same from them. This is the same problem the Ajaokuta Steel Company is facing. Western nations want Nigeria to import steel when she is supposed to be exporting same. It’s now left for the federal government of Nigeria to understand the dance steps of western democracies and match same with the desired political will.

We must not forget the fact that international diplomacy is mostly determined strictly by economic interests. No western nation will sit back and allow third world countries gain economic independence. They are always afraid of the reality that their local economies will be negatively impacted by Africa’s economic independence. This is the root of neo-colonialism. They will therefore do anything to keep Africa and other developing societies under their foot.

You can also read my book, “Western Democracies in Glass Parliament.” http://i-proclaimbookstore.com/wedeinglpa.html for more details.