By Anyanwu Anthony
The emasculation,
confiscation and colonization of society, national economies and organizational
dynamics by the state operators in Africa is an issue of constant debate by visionaries
of change, advocates and leaders in business, academia, politics and a wide
range of interest groups, who gather on the invitation of Management and staff
of Belford Business School (the training arm of Belford Consultants), Jos, to
discuss Africa’s economic development in a depressing global economy.
The gathering
has consistently impressed me and I guess many others, who have actively participated
in the event. I make this observation in view of the issues for discussion, the sincerity
of purpose, commitment and passion demonstrated by the organizers and participants.
I recall the discussions and
resolution of 2014, as if it happened yesterday. The gathering held “for any
government to be of any serious consequence in the general well-being of the
people, it must assure itself of competent, efficient and respectable men of
noble sentiments”.
In 2015, the gathering identified
that “the corporate fragmentation of the systemic process of production,
distribution and management of resources, control of security system and
governance of government, diametrically oppose economic and societal harmony”.
The combined effect of the
above, as pointed out and summarized by the gathering is “a consequential drift
in food availability, resource production and social security. It equally illuminates
the distinctive forces of government led capitalist relation of production
control and the realization that politicization of economic system yield no
essential dividend but losses and disorders”.
Taking my bearing from the
above and building on the sentiments and interest so far generated through Belford
and her team, I invite you to share my present feeling on Africa and her
development in the face of threats and biases.
Historical evidence shows
that prior to the great crash of 1939, the global economy maintained stable
growth and resilience. Interruption of the processes brought tension and
collapse of institutional structures, organizational values and economic
procedures. The objectives of government have constantly revolved around
determinants of remuneration for services provided by the labour market and
resource control to increase defense budget and control of political
institutions and power.
In the process of economic
supremacy, nations have engaged in conflicts and wars, which brought serious
hardships, disruptions and miseries to society. Besides the American war
against Japan, Italy and Germany of 1941, several other wars including the
Korean invasion of 1950, have been fought by the Americans. In 1965, the first
American combatant group reached South Vietnam and the same year witnessed the
assassination of Martin Luther King (Jr) in Memphis and Robert F. Kennedy in
1968.
The struggle to keep
national economies under state control has become one of the most ubiquitous
and indispensable concept of the contemporary age. As a result of the
calculable limits of government to provide high premium economic growth,
economies have continued to collapse resulting to resource depletion and
threats to national security, biodiversity and the environment.
The capitalization tread
mill of government-led production and system control processes have serious
impact on industry, investment, and energy supply and growth trajectory. The
implications include economies mired in depression, nonrealistic based
practices and weakling of food production, social stability and paralysis of
the socio-political landscape.
Corporate colonization and
fragmentation of the society and its economic fortune is marked by two
diametrically opposed forces streaming from democratization process and
societal metabolism. The current situation if unresolved has the potential to
deplete the already threatened economies, climate of social relation and the
environmental quality.
To reverse the trends and
refocus government to the legitimate responsibility of administration of state
matters, a re-orientation, re-culturerization and re-awakening of a conscious
paradigm is inescapably essential. This paradigm shift will grant equal right
to market mechanism to regulate, control and determine economic processes. The
role of government shall be limited to quality control, benchmarking and
provision of supporting infrastructure and policy framework.
Freedom from government
intervention will enable the economic sector to operate maximally and optimally
to engender new investment and participation devoid of the prevailing down-turns.
The future of global economic safe-net will depend on market capacity to
mastermind the operation of economic processes, industrial production and
investment regulations by utilizing eco-friendly, people-centered framework and
basic profit principles. The 3-bottom-line objectives of integrating
people, planet and profit are mutually addressable and complementing in a
free-market situation as it evolves in our traditional practice.
Government subordination of
the economic system nullifies the efficacy, efficiency and resilience of our
culturally sustained operation of the sub-sector. Before the oil collapse,
evidence of intervention suffocated crude oil business leading to serious
abuses in pricing, marketing and sales of the product locally and
internationally to which the country lost financially and suffered undue
misappropriation, exploitation and mismanagement in the down-stream sector. The
prodigy of losses are still manifest in the main-stream sector, where entrepreneurs
are criminalized for processing crude oil locally to save foreign exchange
and huge investments on refineries.
It is a common tenet that
stifling the equal participation of local contents in the specific crude oil
refinery has culminated to vandalism, destruction and diversion of the product
at both the local and national level.
Local refineries have the
capacity to refine crude at a relatively cheaper price and optimal level of
production, which can boost employment and reduce poverty, insecurity and
crime. As a national strategy to boost the economy, government needs to
reposition its policies to encourage all stakeholders to play viable roles
aimed at reducing cost and increasing productivity in all sectors of the
economy.
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