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Saturday, 26 January 2019

AFRICAN POLITICS VS UNDERDEVELOPMENT


Introduction
Through the middle of the 20th century, after about 5 centuries of colonialism, Africans began decolonizing themselves by gaining full political control of their government through protracted nationalism consciousness. Hence, the development of Africa, was flexing in the hands of Africans and no longer the Europeans who had exploited this region without significant or long range developments. As years pass and development in Africa still slows and decades upon successive decades only sees the region still stocked in the “third world economic zone”, while most of the resources it has, slips out of the third world economic zone, to be among the developed and even compete with other strong  European  economies, the worries  of the root underdevelopment became trend in the international  circus.
Abstract
Different scholars have attributed the underdevelopment of Africa  to colonialism  in the face of works like “how Europe underdeveloped Africa” by Walter Rodney, etc. while  other works like “How Africa underdeveloped Africa”, by Igwe who asserts that Africa’s underdevelopment is instigated by  African themselves. It is upon this contradictory literature about root of Africa’s underdevelopment that this work is carried out. This paper tends to make a comparative analysis of the root of Africa’s underdevelopment with a solution to this problem. It has made if not extensively at least categorically at the availability of materials a consult on various materials to suffice or cement this work.

UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
According to the United Nations definition, an undeveloped country is one which has a real per capita income that is lower in relation to the real per capita income of the U.S.A, Canada, Australia, and Western  Europe, emphasis  here is on the low income  level relative to the advanced countries  and lack of any perceptible success in making substantial improvement in quality  of life of the masses. In simple words, underdeveloped country is just another name by which a poor backward country is known            
In relation  of the above definition of underdevelopment, and in consideration of its ethnocentric definition of underdevelopment in comparison to European economies, Africa  laps behind because of it  poor real per capita income which  laps behind also its European counter parts.
The following are the means of underdevelopment in Africa;
High rate of population
          Low productivity combined with high rate of population is largely  responsible for low income and poor living standard. High growth rate of population means more people to be feed, clothed and provided other necessary goods year after year. In Africa population growth is higher than economic growth which does not help to maintain standard of living of the population.  The requirements of food, clothing, medicine, schooling, etc. all has put pressure on the poor economic of the continent thereby leading to high labour force, and this labor force creates a higher supply of labour than its demand leading to unemployment. Birth rate in the world is placed at 19.86% of the top ten countries are African countries with Niger republic coming first with 51.08% (Ekeh, 2013)      

High level of unemployment
        Unemployment levels are high in Africa due to lack of capital and low level of development in various economic sectors. Thus, countries have not been able to make use of their labor force due to increasing population and low level of economic development. Agriculture is the main economic stay in Africa and large number of laborers are employed in production than are really needed. Technological advancement in this angle is negligible as there is  no significant technological industries unlike the ones in Europe.

Poor Education
        African countries subjugate their educational budget to other irrelevant sectors. There is evidence of poor schools, poor teaching environment, low level of academic materials, inadequate man power and improper capital funding concerning education. Yet it is in this angle that you will see the visibility of embezzlement of funds by government bureaucrats.

Disease and malnutrition
        In Africa, the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, yellow fever, the wide spread of the recent Ebola disease and other tropical diseases can be found overwhelming in Africa.  The world’s infant mortality rate is placed at 44.13% of the last 9 countries African countries occupies this position (WHO, 2013).  

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA
The following factors both external and internal are responsible for the development of Africa.
Poor leadership of African countries seems to be  visionless towards the development of Africa. Their interest is “to pious materialistic  wooliness and self oriented pedestrianism” (Achebe, 1998). This leaders grow corrupt and siphoned money meant for public use in other to distribute social amenities proper, create opportunities, and fill all gaps of social necessities, and put them in their own private account for their own interest.
          The elite who are in possession of authority seems to be backward in their consciousness towards the living condition of the masses as they claim blind while favouritism, nepotism, Godfatherism, etc has formed the bases for appointment and employment.
Like other countries that have suffered colonialism (America, China, Japan, etc.), they were able to overcome this exploitation after independence by manufacturing good, selfless and productive  visionary ideas that  shaped  their continents in Africa, this leaders have rather been selfish without revolutionary ideas and anywhere they appeared one, chauvinism would destroy it.

References
Emeh, Ikechukwu Eke; Dependency theory and Africa’s underdevelopment: a paradigm shift from pseudo-intellectualism: the Nigerian perspective. International Journal of African and Asian Studies-an Open Access International; Journal Vol.          1; 2013.  


Gupta, Neha: (2018), Economic Development and Policy in India. School of Open Learning, University of Delhi India.


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