Copy, not agonize over, China

In February, she advocated “a total boycott of Chinese goods and services because of their alleged gross, officially-sanctioned abuse of human rights.” Last Saturday, 16th May, she revisited China theme with categorical NO to the call of the HRH Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano, on the Chinese to increase their investment in Nigeria […]

In February, she advocated “a total boycott of Chinese goods and services because of their alleged gross, officially-sanctioned abuse of human rights.” Last Saturday, 16th May, she revisited China theme with categorical NO to the call of the HRH Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano, on the Chinese to increase their investment in Nigeria when the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Gu Xiaojie came calling at the Emir’s palace. I fully share her concerns that it is time we linked investment to human rights. She rightly singled out the violation of Muslims’ rights in China. But violation of rights in China also includes trade union and workers’ rights. In China independent trade unions are not allowed, contrary to ILO conventions. Indeed, one factor that confers China comparative advantage on Chinese goods and services is relative low wage made possible by “slave labour” without the right to minimum wage and above all unionization.  Low wage means lower cost (and lower quality) of production. Like Aisha, yours comradely had written about China in my reflections more than three times.  Indeed, the challenge of coming to terms with China is global. Development observers agree that there are three global development challenges in the new millennium. One is China, second is China and third is China. My take is that we should neither agonize over China nor romanticize China. We should rather copy China. Why should the Chinese make for us “prayer carpets”, “the long Muslim attires” and “even our prayer beads”, among other things), when we can as well produce them too, like China, worship Allah, create jobs for our people and replace poverty with prosperity? No country has recorded remarkable rapid economic ascendancy in the past 25 years like China. With 1.5 billion population and consistent average 10% growth rate in the past 3 decades, China has shown that huge quality human resource are indeed an asset and not a liability. China shows that development process is NOT a zero-sum game in which growth is traded off for jobs and in which few are well-having and many lack basic wellbeing. China shows that the issue is not extractive resources (China is not an OPEC member) but value additions and manufacturing (China has more functioning oil refineries than Nigeria!). China shows that growing the GDP does not mean pushing mass of people into the margins of mass poverty like Madam Ngozi’s rebased GDP has done, with insignificant job content. On the contrary, China is perhaps the only country since the Great Industrial Revolution that has combined consistent aggressive industrialisation drive with high growth rate side by side with full employment. China makes nonsense of neo-liberal/ textbook received wisdom about jobless growth. We can indeed have job-led growth; China proves that. China has shown that addressing production issues is not mutually exclusive from confronting poverty and coming to terms with distributional issues. While many sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, have pushed millions into poverty due to IMF-inspired “reform” process (SAP), China is the only country that has recorded the largest reduction in poverty in history in recent times. Indeed, it has lifted as many as 250 million people (twice the population of Nigeria!) out of poverty. In international trade, China’s goods and services rule the world such that the new America’s Cold War with China is about articles of trade rather than weapons of war.
Beg not, China but copy China! Notwithstanding development gap, Nigeria has a lot in common with China and indeed could be another China, just as China used to be like Nigeria only a few decades ago. Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa, just as China is most populous country in Asia as well as in the world. In development parlance, we are talking of two largest markets in the world. But while China is one huge working and productive house, Nigeria is yet to be unbundled to realise its potentials as it is weighed down by consumption and idle capacity.
Paradoxically, the two countries are undergoing reforms. But while China’s reforms are delivering on promises, Nigeria’s reforms are far from the expectations. This is where Nigeria can creatively copy China. Yours sincerely recommends for President elect-General Muhammend Buhari just (as I did for late Yar’ Adua back then) Joseph Stieglitz’s book: Globalization and Its Discontents, (in particular chapter 7). President-elect Bhuhari should appreciate how China’s reform has delivered prosperity, compared to how Russia’s reform (read: Nigeria) has promoted despair. Stieglitz, the Nobel Prize Economics Laureate, shows that the strength of China lies in its home-grown policy initiatives. China, just like Poland, ignored the so-called Washington Consensus (devaluation, uncritical privatization, trade liberalization, removal of subsidy, etc) as promoted by IMF and the World Bank and went for creative alternative local policies that reflect national priorities. China employs “gradualist approach” to reforms compared to “shock therapy approach” of Russia which uncritically privatised public enterprises without addressing fundamental issues of goods and services delivery. China built democratic mass support for reform agenda, not through election riggings, political thuggery and mass unemployment as in Nigeria OBJ’s era. On the contrary, China shows that stability, political unity of purpose and common wealth (as distinct from private aggrandisement and corruption) are indispensable to reform agenda.  China also has negative (not just zero) tolerance to corruption (it engenders capital punishment in many instances). Lastly, the point cannot be overstated that China appreciates the imperatives of labour-intensive industries for a populous nation. Nigeria is boastful with enclave sectors like telecoms, banks and oil and gas; but the labour absorption therein is insignificant. On the contrary, China holds on to textile and agriculture where millions are employed. What is good for China is good for Nigeria; macroeconomic stability and protection of domestic market.  The issue is not to be romantic with China but to be strategic with China just as China has been strategic in its dealings with Africa.