COVID: 19: Sino-Africa relations, lest we forget
The late Professor Claude Ake of University of PortHarcourt (Uniport) was a great African political economist who died in that singular tragic ADC airline disaster of November 1997. I was his privileged student at the School of Social Sciences, where I read Economics (1982- 1985) following our whimsical mass expulsion from Ango Abdullahi- led ABU […]
The late Professor Claude Ake of University of PortHarcourt (Uniport) was a great African political economist who died in that singular tragic ADC airline disaster of November 1997. I was his privileged student at the School of Social Sciences, where I read Economics (1982- 1985) following our whimsical mass expulsion from Ango Abdullahi- led ABU in 1981.
It would certainly not be an exaggeration to say political economy (as a tool for explaining socio-economic dynamics of Africa) ‘died’ with the demise of the great political economist himself: Claude Ake (and some of the compatriots mentioned above). Just think about! At times like this just imagine the robust intervention of Claude Ake on the unipolar narratives (read: monologue) on COVID:19 pandemic. Africa is shamelessly at the receiving ends of received policy prescriptions, grants and handouts with familiar boring sound bites: lock downs, imported masks and ventilators dumped at the continent by the World Health Organisation (WHO), EU, United States, China, IMF and World Bank?
After search in vain, there is no clear cut programme on pandemics by all African ruling and opposition political parties (almost 1000 political parties without development agenda) in a continent of epidemics. Claude Ake long warned Africa and Africans against what he called crowded agendas in his book Democracy and Development in Africa (1996). Earlier, Claude wrote about “revolutionary pressures in Africa” (1978) before apartheid was dismantled in 1994, well before the wave of democratisation that swept away one person/ military/ one party rule in Africa and Arabs’ springs of 2012. He would have warned today about a lockdown without guaranteed incomes especially for the rural farmers and the poorest of the poor in informal sectors of Africa.
In place he would have recommended “smart” lockdown and insisted that lives and livelihoods are two sides of the coin of life! U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, had warned that the world faces the most challenging economic crisis since World War II, as a result of COVID: 19 pandemic which “threatens people in every country.” Really? What would have been the reactions of late Dr Bala Usman to this top-down historiography? Whose world war11? European war or African or Asian wars? Between 2014 and 2016, West Africa recorded the largest Ebola out- break (war indeed) in history.
Two and a half years after the first case was discovered, the outbreak ended with more than 28,600 cases and 11,325 deaths majorly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Seven people were infected and cared in the United States after they were reportedly exposed to the virus in West Africa. Six of the American patients recovered-while one died. I bet that late Dr Bala Usman and Dr Mahmud Tukur would have asked: why would Ebola which killed thousands in Africa be classified as epidemic while Coronavirus (also thousands killer) a pandemic? If COVID:19 ushered in recession and depression, what about the impact of Ebola on Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and DRC Congo?
Why would IMF and World Bank open their safes to selectively bail out the poor countries just because the rich are also dying of COVID:19? Must Africa wait for Europe and America to face afflictions before they deserve debt relief and debt cancellations? Since the tragic deaths of radical African scholars, Africa has undoubtedly lost enthusiastic spokesmen and intellectual advocates.
I can hardly add anything to “The World Will Not Be Destroyed By Fire Or Virus, By Owei Lakemfa in Premium Times of 11th April. As a snob like me, Owei did justice to the snobbery of the leadership the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) which in an embarrassing statement advised government against approving the Fifth Generation Mobile Technology (5G), claiming it is dangerous and linked to the outbreak of COVID-19. The NUJ also reportedly rejected the invitation of Chinese doctors in order to avoid: “…a situation where Nigerians will be used as a Guinea pig for any experiment.” Haba!
Some continents do have those peddling ignorance as a trade, again at times like this when global knowledge driven solidarity is needed to confront the most opportunistic virus in history; COVID: 19. Thanks to the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) which promptly dismissed the rising claims and conspiracy theory linking the new 5G network with COVID 19 outbreak. The Director of the centre, Idayat Hassan puts it better: “5G does not cause COVID-19. There are two types of 5G: ‘sub-6 GHz’, whose wavelengths are under 6 GHz, and ‘millimeter wave’, whose frequencies are above 24 GHz. The sub-6 GHz signals are not exclusive to 5G; 4G networks, Wi-Fi and microwaves all operate using sub-6 GHz signals. Conspiracy theorists point to the launch of 5G networks around the same time as the discovery of the first case in China as proof of the relationship. However, the 5G China installed is the sub-6 GHz type. In other words, your microwave hasn’t given you coronavirus in all your years of use, neither will 5G networks,”
The controversies which trail the offer of support from China and the uproar over alleged racism against Africans in China in the current fight against the rampaging COVID-19 are clearly unhelpful. What the nation needs is unity of purpose against the pandemic. The point cannot be overstated that SINO-Africa relations predated COVID-19 and will certainly outlive it. Still on Claude Ake, I recall with nostalgia his one-man intellectual guerrilla war against Eurocentric narratives against China and Africa. It was during the historic international conference on Rethinking Emancipation Concepts in 1991 by the prestigious International Institute of Social Studies, ISS, The Hague, Netherlands, where I did my masters degree in the 90s.
Africa and, indeed, Asia had emerged at this historic conference as foot-notes in the evolution of emancipatory ideas and actions. In particular, Africa was presented as a burden with dubious distinction in senseless war, famine, under-development, poverty and disease. Ake’s intervention at this conference, albeit on the last day, offered a food for thought, for a largely Euro-centric menu packaged as international conference. He took exception to the prevailing myth that China was known to the world through the Tienammien-Square riots and the attendant Chinese authorities’ clampdown. In his characteristic lady-like soft voice that belied his ever-entrenched resolve, Claude insisted it was intellectual lip-service of Euro-centric bent that would ‘discover’ China through Tienammien-Square.
Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, has rightly identified the strains on relations with China on poor communications while urging the Chinese authorities to act on allegations of discriminations. Lest we forget, Africa-China relations is long dated. It is characterised by cooperation rather than confrontation. Just as Africa and China cooperatively put an end to colonialism, apartheid and contained Ebola, so also the two continents must unite to contain COVID-19 pandemic.