Western powers are at it again. Taking advantage of Africa's impoverished state to impose a culture upon us. The same sex marriage matter has been rumbling for a few years and of late it has become an uproar with the Senate passing a bill to outlaw same-sex marriage in Nigeria. The Bill still has to pass through the House of Representatives.The US and Britain have gone ballistic. The latter in particular through Prime Minister Cameron, has gone to exploit a weak spot and tie UK aid to same-sex marriages. In the US, according to a New York Times report, "The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that the United States would use all the tools of American diplomacy, including the potent enticement of foreign aid, to promote gay rights around the world."Broken Britain (their words) wants to withold aid unless African countries fall in line. US on its part will invoke all the tools of diplomacy at its disposal. This can't be right! But it's hardly their fault. Past leaders have bungled the economy to the point of near-death of social services, crumbling infrastructure. This prompted a rash of interventions from foreign countries in terms of aid packages, grants, loans, counterpart funding and other kinds of financial intervention. They are all tied to one western-driven policy or the other and hamstrung African countries have little choice but to comply. Some policies have long-term damage and have promoted a dependency culture that is still in place today in many African societies. Development practitioners argue that the food aid programmes have damaged local agriculture in the countries in which they are being dumped. Food programmes have their place but not to the extent of squeezing out local producers.The west is known for pushing its interests with every muscle it has. All its shuttle diplomacy is about promoting the interests of the western powers. A peep back into 19th Century history shows western nations scrambling for Africa, partitioning her and imposing foreign culture and ways of life. The natives had no option but to follow. Languages, dress became infused into the local cultures. As a result rich African civilisations were saturated with western lifestyles. This has persisted till today and we are all victims of it. Recent reports of concern by traditionalists that our children don't speak local languages and dialects, should worry us. Africans need to get smart; take what we want and trash what we don't want. We don't have to throw away our rich cultural values for a few dollars Ghana has reportedly asked the British to hold on to its aid. This is the 21st Century and the Brits are not dealing with uneducated natives but well- read and knowledgeable Africans who must resist the latest ploy of imposition.In truth, the British and Americans' threat to resort to imposition diplomacy via witholding aid should be a wake-up call to aid-dependency African countries. Strong leadership and institutions are what are required to drive the right socio-political and economic values; shunning corruption and enthroning transparency and accountability. African States that boldly take decisions concerning same-sex relationships, must brace up for the drying up of aid; and they must begin to look inwards for self-development and self-sustainability. They can explore new friends and markets in Asia, not for alternative sources of aid programmes. It is time for trade partnerships within and outside the Continent. Concretely, we need to invest in agriculture, export value-added agri-products, expand local manufacturing and build mutually-beneficial trade partnerships etc. The more we operate supine economies and useless policies that encourage aid-dependency , the more we'll wait on the west.In any case, Africa needs trade not aid is a philosophy being promoted by development practitioners such as Ms Dambisa Moyo. In her book titled 'Dead Aid', Moyo writes 'we live in a culture of aid. We live in a culture in which those who are better off subscribe - both mentally and financially - to the notion that giving alms to the poor is the right thing to do." Further on in the book, she describes aid as "the single worst decision of modern developmental politics, the choice of aid as the optimum solution to the problem of Africa's poverty'.
Click here to read full news..
