The following is an excerpt from an interview published by Dnevnik, Dnevnikov Objektiv newspaper on the subject Africa-Poverty of Wealth on 11.11.2006. The full interview which covers a broad spectrum of current issues in Africa will be published on the IREN Website (http://www.irenkenya.com/). Talking to Kristina Bozic, James Shikwati, the Director of Inter Region Economic Network (IREN), argues that Africans must look inward, solve their own problems, hold their governments accountable and shape their destiny.

You mentioned that people rely on government too much. In Africa, one gets the feeling that the problem lies in the non-working governments. It is a problem when governments do not collect taxes because they get aid from  outside and leaders are subsequently not responsible to their voters because their budget does not rely on their taxes, while people are also happy as they do not need to pay taxes from which they feel disconnected. It seems a magic circle?

People are not necessarily happy with the leaders for not collecting taxes. People are yet to fully realize that what they call government service is paid for by taxes or subsidies by international agencies. Where international agencies pay subsidies, governments get more disconnected from their own people and do not feel responsible. When the road is bad, you cannot blame anyone because you never paid anything for it to be good. This is why there is no sustainability.   

We need rich people, in order for the government to be healthy and rich. This will enable us reach a point where if the government fails to offer a service, it can be held on account. This is the current situation in Kenya. We have started to pay three shillings extra for each litre of fuel, to enable the government repair roads. Although motorists were not thrilled about it, they said:  “If the government will fix roads, we do not mind the tax because the money we spend repairing cars exceeds what we are paying now. We are headed in the right direction.”  

We are about to create a situation where if my car gets damaged for hitting a pot hole on the road, I will sue the government. The government must compensate me for I am paying it tax to fix the holes. If one started this case, there will be an avalanche of court cases that will consequently compel the government to be sensitive, offer services and be responsible. It will know that if it takes somebody’s money to repair the road, it has to do exactly that.  

Many African countries are yet to reach this stage. Roads are still being put up by the European Union (EU), China or the USA. Next to it they put huge billboards “This road was built by the EU” and everything looks good. But after three years, when the holes start to appear, the EU is nowhere to repair them.  The EU needs to be told that   we do not need roads but investments. Aid creates this disconnect. We need to tell the government where to get its revenue. That is why through some of our projects, we illustrate that it is important that the government learns to listen to its own people and work with its experts. We have many skilled  Kenyans, Ugandans and  South Africans among others – in Africa but whenever there is an issue, our governments call someone from abroad, who  tells them what the locals  would have said. If they would listen to the expertise of their own people, it would be easier for them to fix some of those problems in long term.

Aren’t these long term solutions combined with poverty Africa’s major problem? 

In my view, Africa has been subsidized to perpetuate the problem.  Poverty and the long term are not a big issue, because the two coincide. The long term is supposed to kick out poverty. Many African countries are fifty years old on average. If we had just gotten independence yesterday, we would require some time to solve these problems. But half a century later, there is no reason for any leader to ask for time. Despite the fact that we have received a lot of money, we still talk about the same problems we had fifty years ago. This means there is no good thinking.  

The Millennium Goals are promises that African leaders gave at independence, in a new dress. The method to achieve them is the same old one: let others come and fix it. The whole aid debate is about shutting down the concept of letting somebody else fix it, and promoting the fact that we are the ones to fix it. In this era of dominance, there are people who only strive for power. In debates between Americans and Chinese, Europeans are certainly feeling left out, as they do not want to be irrelevant in African issues. They are busy figuring out what to do to remain relevant. They are scared of a situation where Africa joining the club of those with economic might. If developed nations are genuine in their quest to help Africa, why are they spending millions to persuade Africans to accept aid?  Giving Africa money makes the continent remain where it is. Aid is like a drug that causes addiction. I have read accounts of the effects of welfare on black populations in the USA and seen many parallels in our situation.

And it probably makes people to forget problems in their homeland when they see greater problems their people face abroad? 

Politically this is true. In Africa, because we are portrayed poor, politicians can use food as a means to get to power. In rich countries, there are many examples in history of how leaders manipulate. Making a continent to be like a laboratory helps others to sustain themselves, because they can say: “If you think I am bad, go to Africa, it is worse.”  This is externalizing Africa’s problem and while this dimension exists, I would rather shy away from it and focus on Africans themselves.  

I would like to meet and talk to those who think that unless they get tons and tons of aid dollars, they will not go anywhere. If we externalize Africa’s problems, we will never get them solved. Africans will sit back and say: “If they messed us, let them fix it.” we share a bigger part of the responsibility.  If we have been messed, we allowed someone to mess us up. We should be able to say: “We take 80 per cent of the blame and leave the rest to them.”  This is a safer bargain than loading a bigger part of the  responsibility on others. It is true that we were colonized and enslaved but should we invest all our resources into asking for payment from the colonizer?  Or focus should first be on building ourselves, so that when we ask people to pay for what they did, they will be sure to pay it.

On one hand we are begging, while on the other we are saying that they enslaved us and must therefore pay.  Today, they come admitting to have enslaved us and want to build  roads. If we tell them that we do not need a road but a small factory, they say, that their priority is roads. We cannot bargain. We first need to build ourselves so that we can engage them. When you go to a shop, the shopkeeper does not see you as a beggar. He sees a customer, because you are going to choose and pay for what you want. If something is expired, you will not take it. This is what we want – that together with America, Europe and China, we are just another customer in a shop: confident and able to choose what we want. Everybody is happy and nobody feels left out. However, with the aid approach, Africa always goes as a baby on its knees, and is told to wait. It is humiliating!