Eminent Africans, including the Vice President of the World Bank for Africa, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, have called on countries on the continent to deliver good governance, which they described as the key to economic growth.
At this year's dinner of the Nigerian Lawyers' Association (NLA) in New York, United States (U.S.) at the weekend, Ezekwesili and many others said Nigeria and African continent in general are the next destination of massive investment flow.
According to them, Africans at home and abroad should be ready to make the continent's renaissance a reality.
Other dignitaries who attended the event, which was also for the presentation of this year's merit award to Dr. Ezekwesili and another Nigerian, Kase Lawal, include the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Michael Aondooaka, who appealed to become a member of the group.
Ezekwesili said she was asked to take the place of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu. The advertised keynote speaker at the event on Saturday at Crowne Plaza Hotel in the heart of Manhattan, New York, said Africa's moment has come, disclosing that one-third of Africans today live in countries that have recently recorded a 5.5 per cent growth increase.
According to Ezekwesili, "one out of every four Africans is a Nigerian, meaning Nigeria holds a lot of responsibilities. We use to say, if Nigeria misses the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), then the continent has difficulties reaching them." She stressed the need for good governance, especially the anti-corruption complement.
Reeling out some statistics, the Vice President of the World Bank for Africa said one-third of Africans now live in countries where there is at least 5.5 per cent economic growth, including Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Botswana.
She noted that another one-third of Africans live in countries, including Nigeria, that have extractive industries with minerals of all kinds, growing economically about eight per cent.
But she warned that the kind of growth in the mineral producing countries like Nigeria is not one that can bring sustainable development, except it is underpinned by good governance. She cited the example of Guinea where she said progress in good governance has taken the economic growth as far as 27 per cent.
While conceding that there is progress in Africa in the area of good governance, through anti-corruption efforts, she argued that anti-graft crusade should not be seen as a role for the government alone.
"Good governance is much more than government's role but (it includes) all that form the bedrock of how a society can organise its activities in a predictable way," according to the former Nigeria's Education Minister.
On corruption in African countries, the World Bank official said there is a supply and demand side to the menace on a global scale since what she called "bribe-exporting countries" take the stolen loot to developed countries. According to her, it was discovered by the Transparency International that "majority of the OECD countries are the bribe-takers when we took an index."
From Laolu Akande, New York
The Guardian
Tuesday, Spetember 18, 2007
