Africa’s long-standing dependence on foreign aid remains one of the continent’s most significant weaknesses, hindering true independence and self-sufficiency. It’s disheartening that even though Nigeria is called the giant of Africa, it is dependent in certain sectors.
This was evident in President Bola Tinubu’s recent provision of N700 billion to cover President Donald Trump’s halt of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, over allegations of widespread corruption, waste, and abuse.
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Nigeria has been supported with millions of dollars for her democracy. For example, the European Union funded the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, summing up to 39 million euros. As a result, the EU also sent distinguished representatives, which spent about four months that damned Professor Mahmood Yakubu’s INEC report.
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Aid dependency was addressed in January during the Financial Times’ Global Risk Roundtable at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. The Vice President, Kashim Shettima, represented Nigeria at the Roundtable.
He criticized African countries’ “bowl in hand” syndrome in their relationship with advanced offshore powers, saying sovereign nations should carry their poverty with dignity rather than depend on foreign aid.
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He said that Africa, most endowed with natural resources and a vibrant, youthful population, has no business depending on foreign aid. He also called for equal partnership between nations rather than a master-servant relationship.
“It must be stressed that a sovereign country receiving aid betrays its independence and sovereignty unless it is in crisis or war. Nearly 65 years after independence, why should Nigeria still receive foreign donations to support our democracy? It also gives the donors the legitimacy to come and mark our election scripts, which we have no power to do concerning their elections, “he said.
According to him, it was Nigeria’s dependency that gave the Barack Obama regime the temerity to interfere in our elections in 2015. He said that foreign powers have camouflaged under aid provision to flood the North-East (especially Borno State) with their agents to sustain insurgency and terrorism in Nigeria.
“African leaders have betrayed and devalued the continent through aid dependency, and this must stop. The worst part is that most of the aid ends in private pockets. It greases the wheel of indolence and corruption, leaving the continent vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by the major powers.
Nigeria’s Federal and state governments must go beyond Vice President Shettima’s admission of the shame of aid dependency and end foreign aid involvement—enough of the self-abasement.
Africa must reclaim its dignity, chart its course, and set an example. Only then can the continent truly stand as an independent force on the global stage.