Intellectual Neo-colonialism and Nigerian Politics: The Chatham House in Britain.

By Professor Toba Alabi.

One of the most outstanding authorities on the Western capitalist imperialism in relation to the crisis of development in Africa is Walter Rodney. In his epic work titled 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa', he analysed the genesis, dimension and effects of the European exploitation of Africa. The African contact with Europe started in 1444 AD and since this period, Africa has consistently been oppressed by Europe in various ways.

These oppressive tendencies have taken various forms and dimensions. Africa lost millions of its citizens to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Millions of them are currently in Europe, North America and South America as second-class citizens as a result of the legacy of the slave trade. In addition to this, the mineral resources of the continent were looted by the colonial powers for the development of their own countries. The distortion that attended direct colonialism in Africa are monumental. The worldview and the way of life of the people were terribly manipulated in such a manner that anything that comes from the continent is inferior while anything from outside is considered acceptable. This international demonstration effect of colonialism is such that it has left the continent groping in the void of self rediscovery. European colonialism has made Africa to be an economic appendage to their continent. Its economic activities are tailored to feed and service Europe. The continent has become largely primary products producers and what they mainly do now is to export their primary produce at ridiculous prices to the Europeans who will process them into finished goods and send them back to them at exorbitant prices. This is a double jeopardy of some sort. This is one of the reasons that Europe continues to develop while Africa remains underdeveloped. The foundation of their economic development has been seriously weakened within the International economic relations. In a more fundamental way, the mental colonization of the African continent continues unabated. Their educational curricula, what they learn and study are mostly copied from the Western world. Their scholarship has been made to take a second-class position because of inherent contradictions in the syllabi received from the West which in actual fact are of no relevance to the objective reality within the continent.

Knowledge should be context-specific. It is intrinsically problem solving. Any form of knowledge or education that is bereft of addressing peculiar realities and problems  in any society could hardly be described as being useful. For over sixty years that most African countries have been independent from the European colonization, most of them still rely on the continent and other Western countries for their  educational and technological advancement.

Most of the scientific and technological breakthroughs and inventions usually come from the West. The African continent has consistently remained a consumer continent. This however is not unconnected with the educational crisis occasioned by economic backwardness, decayed infrastructure and unpatriotic leadership. The United Nations prescribed that each country is expected to spend at least twenty six per cent of his budget on education. While many Western nations spend over and above this threshold, most African countries hardly spend up to ten per cent on this critical sector. This has therefore deepened educational backwardness and poverty of the mind in most of these countries. Educational advancement has always been an instrument of national development and it is axiomatic to submit that no nation can develop without significant investment in the education of his people. But sadly, Africa is not yet ready for the development of this critical sector of its continental life. It is within this context therefore that most African leaders and perhaps their followers always view whatever comes from Africa as of low standard while whatever comes from the West and outside is usually celebrated.

The poverty of the mind in Africa could be attributed to two factors. The first is selfish leadership which thinks of nothing else apart from personal self-aggrandizement and the looting of the national treasury. When  national resources are embezzled and mismanaged, there could be little or nothing left for educational development and this is one of the reasons why funding of education has remained problematic in many African countries, including Nigeria. In 2022 the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria went on strike for eight long months leaving the students to comb the streets and going into crime and other unwholesome activities. When a nation does not ascribe any serious importance to its education how could it expect to develop? This is exactly the situation in Nigeria and in many African countries today. There is no way things will ever change unless these criminally minded leadership is made to realise that being in power is holding it in trust for the people. Power cannot be used for the fulfillment of selfish lust and personal development at the expense of the nation.

The mental colonization of Africa is also vividly manifested at the level of economic policy of the continent. Most of the economic policies initiated and implemented in the continent in the past fifty years have been formulated in the West and by their international financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank. And to be sure, the development of the West and that of Africa is inversely related. Simultaneous development of the West and Africa is almost impossible. Africa and other Third World continents are the sources of raw materials and market for the West. The moment Africa becomes industrialized and starts producing cars, electronics and aircrafts, the Western companies like Ford, Mercedes, Sony Electronics and Boeing will start to nose dive in terms of profit and turn over. How then could the West and its financial institutions be expected to fashion a pragmatic economic blueprint that would be negative and injurious to their own economic development. This is paradoxical and Oxymoronic.

Right from the 1960s, the economic development plans from the West for the Third World have met with repeated failures. At the initial stage, they foisted on Africa a dependent development process in which their industries would rely on the West for critical inputs and raw materials for their individual growth. And within a very short time these industries folded up with the concomitant increase in unemployment and poverty. This was followed by the structural adjustment programme (SAP) that led to the devaluation of currencies in Africa, removal of subsidies, trade liberalization that opened the economy of the continent to dumping of goods that killed local industries and privitasation of government parastatals that increased the rate of unemployment in the continent. On all counts, neo-liberalism extended the frontiers of poverty within the continent. And this will continue to be the case until Africa is able to free itself from the yoke of mental slavery that West has imposed on it.

The situation even goes beyond the economic sphere to include the scientific and technological realm. While most of the Western countries are in the North and Western hemisphere, the developing countries are largely in the South and tropics. Hence, in terms of medicine, agriculture, marine biology and microbiology, environmental and energy research, the breakthroughs in the North might not be adaptable in the South. Hence, there is a need for the science and technology in Africa to be tailored towards solving the unique challenges facing the continent.

With specific reference to the Royal Institute of International Affairs which is otherwise known as the Chatham House, that has virtually become an Intellectual sanctuary for many of the Nigerian politicians, one could submit that the whole situation could be described as mental neo-colonialism in which the Nigerian leaders want to be in the good book of the West by going there to sell their manifestoes ( that is if they have any) to the West in the hope that they will help to bring FDI to the country. The whole concept is at best delusional. The West in the past five hundred years has hardly helped any Third World country to develop. Rather, it has been an agent of underdevelopment to these countries. And with the  huge economic crisis that Europe is currently facing, it would be absurd to think that they could come to the aid of any African country in terms of development. In concrete terms, what has Nigeria benefitted from Britain in the past twenty years? Very negligible. So going to London in the hope that if the West gives your political plans an approval, the rest will be uhuru might not be in touch with reality.

But then, what is the Chatham House about? Chatham House research is structured around five thematic programmes, comprising: environment and society; global economy and finance; global health security; international law; and international security; as well as six regional programmes, covering Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Russia and Eurasia, and the US and Americas. Chatham House also contains the Sustainability Accelerator (formerly Hoffmann Centre for Sustainable Resource Economy), which focuses on the political economy of resource production and consumption.

From the above, it is clear that there are many local think tanks that could serve as platforms for the articulation of political programmes by the politicians from which they could touch the world. The Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies and the Centre for Democracy and Development are some of the think tanks that could be employed for debates, articulation of manifestos and programmes and paper presentation on political issues that could help to deepen democracy in the country.

But then, most of the politicians that rush to the Chatham House do not have clear cut ideology and programmes that they want to implement if elected as president. And a critical look at  what they project as programmes are hardly different from each other and worse still, they hardly tell their audiences the step by step approach they want to take to bring their plans into fruition. Hence, the foray of many Nigerian politicians to the Chatham House is nothing but a waste of resources and a vivid demonstration of the neo-mental colonialism that the country is yet to get rid off after over six decades of political independence.

Toba Alabi is Professor of Political Science and Defence Studies. (08036787582)

Written on 29 January, 2023.