Problems can be solved if African countries work together and remain focused – just as routs of Boko Haram have shown, writes Victor Kgomoeswana.
Johannesburg - Although it ended last Saturday, I spent the week reading the reflections on the tough work of the AU summit in Addis Ababa. We need institutions, and the AU made several encouraging pronouncements. These include those on the megaprojects to take the continent forward, such as the Grand Inga hydropower project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the railway network initiative to facilitate movement and trade.
The commitment to ending child marriages and other forms of the subjugation of women strikes the right chord, if only the Afro-optimist in me could be spared the realistic admission that it might be just a pronouncement, coming nearly 300 days after the kidnapping of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram – a grim reminder that Africa’s bullish march to its economic rebirth remains in peril. In spite of the international outcry, there has been no breakthrough in the search for the girls.
However, it was the coincidence of the conclusion of the AU summit on January 31 and the repulsion of Boko Haram attacks a day later in Maiduguri that reminded me how wide the gap is between intent and action – or how a solution is within reach if we can be focused.
AU – should I entertain hopes of an effective resolution of the Boko Haram threat?
The attack on the capital of Borno State, Maiduguri, was neutralised as heads of states were leaving Addis Ababa. It became evident that the members of the Economic Community of West African States, with more co-ordinated action, might win in the end. And so they should, sooner rather than later.
Because violence in a border area creates complications for neighbouring states, Chad had to get involved. The Chadian soldiers are said to have recaptured the Nigerian border towns of Gamboru, Ngala and Malam Fatori.
Back in Nigeria, a woman suicide bomber found her way to a stadium in the neighbouring city of Gombe on Monday. This was just after the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, had attended an election rally to gobble up votes from the north in preparing for his showdown with former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari in the February 14 elections.
The suicide bomber set a car ablaze, killing one other person and wounding 18. Nobody has claimed responsibility, but in this part of Nigeria everything of this nature almost always spells Boko Haram.
To demonstrate how election business carries on as usual in Nigeria, other government officials were trading blows over other matters. For example, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was warding off former Central Bank governor Professor Charles Soludo’s accusations of mismanaging the economy.
However, back to the point about efforts at regional collaboration to subdue Boko Haram. I saw an encouraging report about Fotocol, a Nigerian town on the border with Cameroon. The town is the base from which the Multinational Joint Task Force – a coalition of forces from Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon – co-ordinates its onslaught against Boko Haram.
Not without casualties of its own, the task force is reported to have had assistance from South African contractors – emphasising the importance of the need for regional collaboration led by West Africans and backed by the rest of Africa.
The task force, if the AU has its way, would end up as a 7 500-strong multinational force. Hurry, please, AU – not only in acting against Boko Haram, but in supporting solutions in Burkina Faso, Somalia, the DRC, Libya and Sudan. The last of these brings us to another stubborn stain on what could be a prosperous greater East African economic bloc.
South Sudan – what’s the deal?
Seventy-five percent of the oil produced in what used to be Sudan is from what is now South Sudan. Essentially, Africa’s youngest state could be one of the richest countries if the leadership held things together and stabilised its relationship with Khartoum.
Since the gaining of independence in July 2011, the promise of South Sudan becoming a vibrant oil-producing economy has been marred by disputes with Khartoum over oil transit fees and the control of the Abyei region. At one point, Khartoum wanted to charge what Juba said were extortionist transit fees for the oil extracted in South Sudan and carried by pipeline across Sudan. This was resolved.
The bigger problem for South Sudan since December 2013 has been internal.
I recall reading, with horror back then, that President Salva Kiir had fired his entire cabinet, including his deputy president, Riek Machar, whom he accused of planning a coup.
The bitter taste for me was that I had met Machar not long before to discuss an investment opportunity, and I had thought he was the most enthusiastic campaigner for investment in the country. He asked me if I was just another South African visiting his country to ask questions about investing, and not following up, or if I was serious. The country had all the potential – but what did I know about what lay beneath this?
Now, after haggling over many issues and deadly fighting between their supporters, Kiir and Machar have signed what has been described as a symbolic power-sharing agreement. There are commitments to further negotiations on a number of issues.
At the heart of the agreement is the decision to go back to where things were when I visited Juba in 2013 before the fallout. Kiir will remain president, and Machar will go back to his former job as deputy.
I felt downhearted, but then remembered that a return to what used to be was probably better than the continuation of bloodshed and economic stagnation.
Should everything in Africa take so long and so much fighting? That is the price we pay for the decisions of our ancestors, colonial exploitation, and the lack of urgency and focus of some leaders. It is the reason why we must support the AU in becoming a stronger force for African unity and prosperity.
The chairwoman of the AU Commission, fellow South African Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, put it more potently in Addis Ababa: “While the rest of the world has the luxury to choose to stay where they are or move east, west, south or north, Africa has neither the time nor the choice: we must move in one direction – and that is forward and upwards!”
Forward to Agenda 2063! And the one reason I remain bullish – in the week of my bemused reflection on the AU summit in the light of the conflict in some of the key African countries – comes from the next story.
Toast of the week – initial public offering activity is up in Africa!
I had a chat with Coenraad Richardson, capital markets partner at PWC South Africa, on my radio show on Thursday. The brief interview, about a report by this professional services firm on the higher level of initial public offerings (IPOs) being made in Africa, almost instantly restored my faith in the continent’s growth story. Find the report, IPO Watch Africa 2014, if you can.
It found that African markets registered their strongest growth last year and that this would probably continue this year. About $11bn (about R125bn) was raised last year in equity markets across Africa. This, Richardson told me, was nearly the same as the combined amount raised in the two preceding years.
Last year, the volume of offers rose by 40 percent and the capital raised by 100 percent. Even more encouraging was that Joburg listings accounted for only 32 percent of the IPO capital raised in 2013 and for 44 percent last year – a notable departure from the JSE’s prominent position before. This means the action is becoming more equitably distributed across the continent.
Initial public offerings are one of the best indicators of confidence in an economy. Although equity investors buy shares in a company, not the economy in which that company operates, they would hardly buy into companies listed in a country they did not absolutely trust. If greater Africa is commanding more IPO action, perhaps this is a reminder that the future looks bright, however despondent Boko Haram or other crises make us feel.
The African neighbourhood squabble everyone should like
When the Ivory Coast and Ghana square up for the ultimate glory of being crowned the champions of African soccer in Equatorial Guinea today, they will be showcasing one of the most attractive tussles for superiority. This is the one fight between African neighbours I do not think anyone will mind cheering.
The two countries share a border – and a lot more. Of most relevance to my Afro-optimistic economic narrative is their status as the top producers of cocoa. Along with the world’s fourth-largest producer of this agricultural commodity, Ivory Coast and Ghana ensure that Africa has three of the top four cocoa producers in the world.
Whoever wins the soccer, my more enduring wish is for these two West African giants to go home and call in Nigeria to discuss how they can set up the world’s biggest chocolate factory instead of exporting cocoa beans to countries like Switzerland known for their chocolate.
The AU summit called for value-adding and the beneficiation of Africa’s resources. Cocoa farmworkers earn a lot less than chocolate manufacturing would add to the fiscal base of West Africa.
May the best team win the Africa Cup of Nations 2015 trophy; and may the best combination of cocoa producers forge a strong agro-processing alliance!
Lest we forget: snippets of African history and icons for inspiration
Mozambique has celebrated its Heroes’ Day, Sao Tome and Principe its Martyrs’ Day, and Angola its Liberation Day. All are former colonies of Portugal.
Heroes’ Day and Martyrs’ Day, both on February 5, commemorate the fallen heroes of Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe’s struggles for independence. Perhaps the most celebrated of these heroes in Mozambique is Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, a graduate of Harvard and the University of the Witwatersrand, among others.
Born on June 20, 1920, this anthropologist and historian was the founding president of Frelimo, the Mozambican Liberation Front, from 1962 until he was killed by a bomb planted in a book at the organisation’s headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on February 3, 1969.
* Kgomoeswana is author of Africa is Open for Business, anchor of CNBC Africa’s weekly show Africa Business News, and anchor of daily show Power Hour on PowerFM. He writes in his personal capacity.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
The Sunday Independent