Opinions of Monday, 9 February 2015

Auteur: The Post Newspaper

'Africans should independently solve their economic problems'

African countries have been advised to use their independence to solve their economic problems.

The advice is the kernel of a book authored by Dr. Ta-MbiNkongho of the University of Buea, UB.

“A book is a very important instrument for the promotion of our culture. The only way we can keep our culture alive is to document it; unfortunately we are in a period when the reading culture is dying,” the representative of the Vice Chancellor of UB, Prof. George EtahFonkeng noted during the launching of the book at UB on January 30.

The 263-page book, titled, “A Critical Analysis of State Transformation through Privatisation,” explains the state of crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa and the manner in which the African continent is manipulated by certain international financial institutions like the World Bank.

Dr. Nkongho, in his book, encouraged policy makers to look for regional solutions to solve economic problems faced in Africa.

He urged African countries to avoid looking for solutions outside the continent, because, they will be misled. He argues that when the economic crisis hit Africa in the 80s and 90s, international financial institutions brought out wrong diagnosis as well as wrong solutions to the problem.

Nkongho observes in the book that most African countries still find it difficult to come out of this crisis till date.

“This book provides the diagnosis of the problems that are facing African countries of which policy makers; if they understand this problem, can be able to utilise the book in finding solutions on how they can solve the problem, not solely relying on the fact that people from outside should tell them what to do because this would mislead them.”

According to him, the Western World posses problems to the African continent rather than help them in the promotion of their ideas.

“They are a problem because what they are doing is in their interest. They come here to provide solutions to solve problems; it is not as if they are solving the problems, they are instead solving their own problems so they always see how they can solve their own internal problems,” Nkongho averred.

“They come... to look for raw materials and to open up the economy to them, because, what they are doing is to roll back the state; the state in Africa shouldn’t be powerful enough to challenge their interference in our borders,” said Nkongho.

The book was reviewed by Dr.Timothy Mbuagbor and Etuge Wang who disclosed that Cameroon cannot be an emergent economy in 2035, if there are no critical minds to address false dogma planted in Cameroon and Africa at large.