INTRODUCTION

As an entity, the 16 nations that comprise the geographic region of West Africa is

among one of the poorest regions in the world in the 21st century, even though the region

is among the richest in the world in its stock of natural resources and raw and

underdeveloped human talent. The natural resources of Nigeria for example, include:

natural gas, petroleum, tin, iron ore, coal, limestone, niobium, lead, zinc and arable land;

in Liberia: iron ore, timber, diamonds, gold and hydropower; in Sierra Leone: diamonds,

titanium ore, bauxite, iron ore, gold, chromite; in Cote d'Ivoire: petroleum, natural gas,

diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica

sand, clay, cocoa beans, coffee, palm oil, hydropower; and in Niger: uranium, coal, iron

ore, tin, phosphates, gold, molybdenum, gypsum, salt, petroleum (Compiled from the

2005 CIA World Factbook). Liberia also has one of the largest rubber plantations in the

world.

According to modernization theories, internal factors in the countries, such as

illiteracy, traditional agrarian structure, the traditional attitude of the population, the low

division of labour, the lack of communication and infrastructure, etc., are responsible for

underdevelopment. Differences in structure and historical origin are considered of little

importance; international dependencies are not taken into account. Consequently, a

change of these endogenous factors is the strategy for development. The industrialized

countries are the model for economy and society, and this model will be reached sooner

or later. There is a continuum between the least and the most developed country and each

country has its position on this line. The difference as compared to the industrialized

countries is the degree of backwardness which has to be made up for. Suitable measures

1

are the modernization of the production apparatus, capital aid, transfer of know-how, so

that the developing countries can reach the stage of industrialized countries as soon as

possible. Development is seen as an increase of production and efficiency and measured

primarily by comparing the per capita income.

WHY WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES ARE SAID TO BE UNDERDEVELOPED

A historical perspective is essential in order to understand why West African

countries have failed to take part in the international economic development we have

seen in this era of globalisation. Geographical and demographic conditions are key

factors in West Africa’s development, as is confirmed by many of today’s crises.

West African Countries are said to be underdeveloped because of the following

reasons list hereunder:

1) Prolonged Military Rule/Intervention in Governance: It is believed that

meaningful development cannot take place in a country where democracy

cannot thrive. Democracy is seen as bedrock of development as evident in

most developed nations such as United States of America, Britain, Japan and

some other countries in the world. Therefore, with prolonged military

interventions and rule in most of the West African countries, development was

hampered.

2) Technological Underdevelopment: An important reason for the continent’s

technological underdevelopment is the geographical obstacles to

communication both internally and with the rest of the world. The Sahara has

been a barrier in the north, and the Atlantic coast had no contact with the rest

2

of the world until the first Europeans arrived around 1500. Influence from the

Arab world and India came mainly via the Nile Valley and the East African

coast, and had little spillover effect further inland. With the exception of the

Niger and the Nile, the continent’s rivers with their large waterfalls have not

provided a navigable route to the interior, in contrast to the rivers of Europe

and Asia. The problems of today’s land-locked states illustrate the great

importance of communication for economic and cultural development.

3) Poor Health System and High Mortality Rate Factor: Among the five

geographic regions of Africa (Eastern, Northern, Middle, Southern and

Western Africa), West Africa has the lowest average per capita Gross

Domestic Products, and the second highest average infant mortality rate after

Middle Africa. This has added a great deal to underdevelopment of West

Africa. Any country with a very high mortality rate will be regarded as

underdeveloped, little wonder West African countries are said to be

underdeveloped. There are poor human capital development and poor health

development policies and programmes in almost all countries in West Africa.

This is attested to by the number of qualified Africans and technocrats in

foreign countries where they are not better treated. Insecurity and poverty

account for the brain drain (Emeagwali, 2004). A healthy nation is a wealthy

nation. When the citizens are poor, they cannot access health care facilities,

their capacities are not developed, it implies that the resource endowments in

the area are dormant and unexplored. Developed human capital is the catalyst

for resource development. This gives the foreigners engaged in foreign direct

3

investment opportunities to exploit the area and further under develop the

economy.

4) High Literacy Rate as Causative Factor: The region also has low rates of

individuals who can read and write; this means that with low level of

education in the countries, underdevelopment looms. High level of illiteracy

thus accounts for West Africa being called underdeveloped.

5) Lack of Political Stability: Lack of political stability accounts for many of the

development problems in post-colonial Africa, and has deep historical roots.

The ethnic diversity of the continent is extraordinary; linguists have identified

around 900 separate language groups. Nation-building in Africa’s independent

states has thus been particularly difficult. National endeavours have been

hampered by internal conflicts and civil wars, and at worst a form of anarchy,

as seen in the Congo. The forces behind these conflicts are often complex. But

once the parties have resorted to violence, we see in Africa, just as in the

Balkans and the Caucasus, that ethnicity overrides all other forms of loyalty

with a ferocity that defies belief, but is easier to understand if we bear in mind

the role that nationalism has played in European history. Shrewd and

ambitious politicians are aware of this, and know how to take advantage of the

“tribal instinct” for all it is worth.

6) Slave trade and colonialism: Can the slave trade and colonialism be regarded

as a cause of underdevelopment in West Africa today? Africa’s integration

into the world market following 1500-during what we may term the “proto-

globalisation era”-took on a perverted form when slaves became the dominant

4

merchandise from around 1650. The cruelties of this trade have left deep scars

in both the African and the European psyche. The export of an estimated 12

million people across the Atlantic, and possibly a similar number to the Arab

world in the course of a full millennium may have been a factor in Africa’s

lower population growth compared with that of other continents. In economic

terms, the slave trade tended to overshadow trade in other goods, and although

it enabled certain strong kingdoms to increase their power, it was devastating

for the groups affected by the kidnappings and conflicts that the trade entailed.

In political terms, the rulers who controlled the trade on the African side were

caught up in a particular form of dependence that had profound effects on

African political culture. At the same time, African labour played a key role

in building up the “Atlantic system”, and was thus a decisive factor in

American and European (including Norway’s) development. Here the

foundations were laid for a closely knit web of development and

underdevelopment. The present day African claims for reparation are

understandable. But slavery was also widely practiced in African societies,

and it was African leaders and intermediaries who brought almost all of the

slaves to the coast. African historians have long sought to put the record

straight on this chapter of the continent’s history. Colonial rule can be

regarded as the next phase of Africa’s integration into the international

system. European policies varied considerably between regions and over time,

from a brutal period of conquest at the end of the 19th century to active

development efforts following the Second World War. The main achievement

5

of colonial rule was state-building. However, this involved imposing the

European system of competing nation states onto the continent through a

process of conquest that was largely motivated by European strategic

interests. The result was a political map that is economically irrational and

dysfunctional. Basil Davidson sums up this state of affairs in the title of one of

his books: The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation State.

One of the most important tasks today is to offset and overcome the

limitations of the nation state through the development of regional and

continental bodies based on the European model. The colonial powers

developed modern export systems, infrastructure and education facilities that

were necessary to make the whole colonisation venture profitable. And

indeed, it is difficult to envisage any other way in which Africa could have

become integrated into the world market so rapidly. Various counterfactual

development scenarios have of course been discussed, and there is an ongoing

debate on how realistic they are. Nevertheless, the colonial system can be

criticized on several points: for its extreme use of violence during the first

phase (for example in southern Africa, where land was confiscated and

Africans subjected to forced labour); for taking a disproportionate share of the

value created; and for failing to use state power to promote broader

development until after the Second World War (particularly regarding higher

education). However, the connection between colonisation and

underdevelopment is not straightforward. Independent Ethiopia came at the

bottom of all tables of development statistics at the time colonisation was

6

coming to an end in the rest of Africa, and most of the successful newly

industrialised countries in South East Asia are also former colonies.

Cultivating a victim image will not lead to a productive development strategy.

7) War as Causative Factor: Moreover, since the 1990s, the region experienced

civil conflicts or wars in a number of countries, including Liberia and Sierra

Leone, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and the destruction of billions

of dollars in infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and businesses. The

interesting irony about West Africa’s underdevelopment is that, although the

people in that region are among the poorest people in the world, individuals of

West African descent outside of the region and the continent tend to be in

significant to substantial numbers among some of the most influential and

highly-respected scientists of all sorts, world-class entertainers, professional

athletes, politicians, business men and women, etc., especially concentrated in

North America and the rest of the Western Hemisphere, and other parts of the

world.

8) Foreign Aid Factor: Foreign aid serves a useful purpose when it is provided

to alleviate temporary hardship as in cases of natural disasters such as

droughts, but, experience in West Africa has proved that aid recipients could

easily construe foreign aid as a substitution to their own productivity. Across

the continent, food aid has suppressed food production, undermining the

prices of local produced foods. Agricultural production has declined

significantly, as farmers migrate to urban centers to create a shortage of farm

workers and exacerbate food production deficit. A mentioned earlier, a major

7

debilitating by-product of foreign aid to Africa is the culture of corruption that

has taken root at every level of every government. Foreign Aid is a bribe

given to poor countries by rich nations to enable the latter access resources,

and markets cheaply. It is also a bribe to poor nations to prevent the migration

of poor people to rich nations. It is a bribe to poor nations meant to address

rich nation’s interests. We all know what bribes (aid) do to our police force

(governments), the police get fatter but the crime and traffic offense related

highway accident rates go up (under development of people). To the robber

who bribes a policeman to ensure he/she is not caught – bribery is a good

thing that promotes the looting industry. But if one were to ask the citizenry

whose relatives perish on highways and their property get looted by thugs - a

future without bribery is what they will go for. In line with explanation and

definition on aid the good intentions of the West (de jure purpose of aid) have

resulted to a de facto “looting” of the resources of the Africa people by the

West through the accomplice of African leaders who analogically represent

the corrupt police forces in their countries. In this regard role of aid in

bringing development in Africa tends to be very doubtful. Thus the

verisimilitude of development (conditioned) aid and the cold war contribution

to political developments in African are exposed by the varying but most often

clearly negative overall and varying consequences. The analysis of the role

and consequences of foreign aid and the cold war could be divided into: i) aid

and politics of tyranny, ii) the impact of the West as a consequence of the

Cold War, and, iii) the “disembedding” of the democratic debate from within

8

national borders on the continent and “re-embedding” within the international

arena between national leaders and Western powers.

9) Corruption: Today, corruption has become the way of life in every country in

West Africa, and the theft, bribery and embezzlement of aid, and other

government resources are so endemic, they are not considered as crimes.

African politicians and government officials have engaged in corruption

practices, and a 2004-2005 World Bank Report showed that $148 billion were

embezzled out of Africa by politicians and bureaucrats; a significant amount

of it being aid and loans earmarked for development activities to benefit

Africa's poor. Without transparency, accountability, and good governance,

Africa's future will continue to remain bleak. No wonder West Africa

countries are said to be underdeveloped. There is the get - rich – quick-mania

in West Africa, especially among the political leaders. The inordinate

ambition for wealth accumulation is an offshoot of corrupt practices which are

aspects of underdevelopment. An African appears to be contented with

stealing public money and eventually remitting same to other foreign banks,

yet the industrialized countries that claim to be corrupt-free accommodate

such practices. An African also appears to be happy stealing from one side of

his pocket and transfers the ‘loot’ to the other side of his pocket and

congratulates himself for a job well done. These acts have no multiplier

effects on national economy since the booties are not invested for

regeneration. This culture of inordinate material acquisition accounts for

underdevelopment in West Africa. There is a noticeable increase in the

9

deterioration of infrastructures and social services in underdeveloped

countries as a result of poor management of resources, poor governance and

corruption. Where infrastructural development is carried out at all, it lacks

quality, integrity and comparable standard. Reducing public expenditure and

reordering of government priorities and removal of subsidies on essential

facilities and commodities implies deepening the poverty situation and

underdevelopment. There is need therefore, to explore ways of mitigating

underdevelopment in West-Africa.

10) Low Labour Productivity and Per Capital Income: Low labour productivity

is a consequence of capital shortage which is a result of the population's low

saving ability. As the saving rate is determined by the low real income, the

circle is closed. Strategy theories intend to break up this cycle at a certain

point which they consider critical and which varies according to the different

theories. Thus, they want to initiate development and transform traditional

subsistence economy into a modern market economy. Their main emphasis is

on capital formation and investment (investment theories) and, by and large,

they prescribe action for overcoming underdevelopment while they contribute

little towards explaining the causes of underdevelopment.

11) The Challenges of Leadership Crisis and Underdevelopment in West Africa:

Development, as a multidimensional process, is much more than an economic

phenomenon dealing with the material and financial growth in a people’s

lives. It involves the reorganization and reorientation of the people’s entire

economic and social systems. Apart from improvements in incomes and

10

output, radical changes in institutional social, administrative structures,

people’s popular attitudes, customs and belief systems, development involves

a fundamental modification and reorganization of the international economic

and social system to accommodate equity that negates global inequality

(Todaro and Smith, 2003). If development involves the above, there is the

necessity for visionary and dedicated leadership that is imbued with the desire

for change that is anchored on patriotism and democratic governance. The

current world economic system demands total reorganization in economic

relations and trade in line with the forces and facilitators of globalization. For

the reorganization and modernization to achieve development targets and be

effective, leadership everywhere should be adequately equipped with the

requisite knowledge, motivational force, managerial ability, forthrightness,

accommodating spirit, flexibility, acuity, organizing capacity etc. to identify

the necessary institutional structures for reforms. This is expedient to drive the

wheel of development in this era of information and communications

technology (ICT), Knowledge - driven economic production and knowledge

leadership for millennium governance. Leadership implies critical

management of critical resource endowments in a country. West Africans are

endowed with critical indigenous knowledge, traditional technologies and

wealth (Gakuru, 2005). Indigenous knowledge encompasses traditional

knowledge, innovations, technologies and practices. It involves broad based

subject matters such as traditional agriculture, biodiversity-related and

medicinal knowledge and folklore. On its part, traditional technologies are

11

defined as processes and products that have been valuable sources of

technology even before western industrialization. They include, among others,

agriculture, food production, processing and preservation and brewing; water

procurement and storage; health and medicine; plant and animal breeding;

forestry; engineering; energy; architecture; textile; cosmetology; music etc.

When these are preserved and encouraged, they can boost entrepreneurship,

economy through foreign exchange etc. and subsequent development. The

question however, is: have West African leaders and government ensured

these technologies and knowledge to achieve diversified economy, food

security, job and employment generation, entrepreneurship, leadership and

capacity building and wealth creation?

CONCLUSION

West African countries are said to be under-developed as a result of the above

factors such as leadership problem, corruption, prolonged military rule, colonialism and

slave trade, war, poor health system and high mortality rate, high level of illiteracy, low

level of technological advancement in terms of communication and agricultural

development, reliance on foreign aids amongst many other factors.

Any serious effort to engage development problems in West Africa must begin by

taking notice of the reality that socio-economic development in the West African

countries may be attained, and sustained only if the processes engaged toward these ends

are properly mindful of the cultural and social experiences of Africans. This means

looking at things from the point of view of those whose welfare one seeks to improve; for

12

only when the life experiences of the indigenous people are clearly understood would it

be possible to work within the context of their cultural and traditional observances to

establish accommodative social and economic institutions necessary for sustained

development. This approach is what is termed 'contextual development'; a process that

requires a balanced integration of indigenous cultures, religious beliefs, prevailing social

arrangements, and new ideas from developed nations into a unique development strategy

that suits a particular nation-state. Contextual development thus requires a good

understanding of the needs of the people, and how to design and implement programs

that take advantage of the peculiarities of the society, and expectations. It also requires,

as an imperative, that one who embarks on development programs in West Africa be

acquainted with the cultural belief system in the country, the role religion plays, the level

of literacy, availability of skilled labor, traditional roles of the sexes, prevailing social

arrangements, and most importantly, what development means to the people.

It is an intellectual challenge to fully grasp the historical causes of Africa’s

underdevelopment and to distinguish between internal and external factors. On the one

hand, many of Africa’s problems are due to a combination of Western and African

factors and the fact that Africa has been integrated into the world economy on

unfavourable terms. This, together with intrinsic geographical and demographic

disadvantages, means that an international effort on a completely new scale is needed to

lift the continent out of its present state of underdevelopment. This has been referred to as

a “reformed globalisation”.

On the other hand, many of the problems facing African countries are due to

internal causes. Ethnic differences and political and cultural traditions have made it

13

difficult to build strong institutions – of the kind developed in Asian countries – that are

able to address the challenges of globalisation. This means that African leaders at all

levels must take responsibility for improving the situation through self-help, awareness

raising and discipline in the broadest sense of the word. African critics have spoken of the

need for a “structural adaptation programme”, also with regard to culture.

14

REFERENCES

CIA World Fact Book (2009): Equatorial Guinea.

Eke, P. P. (1983):Colonialism and Social Structure: An Inaugural Lecture. Ibadan:

University of Ibadan.

Emeagwali (2004):How Do We Reverse the Brain Drain?

Frank. G. (1966): The Development of Underdevelopment. Monthly Review, Vol. 18

No.4.

Shillington, Kevin (1989): History of Africa. Revised Edition. New York: St. Martin’s

The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.3, no.10, September 2010.

World Bank. (1997): World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World.

New York: Oxford University Press.

15