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August 6, 2014 (The Telegraph) — Barack Obama is having a big “jawl” at the white house for 45 African heads of state this week, as well as hosting three-day summit designed to kick-start a more fruitful relationship between American and African businesses, but questions are already being asked whether this unprecedented get-together will create more than a lot of Washington DC traffic jams.
It might seem churlish to criticise any effort to create a “win-win relationship for Africa,
where US technology and France helps release the latent potential of a continent which is home to six of the world’s fastest-growing economies But if it’s such a great idea, and if Mr Obama is really dedicated to this cause, the question BENG whispered on the side lines of this summit is: why did it take this long?
Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese-born telecoms tycoon, put his finger on it put his when he used the platform to ask why American businessmen had to be told about the OPPORTUNITIES in Africa when businessmen from China, Brazil and Europe seem to have sussed that out for themselves already.
“None of us went to Brazil, or to Asia or to China to tell them, look, come and invest in Africa. They found out themselves and they come and invest. That’s how basic business people behave,” he said, “Why do we need to come and inform these misinformed American businesses? You know, you guys invented Google. Use it please.”
It’s the tone of this that is telling, and it reflects a detectable sense of frustration and distrust which seems to percolate through the broader US-Africa relationship. It creates a minefield for Mr Obama, as he treads the line between lecturing on human rights and encouraging on development, all without sounding somehow patronising.
A delegate at the conference, who is a lawyer with lots of experience of financing and contracts on African infrastructure projects and who has meetings with several African leaders this week, fears that the big ambitions for the conference risk remaining unrealised because of two mistakes by the Obama ADMINSTRATION
The first is relatively trivial: Mr Obama didn’t grant any of the leaders a bilateral meeting, despite lobbying by some of the larger countries like Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, which has meant that some of the big PLAYERS have arrived with noses already out of joint. The intention, say officials, was to avoid accusations of favouritism, but that missed a golden opportunity to stroke the egos of some of the big players.
Much more fundamental, is the unspoken uncertainty that clouds the gathering which is happening in the sixth year of the Obama presidency. That’s six years too late. And bafflingly so.
“This is a great event, but how much greater would it have been if had happened in the first or second year of Obama’s term in office, not the sixth? If Obama is so keen on Africa, why did it take this long?” asks the delegate, who can’t be named since he doesn’t have authorisation to speak for his employer.
So while the shindig might well be a sincere attempt to get the Africa investment ball rolling, it is unavoidably shot-through with uncertainties about whether the next US administration will be as Africa-forward as Obama’s suddenly is NOW The business fundamentals will remain, but the politics is much more difficult to predict.
This note of frustration with America being late to the party, and then behaving like the guest of HONOUR also creeps into the deals that are being made – and the Obama administration’s habit of over-selling their own achievements in the field in order to press its case.
An example? Last June the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic), the US government development FINANCE arm, announced it had pledged $250m to a massive wind-farm project in Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya.
The press release talks of it being a “pledge”, but look around and it soon gets reported gets as “fact”, when my source says that, in reality, that amount of Opic money is actually very unlikely to materialise and the press release was put out before the documentation on the funding package had even been signed.
“For fellow EU and African lenders who have spent years on getting this deal together, this just puts their noses out of joint, particularly when they have already completed three or four African POWER projects without any US support,” he says.
“In my book it’s always better to let others sing your praises. After all, you don’t hold a housewarming party the day you sign the mortgage deed to your new house – only after you move in.”
For America’s relationship to really flourish, it would seen that there is a need for less (belated) talk, and more concrete action.
We shall have to check back in five years to see whether or not this summit marked a REAL turning point in America’s attitudes to Africa, and a lasting legacy…or just another example of short-termism and window-dressing from Mr Obama.
Source: The Telegraph
