Press Releases

Commission A Better Study Of The Problem In Africa, Gov. Fashola Advises Obama

Apr 4, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has advised President of the United States , Mr Barack Obama to commission a better study of the African situation or lead an economic summit on the continent to enable him have a clearer grasp of issues affecting Afica.

Governor Fashola, who gave the advice during an interactive session with senior journalists in Chicago at the weekend, said such a step had become necessary to correct President Obama’s seeming insufficient knowledge of the root cause of the problem in Africa as displayed during his recent Town Hall meeting in Strasbourg .

According to the Governor, he felt concerned after watching the proceedings of the meeting on cable television because of Obama’s assertion that not much can be achieved until Kenya , which he meant as being representative of Africa , solves its corruption problem.

Explaining further, Governor Fashola said while President Obama was right in his analysis that people might be compelled to act desperately to survive if the global economic crisis persisted thereby raising issues of local and national security, his response when asked on his position on Africa demonstrated an insufficient knowledge of the problem in the continent.

“He (President Obama) made an assertion that until Kenyans, particularly he was referring to Kenya and I take that as representative of an intent to address Africa, that until Kenyans solve their corruption problem not much will happen and I assume in developing nations like Nigeria. I thought that was a bit missed,” Governor Fashola said.

Continuing, Governor Fashola explained that the problem in Africa and most of the developing nations across the world is not so much the corruption but the economic retrogression and underdevelopment which, President Obama correctly identified , precipitates desperate conditions including attempts to cut corners in order to survive.

The underdevelopment, according to Governor Fashola, is traceable to political instability engendered by many years of military rule and dictatorship adding that until European and American leadership understand that corruption is only a symptom of a larger problem of economic underdevelopment, wrong remedies will be proposed.

“I want him (President Obama) to undertake or commission a better study of the African situation and if it is possible for him to lead and chair an economic summit in Africa similar to what has been done in Europe,” Governor Fashola said.

According to the Governor, the solution to the global economic crisis lies in Africa and some of the developing countries of Asia rather than in Europe and in America because of the underserved huge markets in those countries in terms of facilities, infrastructure and amenities.

Governor Fashola noted that in servicing those markets, both the economies of the West and the developing nations stand to benefit through meaningful partnership based on mutual respect rather than a perception of Africa as people who need aid.

Responding to a question on whether he would want President Obama to do a tour similar to his European tour in Africa, Governor Fashola said while it would be welcome, it should not be just a tour for touching base with a personal constituency.

“As he said in Germany during his campaign, he is a citizen of the world taking Africa along in the pursuit of global economic development, renewable energy, creation of jobs and so on because we are in an age of globalization and capitalism must respond to the challenges that globalization now poses,” Governor Fashola said.

He added: “As a medium of economic exchange, l think capitalism will survive. But l think it has to re-invent itself now to deal with the challenges of globalization in a smaller world, in a seamless world.”

According to the Governor, with a credit driven society whose credit has reached a zenith there is a need to look towards emerging markets like Nigeria with a population of 140 million people in need of power and Lagos which has a capacity to utilize 40,000 buses in its new bus system but without a bus manufacturing plant.

“We need to import buses from Brazil . l think that GM, Chrysler and the rest are complaining about sales but the market is there. I would be looking to invest in that market to make the money and repatriate the capital”, Governor Fashola said.

The Governor who said such a huge market can only be accessed with the right attitude and not the tendency to characterize a nation negatively on account of one isolated incident as often done in the Western media also used the opportunity to appeal to Nigerians in the Diaspora not to think that the country has the worst of situation in all things.

According to him crime, healthcare, traffic among others remain challenges in all parts of the world adding that it took him 90 minutes to move between Capitol Hill where he had gone to keep an appointment and where he stayed near by while in Washington.

While thanking the media men for their compliments on account of the accomplishments of his administration being monitored from afar, Governor Fashola noted that a lot remains to be done.

”People acknowledge that we’ve made tremendous effort but there’s still much more to do. We are racing to bridge a deficit of over three decades of underdevelopment , that as l said before, have been precipitated by political instability. But we are making very measured and steady progress. There’s a plan we are implementing, “Governor Fashola said.