(6 minutes read)
· US President Donald Trump was gung-ho about settling the long-standing dispute among Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the
Renaissance Dam being built over River Nile, billed to be the largest one in Africa, spending close to US$ 5 billion
· His initial optimism to settle amicably the dispute had waned after a couple of meetings, which failed to yield any results, except statements to resolve the issue through negotiations
· Clumsy handling of Africa policy of the US has generated fair degree of criticism within the US
US President Donald Trump was gung-ho about settling the long-standing dispute among Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the Renaissance Dam being built over River Nile, billed to be the largest one in Africa, spending close to US$ 5 billion. His initial optimism to settle amicably the dispute had waned after a couple of meetings, which failed to yield any results, except statements to resolve the issue through negotiations. In diplomatic circles, such situations are often referred to as engagements without any results to back up. .
Does it mean, the US is on the back foot as far the Africa policy is concerned? Or does it mean, they have left the field wide open to China to carry out their trade expansionist policies without having any competition from any other source. It could be both, say experts. Trump is not having a soft corner for Africa, as evidenced by his past denigration of African nations. His interventions in South Africa and Zimbabwe supporting white famers did not go well with the African psyche. Land is an emotive issue in all developing and least developed countries and that is particularly true in Africa.
With the independence from their erstwhile colonizers, African nations are enjoying a new found freedom. While the urban rich and poor are enjoying that in terms of lucrative jobs that they can command or getting engaged in businesses of all hues, for the rural rich andpoor, the testimony of freedom is often related to the land and cattle that they own. Coupled with stark realization that they have been exploited during the past colonial era and the belief that one way of undoing that is through land redistribution among the poor, any voice against that, particularly from outside the continent, may invoke only contempt among the Africans.
As against this, the Chinese are not kneading on their land ownership rights, though they have amassed acres of land through deals that are mired in opaqueness. But openly they are not supporting the erstwhile colonizers unlike the West, which have openly colluded with the white farmers, be it in South Africa or Zimbabwe. In the case of the latter, they have gone beyond that by imposing sanctions on an economy saddled with poverty and destitution for reasons including violations of human rights. On the other hand, China has always been on the receiving end of sanctions and naturally their sympathy and support would go only with the victim and that is with the nations on whom the sanctions are imposed.
Clumsy handling of Africa policy of the US has generated a fair degree of criticism within the US. While the Obama Administration had a reasonably good focus on Africa, Trump’s initial step – motherly treatment to the world’s largest continent with 54 nation states was lukewarm, to say the least. That has emboldened China and to a lesser extent by Russia, India and Europe to focus more aggressively on the content to checkmate the Chinese over dominance.
The last straw in the camel’s back is the sloppy handling of the US in the case of electing the CEO of the African Development Bank. The present incumbent Akinwumi Adesina, who was all set to get elected till the time the US had taken high moral ground in inquiring into his alleged misdeeds by an independent agency, vetoing the collective decision of almost all African nations to reinstate the Nigerian for a second term. The election is to take place in August and everyone is keeping the fingers crossed whether the inquiry would be completed by that time. The only right of the US to veto the decision was that it is the second largest contributor towards the setting up of the multilateral bank-African Development Bank.
The question many are asking is why did the US take high moral ground on an issue they should be least concerned about and should have left Africans take their own decisions.
