Introducing… Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, JD, PhD, MBA Builder of the African Future
Four years ago during the COVID quarantine I did soul searching. I reexamined my life and delved deeply into the culture, history, and rich traditions of my people, the African people. Recognizing the past and present successes, challenges, and current lack of genuine leadership, a question arose within:
“What are you doing to give back and support the development of your people?”
I had no answer and felt ashamed. But I fervently prayed, then firmly resolved to support the African people’s development by focusing my life to fostering economic growth, good governance, indigenous development, and institutional building across Africa.
I then decided to got to law school in order to obtain the skills necessary to be a helper to my people as an international nation-building diplomat. Since then, my professional experiences have been miraculous. Yet I have also faced great challenges I always faced quietly and diligently, unknown to most.
In my darkest hours it was always my faith in God and the commitment to my life’s purpose that gave me strength to keep boldly forging ahead. I only have Plan A and no Plan B; my Plan A is my plan A-Z. For in my heart I believe in only one outcome: unconditional victory!
I spent my first year at Case Western Reserve School of Law. Then, following an inner prompting, I transferred to American University Washington School of Law. My main professional experiences during law school are follows:
UN Immersion for Multilateral Diplomacy; Diplomatic Trainee
International Trade Centre; Int’l Trade Intern (designed model legal framework to establish NECs National Export Councils)
Washington International Diplomatic Academy; Int’l Diplomatic Trainee
Colin Powell Leadership Institute by Black Professionals in International Affairs – BPIA; Fellow
Garvey-Nkrumah Legal Fellowship Program (fostering African/Black leaders to apply Pan-African economic development models); Fellow
Public International Law & Policy Group; Senior Research Associate
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston; Extern (developing an International Investment Manual)
On December 14, 2025, exactly six years to the day I obtained my PhD, I walked across the stage at AUWCL to obtain my JD.
Now through the Grace of God I proudly declare: “It is finished!” To mark graduation, I prepared a short video entitled “A Long Walk to JD (Juris Doctorate)”
I work hard for the opportunity to work harder in service, and know that success is only a Divine loan to be repaid through the service to uplift the African people. I thank God for His Omnipresent Guidance. Also all family, friends, and colleagues who have helped me.
I did it! Now I am ready for the next chapter, focused heavenward and in fulfilling my life’s objective: to be a servant of God, and a helper and guardian of the welfare and further development of the African People!
May God the Father grant me holy power for this work!
💫Onward & Upward!💫
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, JD, PhD, MBA Builder of the African Future
The failure of African leadership is the issue here. As a leader, you are to form policies that will establish and fund original scientific research and innovation institutions which includes testing centers.
Then based on the intensive research and recommendations of your scientific community, you form national polices that set chemical standards for the importation of goods (“sanitary and phytosanitary measures).
Next, you overhaul the border process of verification and entry and institute stricter measures for the testing and clearance of goods at ports. Additionally, you form punitive policies that ruthlessly punishes corporations who weasel products into your country that violate your standards. Such draconian measures would include revocation of licenses, seizure of assets, imprisonment of key officials, brutal fines etc.
Basically any corporation who flagrantly dares to violate the law, and who sends substandard products with harmful additives to Africa that they would never give Europeans, in order thereby to insult the dignity of the African people must be made to feel the iron-fist in cold pitilessness.
As an African leader, all corporations who approach your country to do business should feel the volcanic earnestness you apply to the sacred duty of being a helper and guardian of your people! The steadfastness and vigilance of your attitude toward your people, in addition to the institutions and systems you establish, will then become a shield of honor around your people that will command respect and compliance from foreign corporations to do well by them! Where are the lions of Africa?
African leaders, if the task of leadership is too much for you, if standing by your people and being a helper and protector of their welfare is too burdensome for you… then resign and vanish from office, so another who is prepared to boldly and diligently serve the common good can step forward and take your place!
African leaders, stand by your people!
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, PhD, MBA Builder of the African Future JD Candidate ‘25
The Framing Nigerian and African leaders, set politics aside and think strategically about the long-term lessons you can draw from the bellicose tweet that Trump recently sent, which can be applied to develop your people and protect your country from potential future geopolitical intrusions. Think like visionary nation-builders! I will help in this, so let us examine the words!
In response to claims of Christian deaths in Nigeria, Trump tweeted the following. I have bracketed words for logical emphasis: “IF the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, [THEN] the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that …. Country ‘guns-a-blazing’…”
In this essay I will not be addressing the claim of Christian deaths in Nigeria, but rather will focus on the broader principles to be drawn for African nation-building.
The Mechanisms: The claim of the antecedent IF is followed by the threat of the three-part enforcement mechanisms of THEN: aid, assistance, military. Therefore, your task as nation-builders is to form a long-term national developmental strategy that builds domestic institutions which would immunize you from these foreign mechanisms through self-sufficient productivity.
About Aid & Assistance You have been repeatedly warned that so-called foreign aid and assistance is often a cleverly orchestrated reconquest and control of national infrastructure through dependency. It is given to establish leverage, yet you carelessly overlook this and fall into the trap. So, when enforcement time comes, you are in a weak position. Your fault.
Action? List the different sectors of aid: Health, Humanitarian assistance, Security, Economic Development, Loans, Education etc. Next, form strategic action plans to develop domestic institutions that will make you self-sufficient in each of these sectors of US aid!
Health Assistance: Take health. Nigerians are everywhere in the US healthcare system and even drive innovations. Therefore, it is sheer leadership incompetence and wretchedness that Nigeria does not have one of—if not the best—healthcare industries on earth! Your task is to develop a strategy that will harness all the specialized medical skills and experiences of the Nigerian Diaspora to build a formidable and world-leading medical sector in Nigeria! Any Nigerian leader whose vision is not this big and ambitious for nation-building needs to resign and leave office forevermore.
Money/Loans: Think of money. Often you politicians carelessly get loans denominated in USD, embezzle it, then park the funds and assets in the US and Europe. You yoke your people to a foreign power, rob what little crumbs they receive from loans, then reinvest these stolen funds back to the foreign power. Such foolishness is incomprehensible. How are such human beings even a position of leadership? The US government sees all your monies and assets, where they are invested in their economy, so when these geopolitical situations arise, they can use this leverage to sanction and enforce their will against you. Again, it is carelessness of Nigerian leadership, for you have not created a safe economic environment domestically where assets can be protected, so you do not trust the country that you manage, meaning you do not trust yourselves. And this distrust is a proof and admittance of your own incompetence and failure. It is time to make this good.
Therefore, your task is to create the right regulatory environment that is uncompromisingly fair, devoid of corruption, and safe for the storage and protection assets. But this implies you must be absolutely ruthless and govern under the penalty of capital punishment against measures of corruption. Draconian severity is needed to purify governance. You must place the advancement of your country above everything but the Creator! Above tribe, family, children, above everything. Still fulfilling personal responsibilities, but nothing on earth should mean more to you than the fulfillment of duty to advance your people! Absolutely nothing! Such must be the honor cross of those who wish to serve the cause of African nation-building with their life!
About Military Intervention Foreign powers talk big about democracy, but they do not believe in it, they believe in control and force. They respect democracy to the degree it aligns with their national interests, and when it does not then their military is ready to violate territorial integrity for economic and geopolitical purposes under the banner of a moral cause. You must understand this, for history and current events bear witness to this truth. Therefore, let me ask you: which country in Africa has a robust defense industry? Institutions that develop original defense research and innovations, and then manufactures weapons for national and continental self-defense? Answer: NONE. Therefore, your task is clear as nation-builders: make Nigeria the first African country to develop a robust domestic defense industry that produces research and technologies, manufactures them and exports them throughout Africa.
Once you become self-sufficient through these institutions and can supply what you need, no foreign country will think of “invading at will”, because the cost would potentially be too heavy through high precision “missiles-a-blazing”. Additionally, you would have the capability to overwhelm all domestic terrorists and ensure the security of your people, and the peace and territorial integrity of your country. But today you are weak and cannot defend yourself, and that is why foreign countries easily threaten to invade you at will. Do you understand that your “friendship” with them is conditional on you bowing to their will? And if do not, the economic and military enforcement mechanism are unleashed. So you must counteract this through institution-building!
Concluding Message In summary, your response to Trump’s message should be quiet note-taking on the long-term lessons you can draw for national development. Your resolve should be to develop institutions and mechanisms that will make you nationally self-sufficient, so you remove the leverage that a foreign power has to enforce their will against you. Such should be your focus: developing strategies for aggressive African nation-building for indigenous self-sufficiency!
Despite the great opportunity for progress, you leaders have strayed so far away from the African Cause, have betrayed your people, pillaged resources, become foreign dependent, and even stifled visionary leaders from rising because it was not convenient for your tribalistic and selfish personal interests. But now this must change, because global geopolitics is becoming increasingly unpredictable and any country that lacks self-sufficiency is vulnerable for exploitation and control. A country that cannot feed and defend itself is useless and has no right to expect global respect. Friendly foreign gestures during times of “peace” cannot be trusted to hold during times of differences, for then the leverage they have will be used against you. It is your task to eliminate these leverages and become strong through long-term development planning.
The Call: African leaders, focus on long-term institution building that will make your people grow strong, stand tall, and become self-reliant. Develop enough pride for Africa and love for the people that will enable you to work unceasingly to build institutions and systems for their progress, which will free them from foreign control and make them partners of equal value. Become helpers and guardians of the welfare and further development of the African people. Protect and uplift them and future generations.
African leaders, stand up for your people and build institutions!
Onward & Upward!
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D, MBA J.D. Candidate ’25 Builder of the African Future
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”
The famous introduction to Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities that was written to capture the social contradictions in London and Paris before the French Revolution, could just as well describe the Nigerian people’s attitude toward the business activities of billionaire Aliko Dangote. His empire embodies both triumph and tragedy: on one hand, unprecedented industrial achievement; on the other, the daily menace of his trucks, whose accidents leave a trail of injuries and fatalities.
The Best of Times Dangote is praised as the face of African enterprise. His ventures include the monumental Dangote Refinery, a $20 billion facility with capacity for 650,000 barrels per day, which is Africa’s largest and among the biggest single-train refineries in the world. He has also announced plans to build Nigeria’s largest and deepest seaport in Ogun State, a project set to transform exports of fertilizer and industrial products. To many, these feats symbolize Nigeria’s potential, Africa’s rising industrial base, and the triumph of private capital over chronic state inefficiency.
The Worst of Times Yet the very name “Dangote” also conjures images of fatalities on Nigerian highways through his trucks. His cement trucks have become a menace, notorious for reckless driving and deadly accidents. Between 2015 and 2025 alone, a report on Dangote truck accidents estimates about 393 deaths and 1,040 injuries. But anyone familiar with Nigeria knows these numbers are drastically underreported. Security services and government agencies, compromised by collusion, coverups, and corruption, shield such abuses from scrutiny. Multiply those figures by at least ten, and one approaches reality. So the paradox is clear: as Dangote builds monumental projects to power Africa’s future, his trucks simultaneously leave a trail of injuries and coffins on Nigerian roads. Who will hold Dangote accountable?
The Role of Leadership This contradiction highlights the vacuum of political leadership in Nigeria. Visionary governance exists to regulate markets, enforce accountability, and protect citizens from exploitation, while coordinating private achievement toward a national vision. But historically, Nigeria’s leadership has been atrocious… more cabal than custodian, more profiteer than protector.
Where is Nigeria’s Theodore Roosevelt?
Roosevelt’s Example At the dawn of the 20th century, America faced its own Gilded Age of monopolists and “Robber Barons.” President Theodore Roosevelt confronted them directly, earning the title “Trust-Buster.”
He used the Sherman Antitrust Act with unprecedented vigor to break monopolies that strangled competition and exploited consumers.
He targeted giants such as Northern Securities and Standard Oil, forcing courts to dissolve them.
He distinguished between “good trusts” and “bad trusts,” insisting that government regulate where it could not dismantle.
His Square Deal promised fairness: balancing corporate power with the welfare of the people.
Roosevelt was not against enterprise; he was against exploitation. His mission was to ensure that no corporation, however powerful, could trample the public interest.
Nigeria’s Missing Guardian A true Nigerian leader—a nation-building visionary and guardian of the people’s welfare—would never tolerate the impunity of Dangote’s cement trucks. Leadership is not only about setting a vision for industrial growth, for it is also about defending citizens from harm by holding even the most powerful enterprises accountable.
But most of Nigeria’s ruling elite have no such resolve. When leaders themselves are chief exploiters, how can they regulate others? You cannot expect arsonists to serve as firefighters; to do so would be to extinguish the very flames that sustain them. The political class and the oligarchs are in business together, feasting on a climate of underdevelopment that ensures their continued enrichment.
Naturally, this statements do not imply that all Nigerian politicians are ignoble and ineffective or that Dangote trucks always cause harm. Certainly not. For there are promising individuals in the Nigerian political class and Dangote’s enterprise does much good in Nigeria. The statements merely highlight the unchecked status quo: the exploitative political class and the hazards of Dangote cement trucks, both of whom cause harm with little accountability.
Nigeria Needs Its Roosevelt Nigeria’s story need not remain a cycle of “best of times and worst of times.” With the growth of private enterprise, the country urgently needs leadership strong enough to regulate markets, defend the people, and direct industry toward a common good.
This is not a call to imitate a foreign president. It is a call for the emergence of a new leadership class: men and women who are both builders and guardians, who see government not as personal spoils but as a sacred trust. Leadership that is aggressive in nation-building yet unwavering in defending the Nigerian people against harm and exploitation. And this applies to Africa at large. For without such leadership, the continued hazards of Dangote trucks and all they symbolize may one day become the spark of Nigeria’s own reckoning, just as Dickens’ tale foreshadowed the French Revolution. Nigeria needs its Roosevelt.
The Callfor Guardians If Nigeria wishes to avoid that fate, it must change course. It must raise up a leader who is a servant of God, a builder of the African future, and a guardian of the people’s welfare and prosperity.
May the Lions of Progress hear the call of destiny and step forward for service!
Focused Upward, Forever Onward!
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D., MBA Builder of the African Future J.D. Candidate ’25
One of Africa’s insidious governance failures is the obsession with white elephant projects (WEPs), which are big, flashy, and often unsuccessful construction projects that add little value but drain national resources.
Take Nigeria’s “white elephant airports”. A Premium Times investigation details how a ₦15 billion airport in Nasarawa State, commissioned in 2015, remains incomplete and dormant. Contracts were awarded, canceled, and re-awarded. Administrations changed. More money flowed. Yet the project remains moribund. And when journalists requested contract and funding details under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, officials had the audacity to brazenly ignore them.
WEPs are not real development, but a clever way for many officials to look productive, inflate costs, and steal public money.
Nigeria has 32 airports, but a Nairametrics report reveal that in 2022, five airports carried nearly 90% of Nigeria’s 16 million passengers, while the remaining 27 airports carried only 10%. Such failure of governance shows an unpardonable incompetence and sinister greed.
But this problem is deeper than corruption. It reveals a flawed developmental mindset and even an insecurity complex. Leaders are obsessed with “showy projects” that emulate more developed countries to “prove” Africa is advancing. All while ignoring the basics: clean water and distribution, waste management, reliable roads, stable energy, self-sufficient agriculture, public health, quality public education.
Most African countries have not mastered the basics, yet the people (and diaspora) fantasize about tech revolution, dramatic projects, and fancy silicon valley apps far removed from the immediate needs of the people.
An African nation-builder thinks: Tech relies on energy (plus education). Tech without energy is like harvesting an egg without a chicken. Therefore, energy (and education) FIRST.
Many Africans are in a dreamland, and this delusion reflects in the attitude of their leaders with white elephant projects. So the people get the leadership they deserve. Many African government officials today have not only proven themselves to be useless for nation-building, but are now also pestilential and should be compelled out of office.
Yet there is hope. Across the continent, a new class of earnest Africans are awakening who are committed to real change, who understand that a functioning society is built on basics first, and only then can other advancements be layered on top. It is high time such Builders of the African future step forward, unite, and contest to take over African leadership. Real change will only come when visionaries lead by first focusing on the “boring basics” that support the progress of the African people.
That is the task before us: reject the wasteful delusion of white elephants, and build, brick by brick, the solid foundations of African nation-building.
Onward & Upward!
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D., MBA Builder of the African Future
The rift between Mainland Africans and African Americans is troubling. Each looks suspiciously and accuses the other of ill-treatment, condescension, ancestral betrayal, underperformance, indifference, ethnic isolation and more.
Whining over small matters like children with wounded vanity and false pride. It is a pitiful game of ego and small-minded petulance in which both sides are missing the bigger picture!
Namely, the rift ensures their continued mutual subservience to the same global order that enslaved one and colonized the other, and which still exercises undisputed suzerainty over both through entrenched systems and institutions. Instead of leveraging their strategic advantages and unique strengths for shared advancement toward a high aim, they prefer bickering and licking their wounds.
Both sides live under a sinister delusion that they can advance and reach their potential without the other! However, let me be clear: neither can fully overcome their challenges and reach their developmental potential without working together. You are brothers and sisters, ancestrally derived from the same ethnic groups, separated by tragedy, shaped by unique experiences, yet connected by the blood from the same creative African spirit that still flows through your veins!
Mainland Africans: African Americans technical skills, experiences, and strategic positioning are needed for Africa’s next stage of development. Some of the issues you have can be resolved by your siblings from across the ocean whose help and cooperation you sometimes stubbornly reject.
African Americans: Africa is the headquarters of your identity, your homeland and powerbase. Approach it with humility and make a serious effort to ethnically integrate while avoiding the savior complex. Recognize that in Africa are the minerals, resources, governments, and organizations that can strengthen your economic and political position. Many of the issues you face can be resolved by coordinating with your siblings in Africa from whom you often disassociate.
Will collaboration be easy? No. Will it have great challenges and setbacks? Yes. But it is necessary for the mutual advancement of both parties. Remember that every great aim has difficulties, but it is the unshakeable commitment to the high goal that enables all trials to be successfully overcome!
Mainland Africans and African Americans, it is time to honestly resolve the rift, set aside petty differences and work together for higher aims. We are interdependent, capable of helping each other overcome challenges and advance if we collaborate with openness, respect, and patient determination. We are one people, consanguineously interlocked by the unbroken thread of a common heritage, our destinies are tightly interwoven. Let us focus on higher goals that unites us and move us forward as brothers and sisters!
And remember, no matter how long the prodigal son was away, when he returned to his father, his time apart did not change his place as a reunited son and sibling—embraced without hesitation, restored to family! Remember this and work together!
Onward & Upward!
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D., MBA Builder of the African Future
Nigerian-American Dr. Osatohanmwen Osemwengie, dubbed “the US drone builder”, has 4 PhD’s degrees and 7 Master’s degrees. An academic juggernaut in the fields of Robotics and Engineering, he is an indispensable asset to the US Armed Forces where he has shaped the future of military technology as a master drone builder.
So Nigerian leadership let me understand: You struggle with insecurity, have no weapon production industry, and import second-hand military technologies? All while one of your national sons is abroad, working for a foreign government as a robotics and engineering mastermind, and is behind the advanced military technologies for one of the most advanced countries on Earth?
There are no words that can describe such myopia, incompetence, and wretchedness of such abominable leadership and lack of creative vision in view of the immeasurable talents of the people that are being wasted! As an African Statesman once poetically lamented about the persistent habit of African leadership to squander developmental opportunities: “Even when opportunity drops in our laps, we never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity!”
If Nigeria assembles just five of the highest performing and innovative diasporans abroad (in governments and private sectors) operating in each of the national development sectors, locally build an industry around them in coordination with local talent, then organize their activities around the execution of a comprehensive national vision, then I say unto you and hereby speak the following truth into the universe:
…in only 15 years (max 20 years), Nigeria will rise to the level of the US and China! And will become the developmental standard bearer and coordinator of the global African/Black People!
This is not an opinion, but an ungainsayable fact of objective reality!
But this requires real leadership and vision from governance committed to aggressive nation-building! Progressive Nigerians and Africans need to take possession of their weak governments and compel a change in leadership to visionaries who are ready to work and action-oriented!
Oh Africa, how great you could be and yet how weak and disappointing you currently are. No more excuses, just stand up and take control of your destiny! The time has now come for real change, so either African leadership embrace aggressive nation-building, or any impediments therein should now be swept of the way!
Onward & Upward!
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D., MBA Builder of the African Future
News and discussions are circulating about China’s intention to negotiate and sign a new economic pact with Africa that will remove tariffs on 53 African countries (Eswathini not included). Many people are excitedly touting the great opportunities for Africa, including access to China’s sizable domestic market.
However, if you are an African nation-builder who lives in a perpetual state of envisioning and strategic thinking of African interests, seeing beyond the surface and assessing every global geopolitical action from the strategic position of its potential 100-year effect on African development… you will not be moved one bit by such news. Rather you would be cautious, ask objective questions, and even be prompted to conceive and enact safeguarding measures for the welfare of the African people.
There is much value in this proposal for Africa. However, one of my objective concerns is that, considering the disunity and lack of collective strategic cooperation among African leaders, the zero tariff measure is a potential trojan horse for China to capture the benefits that the AfCFTA was supposed to provide Africa.
I will briefly highlight a few points of many others:
The AfCFTA is meant to promote inter-African trade through zero-tariffs, so Africa becomes one marketplace. Increased production and increased supply and demand will increase purchasing power by increasing the rotation of African currencies within Africa. However, by removing tariffs for African countries China has now shrewdly pulled the carpet from under Africa and taken power from the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Agreement)… without many noticing it. How?
China is a master of processes, logistics and efficiency. While that is one of Africa’s weakest points, and African countries have not yet developed the efficient systems and logistics required to fully harness the AfCFTA.
Now China is deeply embedded in African countries today, so with this zero-tariff measure they will just use their established presence and pipeline to make it easier and more efficient for African goods to go to China INSTEAD of another African country. Thereby intercepting the AfCFTA! This is not nefarious on China’s part, just shrewd business!
And once again, African leadership is in disarray and found sleeping! And of course, the African Union as usual will remain in the ineffective shadows, comatose.
When I look at Africa, my mind is seriously always blown by the chaotic and terrible state of its leadership (few exceptions). I search my soul, and I find no understanding for the poor and embarrassing display of statesmanship that I see from African leaders today. The people are so talented and accomplished, but its leadership…! Let me stop now before my blood pressure rises and I get a headache.
In short, African leadership needs leadership.
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D., MBA Builder of the African Future
Excerpts from “A Bucket of Water”: Reflections on Sustainable Rural Development by Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze.
“The three-quarters of the world’s poor who live in rural areas are responsible for up to 80 percent of the food produced in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia (IFAD, 2016c), yet many must buy food for their own table (Christiaensen and Demery, 2007).”
“It is a terrible irony that so many who produce food for others must buy it for themselves. But more than that, it is a travesty because smallholders are penalized at both ends. Lack of access to markets, poor infrastructure, and other causes often prevent smallholder farmers from benefitting from higher food prices. At the same time, they must pay these high prices to feed their own families.”
“Against this backdrop, we must confront the question of how humanity will feed and sustain itself in the future. The world is becoming increasingly urban, yet cities are still fed by people working the land in rural areas. The health of urban dwellers depends on the quality of the water that flows into cities from rural areas. And without strong rural economies that offer decent jobs and dignified living conditions, the exodus to cities will continue unabated, creating social, economic, and environmental instability.” ~(Nwanze, 2017, p. 4-5)
Further Excerpts from “Africa Unchained”: The Blueprint for Africa’s Future by George B.N. Ayittey
“The third, and perhaps the most important, reason for the failure of collective agriculture was the neglect and downright denigration of peasant traditional farmers. These farmers would have responded to the call to increase output had they been given the right incentives. As Times (June 6, 1986) put it:
‘By and large, African peasants are capable farmers. The problem is that … African states provide little incentive to grow more food. The state-set prices are kept low to please city residents, but in many areas they are not high enough to pay farmers for the cost of production. Unable to make a living on the land, farmers join the exodus to the cities, compounding the hunger problem (p.37).’”
“And even the World Bank acknowledged as far back as 1982 in its World Development Report that: ‘Small farmers can be highly productive, typically producing more from each acre than large farmers do, despite the often considerable disadvantages of their limited access to services, markets and production inputs such as fertilizer’ (West Africa, Aug 23, 1982; p. 2147).” (Ayittey, 2005, p. 257)
“… the authorities need to recognize that peasant farmers produce the bulk (over 90 percent) of Africa’s foodstuffs and about 80 percent of these peasant farmers are women.” (Ayittey, 2005, p. 259)
Reflections & Next Steps in relation to African Development by Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah
A brief overview:
Three-quarters of the world’s poor who live in rural areas in Africa produce about 80-90 percent of Africa’s food, and the majority are women.
Despite producing most of Africa’s food, most of these smallholder farmers must still buy food for their own table and, due to a combination of factors preventing them from selling/benefiting from higher food prices, they still pay these higher prices to feed their families.
Small farmers in Africa can be highly productive and even produce more per acre than large farmers, despite systemic discrimination and considerable disadvantages of limited access to services, markets, and other production inputs.
From this survey, it follows that a well-established agricultural value chain with the foundation of productive smallholder farming in Africa will have the most immediate and comprehensive effect on national economic growth, poverty, and employment of most of the population of African countries. Thus, smallholder farming and rural development must be a primary focus area for national development agendas.
Next Steps for African Governments
The next steps for many African governments is to significantly invest in smallholder farming and build out the various components of the agricultural value chain, with a strategic focus on rural development with linkages to markets. Markets not only within the African country, but also within the continent by leveraging the AfCFTA. The African Union 2003 Maputo Declaration called on member states allocate at least 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture and rural development. Based on the comprehensive effect of the agricultural value chain on the developmental trajectory of African countries, I recommend an allocation of 10-20 percent.
At first glance the recommendation seems high and appears it will encroach on the budgetary allocations for other critical sectors. However, it only appears so until one understands that the entire agricultural value chain embraces other sectors (e.g. roads, transportation, education). An issue with African governance is the lack of long-term national planning and policy coherence between the different sectors, so often money allocated for one sector is not strategically coordinated to have a multiplicity of effects on others! The consequence for Africa is disjointed budgeting, waste, and a bloated and ineffective government with poor implementation. Thus, my recommendation of 10-20 percent investment also presupposes the onset of policy coherence for strategic African nation-building.
Consider roads. Today many African governments concentrate road projects around major cities and often neglect the rural areas. However, as rural areas are the lifeblood of agriculture that feeds Africa, it is important to build road networks (among other things) in rural communities that connect smallholders to markets and which enables parts of the agriculture value chain to easily interact with them. Transporters should not have to battle through hazardous roads just to reach smallholders and deliver their necessary goods to market. If they do, the prices are marked up (officially or unofficially through private payments) which then lowers the margin of smallholders and puts them at an economic disadvantage to sell at a price that may not cover the cost of production. Overtime this issue and others like artificial price suppression, frustrates smallholders and causes many to start leaving farming and pursue other urban opportunities. The consequence is lower food production, higher prices, more agriculture imports, loss of agricultural self-sufficiency, increased urban congestion and slums, higher poverty and unemployment, continual national decline and more!
Roads in a country are analogous to blood vessels in the body, and are networks meant to connect two areas that, once joined, would trigger broader socioeconomic development and have the most wide-ranging effect on the people. Every road build should have a feasibility study that details how it strategically coordinates with and supports the 25–50-year national development plans embracing all sectors. Every action by African government must be both comprehensive and practical. Thus, if the hand that feeds Africa comes from the rural areas, it makes sense to build and maintain effective roads that the hand must pass to figuratively “put food in the urban mouth”.
Summarized Next Steps —> Ensure effective road networks as linkages of smallholder farmers to the value chain and markets. —> Invest 10-20 percent of national budget in building the agricultural value chain. —> Investment should be within the framework of long-term national planning. —> Ensure policy and strategy coherence between the different sectors in budgetary allocations.
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D., MBA Builder of the African Future
Why do African Peoples still use foreign names? And next steps.
I once visited a business and was attended by a Cameroonian lady. During conversation I asked her name, and she said “Jane”. I then asked about her real name…her African name. She smiled and said she does not have one. I was confounded, and this initiated a friendly dialogue between us about the practice of Africans adopting foreign names.
It has become habitual for the Global African People to have and give their children foreign names. Even if they are born and raised in Africa. What is the origin of this practice? And how can we change it?
For Africans it stems from colonization and religious imperialism. For African descendants it is the slave trade in which enslaved Africans were forced to relinquish their original African ethnic groups and adopt a European name.
Religious groups like Christianity encouraged Africans to adopt a biblical name to fully convert. but this was just cultural imperialism masked in religious evangelism. Using two biblical examples: Saul became Paul and Simon became Peter after an inner spiritual change. Their names changed but within the SAME broader ethnic group. Africans see this, miss the point, and change names to a different race. Additionally, African names often even have a direct reference to the Creator in their meaning. So objectively why change it?
Among African Americans, despite achieving freedom for decades very few have bothered to reclaim their ethnic identity and change their names, or at least give their children an African name. Today both groups have become so comfortable with this practice that most will argue till thy kingdom come why they should keep it.
People will give many reasons, but their roots are mostly the same: generational habit, assimilation for social/professional ascension, and deification of all things foreign. You are African… why are you running from an African name? Do you see Europeans or Westerners giving themselves African names? Here are recommended next steps:
-For African descendants: Individuals, families, and marital couples can adopt an African ethnic group, choose a last name, then change names. Or to start small adopt an African first or middle name. When people have children, give them an African name from an adopted African ethnic group. I believe all African descendants on earth should have an African name.
-For Africans and African in the diaspora: No explanations needed. You are African, so just give yourselves and your children African names. The practice of foreign middle names, unless necessary through marriage, should end. You can even choose a “softer” middle name from your ethnic group or one from another African ethnic group.
The message here is for the global African peoples to start reclaiming their ethnic identity through the name, and thus start correcting the erroneous practices that originated from historical cultural disruptions and intrusions by foreign parties.
Names are words, and words have power. Remember in the beginning was the Word, and the Word is the Creator who has a Name that releases Creative Powers. Thus, the ethnic name on earth for human beings is the starting point of personal beingness and power. When your parents call you by your real African name, do you not inwardly feel a mysterious power resounding in it? It is time to reclaim it.
And I practice what I preach! For I was born with an English middle name, but I recently reclaimed my ethnic sovereignty by changing it to an Igbo one. But this is reserved for another post.
~Dr. Ikenna A. Ezealah, Ph.D., MBA Builder of the African Future
Nation Upbuilding 