John O. Ifediora. In African societies, especially those found in West and Central Africa, important personal and collective decisions have perennially been made from the vantage point of clan or group interest. While Western democracies may trace democratic principles to ancient Greece, Africans have known and practiced its essence from time immemorial, for decisions on social matters are seldom made without proper consultations with members of the clan, the elders or ‘titled’ men or women in the community. Depending on the matter to be resolved, deference is usually given to the elders or titled men (Chiefs) during deliberation,…
Author: CASADE
As far back as the early 1960s when many African countries were gaining political independence, and the middle class consisted of salaried civil servants, there was a decidedly clear preference for men and women who carried extra fat on their frames. Then, being opulent in body features was indicative of financial well-being and the willingness to put such capacity in full public display. The pejorative term, ‘obesity,’ was inapplicable then, and is indeed of modern origin in application. Thus, it was fashionable to be fat in Africa for it conduced to the prevailing understanding of what it meant to be…
*Hinh Dinh, a Chief Economist at the World Bank, makes a compelling argument in this article. By 2020 we can expect to see another 250 million people living on the African continent. Most African countries will therefore need to create significant numbers of jobs to provide for their young populations. Yet progress in industrialisation, a vital job creation sector, has so far been slow. Poor infrastructure, a lack of access to land and access to finance continue to hold development back, mitigating the comparative advantages provided by low labour costs. Indeed, Africa’s share of global light manufacturing stands at less…
CASADE EDITORIAL COMMENTARY. As a countermeasure, yes; but must be complemented with other relevant policy options, for the simple reason that the motivations for corrupt practices are multifaceted, and reflect the diversity of individual and societal preference functions. Not only do we have anecdotal evidence to support the claim that better pay scales for civil servants conduce to lower levels of corruption, but empirical research also points to this effect, e.g. Rijckeghen /Weder, and Ackerman. The consensus amongst experts in development economics (Kligaard, Ackerman) is that sustained economic development tends to suppress the incidence of bureaucratic corruption. This implies that…
John O. Ifediora. From antiquity to the present, Jews have lived in a wide assortment of societies in which they account for a very insignificant percentage of the population but almost invariably achieve higher educational and professional accomplishments than typically obtains in those societies that afford them minimal autonomy (Goldstein, 2012). Even in societies that are decidedly hostile to them, Jews continue to be better educated, more charitable to one another, and live a more stable family life than their non-Jewish counterparts (Prager and Telushkin, 2003). The singularity of this observation is more obvious in Western democracies; this is especially…
Reviewed by Jake Okechukwu Effoduh (Assistant Director, CASADE). King Leopold’s Ghost (1998) is a best-selling popular history book by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908, as well as the atrocities that were committed during that period. The book aims to increase public awareness of crimes committed by European colonial rulers in Africa. It was refused by nine of the ten U.S. publishing houses to which an outline was submitted, but became an unexpected bestseller and won the prestigious Mark Lynton History Prize for…
Environmentalists have lampooned the outcomes of the recently-concluded Conference of Parties (COP) Climate Talks in Lima, Peru and described the failure of developed nations to cede ground on contentious issues beneficial to poor countries as a reminder of “missteps” of previous talks. At the United Nations annual confab tagged COP 20 in Lima, 196 nations agreed that each should present a plan in 2015 for individually reducing greenhouse gas pollution. Demands from poorer countries received little attention at the talks, including a proposal that nations like the United States be more explicit on how billions of dollars will be channeled to…
Daron Acemoglu2 Simon Johnson3 James A. Robinson4 Abstract: Botswana has had the highest rate of per-capita growth of any country in the world in the last 35 years. This occurred despite many adverse initial conditions including minimal investment during the colonial period, and high inequality. Botswana achieved this rapid development by choosing orthodox economic policies. Although the situation in Botswana is not without serious problems (for example with respect to the incidence of AIDS and the persistence of inequality), how Botswana managed to implement these policies is a puzzle because typically in Africa, “good economics” is bad politics. In this…
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, in a speech given in Abuja on November 26, 2014, once again reasserts his firm grasp of matters that face Nigerians. We find his incisive presentation compelling and persuasive enough to make a vast portion of it available to our audience. Here is an excerpt of his speech entitled “The Story of My Two Worlds: Challenges, Experiences and Achievements.” “Let me start with the issue of security. Boko Haram is not simply a menace based on religion or one directed to frustrate anybody’s political ambition. It is essentially a socio-economic problem that is tainted…
Reviewed by Warren Bass. Bass is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation and a former adviser to U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice. “Why Nations Fail” is a sweeping attempt to explain the gut-wrenching poverty that leaves 1.29 billion people in the developing world struggling to live on less than $1.25 a day. You might expect it to be a bleak, numbing read. It’s not. It’s bracing, garrulous, wildly ambitious and ultimately hopeful. It may, in fact, be a bit of a masterpiece. Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, two energetic, widely respected development scholars, start…