Bai Gbala feels that the African Diaspora having, “abandoned Africa” has, “correspondingly failed to fulfil the responsibility and obligation conditional to the enjoyment of the right of free speech to criticize.” Basically if you are an African living abroad you should shut up because you have lost your right to criticise African governments. He wrote this in response to Prof. Chinua Achebe rejection of Nigeria’s second highest award, the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), saying he was dissatisfied with the handling of the country’s affairs by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
A couple of people told Bai Gbala where he can stick his opinions.
Pamoja Tuangamize Ukimwi
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November 14, 2004 at 1:02 am
Mshairi
Leaving aside the allegation that Bai Gbala was involved in governments with appalling human rights records, Bai Gbala should also remember Africans abroad send remittances worth billions of dollars back to the continent. Perhaps not in a way that ensures structured investment but funds that assist Africa’s growth, nevertheless. Surely this, if nothing else, gives them the right to criticise?
November 16, 2004 at 10:03 am
Mental Acrobatics
Mshairi thanks for your comment.
A http://www.afford-uk.org/resources/download/nepad_african_development.pdf [pdf doc] by the African Foundation for Development [AFFORD] looks at the issues you raise. Remittances sent home by Africans in the diaspora each year is thought to run into billions of dollars. The sum is thought to exceed the amount of economic aid by more than quarter. The Ghanaian government estimates annual remittances from Ghanaians abroad to be between $350m and $400m, surpassed only by gold and cocoa exports in significance to the economy. President Musevini believes that Ugandans abroad are Uganda’s biggest export, as they send home some $400m a year, in excess of declining coffee exports, formally Uganda’s biggest export earner. Quoting various IMF studies, Professor Una Okonkwo Osili of Indiana University notes that in Sudan, workers’ remittances averaged $417m dollars in 1995-98, representing over 70% of the export total and three-and-a-half times the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI). The figure for Nigeria over the same period was over $1.3bn, 10% of the value of exports and roughly equal to the total of FDI. Between 1994-97, Malian workers remitted $103m, equivalent to 23.3% of export value and greater than FDI.
This is yet another example that the idea that Africans in the diaspora have abandoned the continent is only a myth.