By Simeon Ugbodovon
Donald Trump is meteorically rocking boats, from the United States to its neighbours, other continents and international organisations.
The latest salvo that emitted groans and grunts worldwide was Trump’s sledge hammer on United States Agency for International Development, USAID.
To the US President, USAID’s spending is “totally unexplainable”, arguing also that USAID is “incompetent and corrupt”.
POTUS matched his view with announcement of huge cuts to the USAID’s 10,000-strong workforce and the immediate suspension of almost all of its aid programmes.
This was a Tsunami of some sort as the US agency spends about $40bn (£32bn) – about 0.6% of total US yearly government spending on humanitarian aid, much of which goes towards health programmes.
Much of the money is spent in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.
And already, there are whimpering here and there. WHO has voiced concerns, saying HIV treatments and other services have been disrupted in 50 countries, as the freeze on tens of billions of dollars of overseas aid from the US has affected programmes to tackle HIV, polio, mpox and bird flu.
WHO chief, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is not sleeping over the storm, pleading that Trump rethink resuming aid funding in the interim.
Besides the effects of USAID’s dismantling on health, there are concerns that almost $500 million in food aid sits in ports, ships and warehouses, risking spoilage.
These trepidations underscore the enormous global significance of USAID since its creation by President John F. Kennedy created USAID by executive order on November 3, 1961.
For instance, USAID spent more than $12 billion in sub-Saharan Africa in 2024, the majority on humanitarian and health aid. Nigeria, like other African countries, is a significant recipient of U.S. foreign aid, receiving $1.02 billion in 2023. USAID funds plays pivotal role in HIV/AIDS treatment, maternal and child care, and disease prevention efforts in the country.
As nations engage in hues and cries over the gaps created by Trump’s decision on health, food and other humanitarian aids, wisdom calls for a crucial pause and reflection.
Particularly, African leaders are prime focus here. For how long will the continent continue to go plate in hands, groveling for handout?
It is an aberration that a continent enviably endowed with resources, and considered brides to be coveted by the world’s political and economic giants, has continued to oscillate in the circus of the beggarly.
And the reason is not farfetched -CORRUPTION, a damming albatross in the continent.
The chief culprits are various African leaders, who see access to power as opportunity for self aggrandisement, and that with impunity!
They, along with their cronies and acolytes live in opulence, indulgent lavish lifestyle spending millions purchasing exotic cars, palatial mansions outside the continent depriving millions of Africans of their basic needs like food, health, education, housing, access to clean water and sanitation.
Worst still, and most unfortunate, their greeds do not spare even loans and aids.
African corrupt leaders and officials have havens abroad for their illicit wealth, channelling the fortunes into the international financial system or countries with former colonial ties.
What a good expose the Panama Papers was in this regard.
Some use family members as fronts.
Ironically, when most African leaders make loud noise about fighting corruption, it is simply playing to the gallery.
Thankfully, Transparency International is not fooled by their hypocrisy. Citizens have equally long ceased to be deceived, one hardly finds any government rated positively on its anti-corruption efforts by a clear majority of its citizens.
In 2016, an investigator for Global Witness, an organization dedicated to fighting corruption worldwide, revealed that 12 of the 13 law firms he had approached were open to discussing moving illicit money from Africa to the U.S.
Firms, banks, real estate professionals and public relations companies are part of the webs used for this criminal actions.
Also, a recent report by the Brookings Institution estimated that between 1980 and 2018, foreign direct investment and official development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa reached nearly $2 trillion, whereas illicit financial flows from the region reached $1 trillion.
It is high time international collaborators assisting Africa’s unscrupulous leaders and officials to fleece and make their citizens perpetual paupers, reconsider the implications of their actions on posterity on the continent.
As for African leaders, it is time to wake up to reality. The termination of USAID largesse is a type of foreshadow.
The resources in their nations, crude oil, uranium, ore, bauxite, lithium or whatever, are exhaustible.
When they time out, what will they do, sit down crying?
Wise and visionary, for example, those in the Arab world, like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar are already looking beyond their oil wealth.
Time for rethink in Africa, kleptomania and visionless galvanising will lead the continent nowhere.
