It is amazing how the future emerges from the present as it eats away the past.The past that is passing away is the Nation
State system,while the future as it is is the
globalised world,ushered in steadily by the electronic age of today. it is easy to see the future looking at how the electronic age works. The no holds bare information flow, unrestrained by borders and customs, has stripped away the shine from a now dusty conpartmentalised world where power blocks used to hold sware. Unfortunately the Nation state persists with its teeth closed in the grip of death.And there lies the danger for the future,the contradiction for the very existence of a balanced globalised world.
Look at the senario. Audio, video and text can travel through borders without taxation and tarrifs.Everybody can be served equally all the time.The English language has become the global reference language without patent or extra charge by the Queen of England.Today you can work in London living in India.American companies are based in Taiwan paying tax there,yet producing for their home market.Politics has gone full circle. Today small Iraq can determine who controls the American Congress andno fees are considered for these services.
Now let us consider the other senario. Despite openness in informationflow Africa is seemingly being excluded as if they do not belong here.Africa wallows in poverty in the midst of global plenty.While WTO< World Trade Organisation>wants trade barrears to go away, America wants to retain Monstrous Agricultural subsidies that strangulate African productions and outputs.
While Africans share information America ,retainsher food suppluses in the midst of so much starvation in Africa.America drains away the best of African brains through the Annual visa lottery to replennish her dying stock at home and keep African governments in perpectually disadvantaged positions in terms of human resources.In another vein, European countries are tightening their borders from imigrant Africans and may even consider to electrify the seas to keep them away..It is all happening to a globalised World,and there lies the paradox.
Now why is this happening to Africa? You may ask.Reasons are saidto benumerous.' That Africans are not civilised and may dilute the systems of service delivery in these countries if given the chance to mix freely.Examples come from Credit card scams, Advance fee frauds, corruption ,etc.'
But the global imperative of unity cannot go away because some governments want to retain their purity of systems after working so hard in their history to bring about globalisation thinking about only the profit making side of things.Remember how the African culture was vandalised in those heady days of slavery and 'discovery' of what has since existed and flurished,and you begin to see the picture of todays unrestrained migration to developed countries. It also gives you an idea of the remedy
The world must join hands to work out solutions for African problems or it will continue to haunt everyone.It is useless baring Africans and particularly Nigerians from global transactions on the internet and in trade through
discrimination.It will only lead to imbalance in the emergent global system and portends the germ of death to the future that binds all of us.Let us all support the work of some futuristic world leaders like Tony blair and Bill Clinton who are trying to bring Global balance by formulating and encouraging policies that would help Africa solve her problems herself.Such global strategies as Transparency. and corruption. initiatives.I am refering to the EITI initiatives and Peer review mechanisms which gives African governments the opportunity to provide good governance.These initiatives also provide an avenue for Africa to join the global system as an equal not relegating her to an object of global scum.
Now is the time to help solve Aricas food problems by removing agricultural subsidies in the developed world.This must eed quickly before the civilised world is subdued by the flood arising from global warming.It is important we prepare to spread investments in all parts of the world in order to sustain the global system when natural catastrophy strikes.It is always unwise to put all your eggs in one basket and the structure of todays globalised economy is clearly an indication of how the future world should be organised.
NWOKEDI NWORISARA