(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
When Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo opened an annual meeting of the African Development Bank, ADB, in Lagos on May 18, one of the items on the agenda was to elect the new bank's new head. He will succeed Moroccan Omar Kabajj, who has led the bank for ten years. That process revealed a lot of the disputes that we otherwise don't see as much.
Because despite the bank having a clear goal, economic development for the continent, this is also about disputes between the African countries, between the African and international owners, to position themselves in relation to a possible extension of the UN Security Council, and less on alternative strategies for African development.
After two days of intense negotiations, lobbying, political pressure and prestige, the parties departed without having managed to rally a new president. An extraordinary board meeting must therefore be held in Tunis next month.
African countries own 60 percent of ADB, while other non-regional owners account for 40 percent. The two largest owners here are the United States with 6,5 percent and Japan with 5,4 percent. Norway has an ownership interest of 1,1 per cent.
rematch
The fact that Obasanjo had been scheduled to attend Lagos' annual meeting was seen as a strong card in the fight for the leadership role, for Nigeria itself had of course a candidate. It also had Rwanda, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Gabon and Cameroon.
The rules for the election of a leader work so that the African countries have the deciding word. At the same time, the person elected as leader must have a majority of the African countries' votes, while he or she must have a majority of all the votes in the back.
After two days of election, Nigerian Olabisi Ogunjobi and Rwandan Donald Kaberuka stood back. The last vote gave Ogunjobi a majority of the African votes, while Kaberuka, Rwanda's planning and finance minister, had the majority of the total number of votes in the back. Thus, a new election must be held in Tunis next month.
Internally among the African countries, there seems to be some dissatisfaction with Nigeria's increasingly dominant economic role, and it is expected, for example, that South Africa does not want to further strengthen Nigeria's position. Holding the important position of head of the bank is also considered a strong card in relation to the debate that is raging over which African country should be awarded the first permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
Head Shaking
Olabasi Ogunjobi, the bank's vice president for Western and Central Africa, is expected to remedy the country's painful defeat to the same leadership job in 1995. With a supposedly strong candidate, Saheed Abdullahi, the country still had to sit on the sidelines, due to the military regime's Sani Abacha was not considered stubborn enough.
In this year's debate, it was pointed out by many that the election of Rwandan Kaberuka could give a long-awaited boost to a country still struggling with the aftermath of the civil war that ended in 1994. The United States and Britain, which supported Kaberuka, claimed it was Nigeria's candidate, Ogunjobi, which is too weak, and not a Nigerian candidacy per se. From the Nigerian side, this was met with head-shaking, as long as Ogunjobi already holds a high position in the bank, according to This Day newspaper.
Nigeria has one more strong card in the fight for the leadership position. In 1976, the country established its own fund, the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF), which together with the African Development Fund constitutes the African Development Bank. Alongside a relatively high interest in the bank, this gives the country a position as one of the bank's most important contributors. Nigeria has so far put $ 540 million in the NTF, and holds the highest percentage of African voters, at 8,9 percent. Number two in the series is Egypt, with a 5 percent share.
Less African?
But this is not just an internal African dispute. Several foreign owners also fear that Nigeria's position in the bank will become too dominant, as the country already has several directors in the bank, a large stake and NTF. At the same time, several foreign owners, among others, fear that Ogunjobi will work to limit the power of foreign owners, by changing the voting rules. Such a development does not want the West.
Precisely the fact that Kaberuka had the foreign owners behind him, with over 90 percent of their votes, raised concerns among some that he would become a puppet for powerful, non-African interests. The Nigerian press in particular has designated Kaberuka as a "less African candidate" than Ogunjobi. It fell very heavily on the chest of the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame. At a press conference in the capital Kigali this week, he reached out to the statements.
Kagame pointed out that Kaberuka actually had a majority of the African countries behind it, but still a minority of the votes. That does not make him any less African, he stated. "It is wrong to say that our candidate is less African, just because he received fewer African votes than the opposing candidate. Look at Kaberuka; he is black, he is actually blue, not just black. He is very dark, very African, if that is what people are looking for ", thundered Kagame, according to the newspaper The New Times.
Increased exports
At the same time, figures for last year show that it is not completely dark in the African economy. Recent figures show that Africa's exports to the United States under the so-called African Growth and Opportunity Act increased by 88 percent in 2004, to a total of $ 26,6 billion. The five-year-old agreement ensures that most of the exporting countries between countries are duty-free.
Most of the increase is in oil, which led to a 56 percent increase for Nigeria and 25 percent for Gabon, according to the Business Day newspaper. For South Africa, exports have increased by 29 per cent, and are essentially all about platinum, diamonds and ferro alloys.
Last year's figures do not, however, reflect the major problems currently affecting the African textile industry. Increasingly, there are reports of new factories closing the doors, as a result of fierce Chinese competition after the country's WTO restrictions were lifted by New Year.
Now the anger is directed at foreign owners in the African textile industry, which, with Agoa legislation in mind, has established production in a number of African countries over the past five years. What was seen as a possible boom in the African industry was only a short-lived adventure until cheaper production could be obtained elsewhere.
One example is Malaysian Ramatex, which started production in Namibia in 2002. At the end of March this year it was over and 1.600 people were left without work. Many of the employees were foreign workers; Last year, Namibian authorities sent out 400 Bangladeshis, who had neither valid working documents nor satisfactory living conditions at the factory, reports Irin news service.
