In their prickly reaction to my April 16 Washington Post #ChinaMustPay
article (a response published in the Guardian Newspaper of May 3, 2020),
the Government of China through their Embassy in Nigeria missed the
opportunity to responsibly address the serious issues raised.
I must repeat that Africa deserves to be paid a compensation for the
damages COVID-19 pandemic is inflicting on lives and livelihoods.
Unfortunately and unfairly, my country, Nigeria, is one of fifty-four
countries in Africa that are struggling to respond to the disruptive
effects of China’s failure to take responsibility for a pandemic that
could have been easily contained and localized to avoid the ruin it has
caused our continent and the world at large.
Since Beijing failed to adhere to basic scientific and research
transparency in the critical early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in
Wuhan, it must accept responsibility with humility.
Therefore, a legitimate demand for accountability and payment of
penalties by rich and powerful countries for damages their behaviors do
to vulnerable people ought not to attract the kind of sour response
China released.
There are six points that authorities in Beijing ought to humbly
consider.
First, it is now clear to the world that China’s opaque handling of the
pandemic is costing my country, our continent and people too much in
lost lives and livelihoods. The unjustified suffering of the poor and
vulnerable brought on by the actions of a comparatively rich and
powerful country demands a new system for addressing global inequities.
I maintain that information in the public domain points to the fact that
China suppressed vital information from the rest of the world on
COVID-19. The burden to present convincing counter-factual information
lies with China and,so far, it has failed to do so.
Second, I assert again that China owes Africa yet-to-be-estimated
compensation. Its acts of negligence in December and early January
resulted in a fast-spreading global pandemic that collapsed the
continent’s economic growth from 2.9% in 2019 to negative 5.1% in 2020.
Most importantly, China should, in the interim, take responsibility and
ease the severe fiscal pressure on our countries, by announcing a
cancellation of over $140 Billion in loans its government, contractors
and banks have advanced to Africa over the last two decades.
Following this debt cancelation, an international consortium made up of
the G20, China, Africa Union Commission and global institutions like the
United Nations, World Bank and IMF should be constituted to assess the
full extent of damages and the compensation due.
Third, Chinese authorities should know that we are Africans who are not
lackeys of any power. Laying a baseless charge of “dancing to the tune
of others” to an African reveals an appalling mindset toward our
continent. It may in fact be this same sort of attitude that frames the
extremely offensive profiling of Africans who are resident in China.
We do not dance to the drumbeat of any country or any continent — our
sole tune is the African Beat.
Fourth, the spirit of transparency ought to be in China’s own interest.
It is intriguing that Beijing has so far failed to embrace my suggestion
to allow an Independent International Panel of Experts to review and
assess China’s handling of the COVID19 pandemic. Why? Is China afraid of
full disclosure that can help the world learn vital lessons on how to
manage global threats and risks better?
Fifth, this global New Normal requires faster prevention of cross-border
risks and threats. The best antidotes to minimize global negative
externalities that harm the weak and vulnerable are absolute
transparency and removal of information asymmetries by countries.
As part of this New Normal, the global community has a duty to learn and
correct past failures to penalize bad behavior. My #ChinaMustPay article
is a call therefore to innovate global mechanisms that compel countries
to start now to do the right things whenever risks and threats emerge.
Innovation is what China rode on to economic greatness. What then is
wrong with asking for such as a legitimate part of our global New
Normal?
Sixth, it should be in China’s historic and conscientious national
interest to prevent future exploitation of vulnerable countries by
economic supwerpowers. I did acknowledge previous global risks that
similarly emanated from other rich and powerful countries and injured
Africa’s economic growth and development. I find it hard to believe that
China, given its history and experience with colonial mistreatment,
would want this cyclical pattern to continue. Do the authorities in
Beijing really want Africans to simply accept harmful actions of rich
and powerful countries?
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in an April 2020
report on coronavirus pandemic stated that “over 300,000 Africans may
lose their lives due to COVID-19.” According to the Africa Union
Commission, the coronavirus is already collapsing many economies in
Africa and worsening poverty. Already, the livelihoods of hundreds of
millions on the continent, especially children, young people and women
are already lost to the damaging economic disruptions caused by
COVID-19.
The IMF calls the impact of the pandemic on Africa as “the worst reading
on record”. It went further to state that Africa’s “Fiscal space is
limited, and fiscal financing needs to address the crisis are large – at
least $114 billion for this year”. International rating agencies have
massively downgraded the credit ratings of African countries making
investors more skittish.
I proposed a penalty system in the form of a Global Risk Burden Tax that
will from now be payable to weaker and more vulnerable countries and
their people whenever forced to bear a disproportionate burden from
preventable global risks that emanate from rich and powerful
countries.Such penalty tax would also serve as a disincentive to prevent
the kind of unbecoming actions and decisions that escalated the spread
of the deadly virus out of Wuhan.
China must know that where our lives and livelihoods are concerned, no
country, regardless of how powerful it may be, can intimidate us
Africans ever again.
Beijing should do the right thing now and accept the debt it owes Africa
as a result of its failures on COVID-19. That is how responsible world
powers should behave in the 21st Century if they are to be taken
seriously.
Ezekwesili is the former vice-president for the Africa region at the
World Bank and the former minister of education for Nigeria. She is the
co-convener of #BringBackOurGirls Movement.