Africa the past three decades:an evaluation

Abstract

It is no revelation that the past three decades’ development experience in Africa has been a total failure. The euphoria that accompanied the granting of formal independence during the latter half of this period has given way to bitter disappointments, recriminations and successive coup d’états as more and more latter day saviors present themselves to liberate the people from under development. They promise much and often choose their names accordingly rational liberation council, national redemption council etc. but try as they mighty, they usually end up as internal occupation forces. There are few countries in Africa today that cannot boast of a series of governments and/or development plans but all these notwithstanding no ground has been gained even in the rather dubious avowed official policy of catching up with the industrialized west not to mention the laying of the foundations for a more self-centered autonomous development. The record of the performance of African economies over the past fifteen years or so does in fact demonstrate this.