STREET PLEASED WITH COUPS IN AFRICA
[The succession of coups d'état in Africa in the past year have been greeted with considerable satisfaction in U.S. imperialist circles. They see them as.either blows against socialist tendencies (Ghana) ;.or against undue instability arising:from flagrant corruption and inefficiency (Nigeria). Wall Street wants Africa made safe for : investments and high profits.
[the way’ American big business views the series of overturns in Africa is indicated in the following article by Lloyd Garrison, datelined from Lagos, which appeared in the May 15 New York Times. ]
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it is an accepted generalization that governmental coups create "instability" and instability in turn upsets local commerce and creates anxiety among investors abroad.
Therefore, it is said, coups are "bad" and countries holding to the status quo are therefore "good."
But-like most generalizations, there are apt to be exceptions. And for the’°moment at least, Africa's six coups within the last six months have conformed more to the exception than the rule.
“Has-local business shrunk at the point of a gun? Have investments ariea: “up? The answer in almost every case is "no.
What has happened here in Nigeria offers perhaps the best example.
This most populous of African markets was long viewed by many as the most stable, most democratic and most fertile territory for free enterprise in all of Africa.
Then came January's military putsch and the murder of Prime Minister Tafawa Abubakar Balewa. Nigeria's solid reputation, ballooned by the State Department and Whitehall, seemed to be destroyed overnight. But was it?
To many veteran observers here at the scene, Nigeria had begun cracking at its political seams long before the coup. Two successive fraudulent elections to maintain the status quo had made a mockery of Nigeria's pretense of being:a democracy.
In the violence that followed last fall's rigged elections in the Western Region, hundreds had been killed, and were still being killed, up to the time of the coup.
Less than four months have passed. Now, by any objective standard, Nigeria is far more stable than it was before the military struck.
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Anthony D.. Marshall, the New York-based president of the African Research and Development Company, Inc., reflects the feeling of many investors here.
The other day, Mr. Mat'shall paid his. first visit to Nigeria. . since ‘the coup. Sipping a gin and tonic before lunch in the Bristol Hotel, he weighed the. question of what: changes had struck him most vividly. . :
"Well," he said, "things are politically much calmer -- the coup seems unquestionably popular. : Five months ago I wouldn't have driven through the Western Region for fear of the rioting and the road blocks..Now there's nothing to fear." . -
The facts bear out Mr. Marshall's renewed confidence in Nigeria.
‘Trade is now flowing uninterrupted from the powerful Northern Region down through the west .to this seaport capital of Lagos.
.. alk. of the Eastern Region's secession, so.prevalent during the political crisis that led up to the coup, is a thing of the. past.
| Corrupt politicians who headed the Federal ministries have been swept from power and replaced by: highly respected: professional civil servants. am
Gone are the once automatic bribe offers for contract awards. Gone also are the get-rich-quick deals by which foreign contractor finance companies sold the Government a plant and equipment of frequently dubious economic value to.the: country as a whole.
Nigeria's economic outlook has never been better. Its foreign currency reserves are up. Oil has become its top-export -- promising en even bigger influx of hardicurrency for investment. And from | Washington come reports that the World Bank is all but certain to inject fresh capital into Nigeria’ s development plan.
Private: investment has: hardly been. deterred. by the coup. For example two American companies that had projects in.the works before Prime Minister Balewa's downfall have decided to go ahead with ther: Chase International is expanding a textile mill outside Lagos and a Gulf Coast’ combine is: (going to work on a shrimp | freezing. plant in Port Harcourt. ;
The reasons: behind Africa’ Ss: - coups vary slightly from. country to country. But they seem to represent several common characteristics.
First, their objectives: were to restore. order, to end corruption, cut spiraling costs, inject a sense of discipline and national purpose where the politicians had failed.
What has emerged is a coalition of army men at the top ‘in
alliance with the civil servants at the second echelon.'In short, the coup'wave -has been a revolution of the technocrats... It is not a radical revolution -- the coup leaders do not fancy themselves as ideologues, but, as realists.
‘In’ Détiontiey and: the Central ‘African Republic, the ‘Communist Chinese were’ expelled. In Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah's ‘dependence ‘on both Peking and Moscow has been reversed overnight; now, private enterprise, both Ghanaian and foreign, has a chance to breathe.
No observers can be found here who will predict that all of the coups will succeed in fulfilling their promises.
~ General Mobutu in the Congo, like his predecessors, faces the constant possibility of political downfall, not so much: froma matter of incompetence, but from the sheer weight of the Congo's. seen— ingly insurmountable problems: =
~The ‘coups in former French-speaking territories such:as Dahioiley ‘and Upper Volta may increasé governmental efficiency, but they. cannot” reverse the fact that neither of. these countries ‘show. much | promise of being viable | entities for’ “years: to come .
Here in Nigeria, the military is’ already. faced with a short-— age of food and rising prices -- a problem it did not create but must certainly tackle head on to avoid public recrimination. And Nigeria's Supreme Council is faced with the same:challenge that bedeviled the civilian’ politicians -- how to keep tribal and regional tensions from rending the nation.
But for the present, all of these new regimes appear ener- | getic, dedicated and practical in their: approach to the future. And where they exist, stability, at present, is still the rule. m