American libertarian author and theorist, Dr. Tom Gordon Palmer has disagreed with the assertion that there is a conspiracy by the West to ensure that Africa forever remains an exporter of raw materials in the global trade in order to exploit the continent.

The Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and Vice President for International Programs at the Atlas Network made this argument on Monday, July 24, 2023, when he interacted with some students of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) at the maiden George Ayittey Memorial Lectures organized by the Africa Center for Entrepreneurship and Youth Empowerment (ACEYE).

Responding to some queries on the current state of Africa in global trade, Dr. Palmer disagreed with the assertion that the exportation of raw materials is going to make African countries poor.

According to the libertarian, there are many countries in the world that have become rich from the exportation of minerals onto the global market. He cited countries such as Australia, Norway and Botswana that have made fortunes from minerals export.

He, therefore, explained that the problem with Africa is some leaders who have sold the natural resources of their respective countries to foreign companies and governments for what he describes as suitcases of cash, private jets, and other goodies.

To him, these foreign countries and companies are exploiting some African countries because the leaders have sold the natural resource endowment to the foreigners as if they were theirs to the detriment of the citizens.

He therefore called for a total overhaul of the legal structure in Africa to prevent foreign countries and foreign governments to buy the minerals from the political class as is the case in countries that have made fortunes from the exportation of raw minerals.

He said, “some African leaders have sold their countries for suitcases of cash as if they are the owners. They get their monies into their Swiss bank accounts and the rest of the society is impoverished. The legal structures don’t allow that in Norway or Canada or the  United States or Australia.  Australia exports nickel and iron. It’s a mining country. The fortunes in Australia were made in mining and agriculture – foodstuff and minerals. But they became very rich, what was the difference between that situation and the African context? That is the question that needs to be asked not “Is there a conspiracy to put Africa at some unique place? Other countries have exported minerals and have become rich.

“What was the difference? I think the key difference is the legal systems. There wasn’t a foreign company or government buying them from the President of Australia, or the President of Norway… if you want to get out of the condition, there needs to be a change in the legal system. And one that we expect is the people who live here do not allow the political class to sell you out in exchange for wealth and private jets and all the other goodies,” he stressed.

He added that “Botswana, diamond exporters but they have done it right. Botswana is an outstanding example of an African success story”.