By Naz Yemane
Voice of Eritrea
Haifax Canada.

Would Eritrea be different? 

Finally, Eritreans and Eritrea maybe getting some good news that hopefully will benefit the country as a whole. The future of Eritrea seems bright and promising based on recently discovered world class rich deposit of gold and other minerals such as silver , copper and zinc. Eritrea stands to earn several billion of dollars over the next ten years.

According to the Minister of National Resources of Eritrea and many mining experts, rich deposit of high grade gold, silver, nickel, and zinc had been discovered in at least three or four places. The Government of Eritrea has to be commended for the way in which it negotiated a deal resulting in obtaining and maintaining a 40% paid participating interest in Nevsun deal. This deal might be the start of a new order for Africa’s mining industry, thus making Eritrea the first country in developing world to benefit fairly from her national resources, only second to Chile.  Hopefully, this deal will serve to ease the chronic shortage of the foreign currency within Eritrea and serve as a catalyst for creating prosperity for all Eritreans.

Africa is one of the richest continents in terms of its natural resources. For example, DR Congo has one of the largest reserves of gold, diamonds, cobalt, and copper in the world. Nigeria supplies 20% of oil to the United States,. Angola, Chad, Sudan, South Africa,  Ghana and many other African countries are also endowed with huge mineral deposits.

Based on the above, many would conclude that the majority of African countries are very rich and wealthy. No so! Africa has the highest poverty per capita in the world largely due to the lack of vision, maladministration and corruption. While the leaders of Africa with their corrupted counterparts are stashing billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts, citizens of Africa continue to suffer and starve to death. Many try to escape the country in order to find a better and stable place for survival. On the contrary, African leaders seems to feel that the countries they rule belong solely to them. 

The question must be asked, “will Eritrea be any different?”

In Eritrea, the creation of a mandatory and timeless National Service has led to widespread corruption.

National Service has largely served to use and abuse young Eritreans and has become a tool of corruption by high ranking government officials. High ranking officials have introduced a rip off money making venture where they implemented a system of work for food or monthly wage 400 Nakfa (USA $40.00), while the officials continue to make millions on the backs of young Eritreans based on their blood and sweat. Recently, several high rank officials and civil servants have been caught stealing $ 30 million US dollars (equivalent to over $ 300 million Nakfa) ,this incident was only one example of the widespread corruption prevailing in the country.

Corruption in Eritrea is not new, if it is just getting worse; it is not better that the rest of African countries. If  Eritrean officials can steal millions with impunity from the country that it is desperately so poor, what would happen then in the coming three, five years when Eritrea start to enjoying the fruit of its huge mineral wealth. How will we stop those “ Corrupted enemies of the people?”

It takes a great deal of courage for a leader of a country to admit the corruption of his country, and even more courage to do something about it. President Isaias of Eritrea, while addressing the nation in 2007,  admitted  for the first time and acknowledged corruption and the discontent prevailing in Eritrea. He said: “Eritreans are bitter and they are discontented by the virus of corruption; therefore, Eritreans have to fight this corruption."

President Isaias failed to elaborate on how Eritreans should go about tackling the corruption of high ranking officials.  His statement seems to suggest that this corruption should be left in the hands of the citizens of Eritrea. Eritrean citizens can barely voice their discontent let alone to fight corruption in the country. This seems to be an open an invitation and  promotion of unrest.

When the voices of the people are not heard and their demands are not met or addressed, people tend,  out of despair,  to react as our brothers and sisters did in Kenya. One does not have to be politically savvy to see that the situation in Kenya is the direct result of an endemic and systemic political and economical corruptions that prevailed in Kenya for the past four decades. So, for President Isaias to advise Eritreans to fight corruption by themselves seems like giving green light to kill each other and this is not a solution.

I believe the best remedy to fight corruption is for the Government of Eritrea to restore Justice and Constitutional law; this will give a sense of confidence to the people of Eritrea.  It is really up to the government to establish an open, honest, accountable and progressive rule of law.

The question to be asked is will Eritrea be able to tackle corruption before it is to late? Will Eritrea be able to show  leadership and serve as an example to other mineral - cursed developing countries?

Thank you. 

Next article will be foccused on

Mining and environmenta consequences

Ethiopia the stumbing block to the future of ER.