The Black Hole of Africa

The scale of the task facing Tony Blair in his drive to help Africa was laid bare yesterday when it emerged that Nigeria's past rulers stole or misused £220 billion.

That is as much as all the western aid given to Africa in almost four decades. The looting of Africa's most populous country amounted to a sum equivalent to 300 years of British aid for the continent.

In the next few weeks we'll be hearing a lot about Live 8, a music festival that hopes to increase pressure on the G8 Summit to extend more aid to Africa.

Live 8 is hopelessly wrong about what needs to be done. Even the G8 is wrong about what needs to be done.

Debt relief is the wrong answer.

Promoting democracy and fair election processes is the only way that Africa can turn its situation around.

Why do I make this statement? Simple. Because all you have to do is look at foreign aid and see it slip into any number of black holes in Africa. Every despot and warlord in Africa has their hand out for aid - and gets it because that is what we do - give out aid. There's no incentive to democratize. There's no incentive to provide for the welfare of the people. There's no incentive to stop genocides, wars, or the seizure of property wholesale.

Only spreading democratic ideas can provide those incentives because power will reside in the people, not in the few kleptocrats and dictators that rule.