IF AFRICA WERE A NATION!
Africa over the years has been described differently by various scholars and political figures. Quite a lot who know nothing about Africa experientially have either written or spoken strongly about a continent they barely knew.
Lately, a strange thought had dogged my mind over this beloved continent. Strange as it may sound but I have found myself wondering what it would have been like if Africa were a nation. Having seen the individual nations that make up the continent struggle to impose themselves in the committee of nations, I wondered if her lot would have been better if it had stood as a nation.
I had also wondered if Africa were a nation; where the capital city would have been? If Africa were a nation; who would the president be?
Would the nation 'Africa' had fared better in the committee of nations? What about colonialism would it had succeeded?
AFRICA'S POSITION ECONOMICALLY
My curiosity led me to CIA World Fact book 2012, where I looked at data from Budget expenditures, 2012 Country Ranks.
Jakaya Kikwete, left, the president of Tanzania, e...
English: TRIPOLI. With leader of the Libyan Revolu...
English: The leader de facto of Libya, Muammar al-...I computed the sum of budgeted expenditure for 50 African nations included in the record. Amazingly, if Africa were one nation; her total budget expenditure for 2012 would have been $573,520,170,000. That would be 15% of the amount budgeted by the highest ranked nation USA and less than 50% of the amount budgeted by the 7th ranked Nation Italy, and $8b less than Spain's budget. Africa would have ranked 11th in the list.
From the same source I gathered that Africa's annual export from 2011 estimate stood at $573,169,900,000, placing Africa 7th on the list. That was less than 30% of China's annual export and less than 40% of USA total export. While on the other hand Africa spent $531,378,700,000 to import...