The idea of a new international economic order emerged from the experiences of decolonization after

the Second World War. Newly decolonized countries gained political sovereignty but "felt that their de
jure political colonization ended only to be replaced by a de facto economic colonization."[6] This
mission to achieve a more equitable international system was motivated also by increasing inequality
in the share of global national income between developed and underdeveloped countries, which more
than doubled between 1938 and 1966.[7] From its beginnings in 1964, the United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), along with the associated Group of 77 and the Non-Aligned
Movement, was the central forum for discussions of the NIEO. Key themes of the NIEO included both
sovereign equality and the right of self-determination, especially when it comes to sovereignty over
natural resources.[7] Another key theme was the need for a new commodity order through
international commodity agreements and a common fund for commodity price stabilization.
Restructuring international trade was also central as a means to improve developing countries' terms
of trade, such as by diversifying developing economies through industrialization, integrating
developing countries economies into regional free trade blocs like the Caribbean Community, reducing
developed-country tariffs and other obstacles to free trade, expanding generalized trade preferences,
and designing other agreements to reduce trade barriers.[8][9] These proposals to restructure the
international economic system also sought to reform the Bretton Woods system, which had benefited
the leading states that had created it – especially the United States. This set of proposals proclaimed
that facilitating the rate of economic development and market share among developing countries will
fight global issues such as hunger and despair more effectively than the current focus on philanthropy
and development aid.[10] This advocacy among nations of the Non-Aligned Movement can also be
understood as an extension of the decolonization movement that was present in many developing
countries during that time.[7] In this perspective, political and economic equity was perceived as a
metric to measure the success of independence movements and completing the decolonization
process.

In 1974, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration for the Establishment of a New
International Economic Order along with its accompanying program of action and formalized this
sentiment among nation-states.[11] A few months later the UN General Assembly adopted the Charter
of Economic Rights and Duties of States.

Unfortunately, since then, there have been many meetings to realize the NIEO. For instance, In 2018,
the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution "Towards a New International Economic
Order," which reaffirmed "the need to continue working towards a new international economic order
based on the principles of equity, sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest, cooperation
and solidarity among all States.

AFRICAN CHALLENGES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR A NEW ECONOMIC ORDER

The pervasive influence of the former colonial powers
The European countries that had colonized West Africa namely Britain, France,
and Portugal, had grudgingly granted independence to their colonies, due to
internal and external pressures. Despite independence, these European countries
and other Western nations still desired to influence in one form or the other the
politics, economy, and culture of their former colonies, and often in alliance with
West Africa’s rulers. The first Presidents of independent post-colonial nations,
Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Sekou Touré of Guinea (Conakry), were strongly
against this practice. They wanted their countries to completely cut off the yoke of
colonialism.

But this was to be achieved at a very high price. When Sekou Touré decided to
reduce considerably his country’s ties with France, the French practically
destroyed Guinea. They damaged public infrastructure and took away to France
whatever valuable property they could lay hands on. They also later refused to
allow Guinea access to the common currency used across their former colonies,
the CFA, which was tied in value to the French franc, as it now is to the Euro.
Kwame Nkrumah offered a lot of material assistance to Guinea during that
country’s first few years of independence.
The major challenge of globalization
One of the most pressing challenges African states faced in developing their economy was
globalization. Upon entering the international system, this African state soon realized technologically
driven, they were substandard and primitive... The international system which is now characterized by
innovative, various countries of the world especially the Western States have used globalization in
their best interest... These African states realized the only infrastructure and structures the European
imperialist had built were roads and railroads - or rather, they had forced their colonial subjects to
build them were not intended to build national infrastructures. Imperial roads and railways were
almost always intended to facilitate the export of raw materials.

Many, like the Ugandan Railroad, ran straight to the coastline.

Also, this lack of growth in globalization is proven as these African states also lacked the
manufacturing infrastructure to add value to their raw materials. Rich as many African countries were
in cash crops and minerals, they could not process these goods themselves. Their economies were
dependent on trade, and this made them vulnerable. They were also locked into cycles of
dependencies on their former European masters. They had gained political, not economic
dependencies, and as Kwame Nkrumah - the first prime minister and president of Ghana - knew,
political independence without economic independence was meaningless.

Consequently, these African countries had to be dependent on Western economies for much of their
energy. Even oil-rich countries did not have the refineries needed to turn their crude oil into gasoline
or heating oil. Some leaders, like Kwame Nkrumah, tried to rectify this by taking on massive building
projects, like the Volta River hydroelectric dam project. The dam did provide much-needed electricity,
but its construction put Ghana heavily into debt. The construction also required the relocation of tens
of thousands of Ghanaians and contributed to Nkrumah's plummeting support in Ghana.

Inexperienced Leadership
At Independence, there were several presidents, like Jomo Kenyatta, who had several decades of
political experience, but others, like Tanzania's Julius Nyerere, had entered the political fray just years
before independence. There was also a distinct lack of trained and experienced civil leadership. The
lower echelons of the colonial government had long been staffed by African subjects, but the higher
ranks had been reserved for white officials. The transition to national officers at independence meant
there were individuals at all levels of the bureaucracy with little prior training. In some cases, this led
to innovation, but the many challenges that African states faced at independence were often
compounded by the lack of experienced leadership... And we all know the consequence of
inexperienced leadership which breeds bad governance, bribery and corruption, terrorism and so
many other factors which can be obvious proven in the government of these African countries.
The Challenge of Human Capital Flight.
Human capital flight or brain drain from Africa is one of the continent’s major development
constraints. The loss of trained and highly skilled Africans to the industrialized countries has
intensified the capacity constraints facing the public and the private sectors and thus the deficit of
skilled manpower, which African countries so badly need for poverty reduction and sustainable
development. It is estimated that between 1960 and 1975, about 27,000 high-level Africans left the
continent for the West. Between 1975 and 1984, this number increased to about 40,000 and then
almost doubled by 1987, representing 30 percent of the highly skilled manpower stock. Africa lost
60,000 professionals (doctors, university lecturers, engineers, etc.) between 1985 and 1990 and has
been losing an average of 20,000 annually ever since. The drain of doctors from Africa is the most
striking. According to the UNDP Human Development Report 1998, more than 21,000 Nigerian doctors
are practicing in the United

States alone whilst Nigeria’s health system suffers from a severe lack of medical practitioners; 60
percent of all Ghanaian doctors trained locally in the 1980s have left the country, while in Sudan, 17
percent of doctors and dentists, 20 percent of university lecturers, 30 percent of engineers, and 45
percent of surveyors have gone to work abroad. The continuous loss of capacity is attributed to
socio-political instability, inappropriate economic policies, poor infrastructure, and weak institutions.

Thus, much of the brain drain that is occurring in Africa is traceable not only to poor economic
conditions, but also to such other factors as political violence, repression of human rights, and the lack
of a professional and technological

Economic underdevelopment
Despite the abundant natural resources that most West African countries possess, they are still
economically poor and under-developed. The living standards of the people are very low and basic
social services are deplorable. The reasons for this unsatisfactory state of affairs are as a result of
enormous challenges facing Africa. However, certain people think that the roots of the major
socio-economic problems facing West African countries today can be traced back to the colonial
period and the influence of neo-colonialism.
During the colonial period, most West African countries concentrated on the production and
marketing of one or two export (cash) crops: groundnuts in Senegal and Gambia; cocoa and palm
kernels in Sierra Leone; palm oil and cocoa in Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, and Gold Coast (Ghana); and palm
oil and kernels and cotton in Nigeria. West African economies were also structured to be permanently
dependent on Western nations. They have consigned the role of primary producers for processing in
the West. The terms of trade in the Western-controlled international market discriminated against
African nations who were unable to earn enough to develop their economies. The World Trade
Organisation (WTO), for example, draws trade rules between nations and these rules are generally
more favorable to the developed countries. Obtaining better terms for West African products in the
international market has been very difficult.

Also, the prices of agricultural goods have been falling in the international markets since the 1970s.
For example, the fluctuating price of cocoa in the 1970s and 1980s nearly ruined the Ghanaian
economy, which is heavily dependent on cocoa exports. Côte d’Ivoire, also a major cocoa exporter,
experienced similar difficulties. At the same time, the cost of imported goods continued to rise when
the price of primary products was falling. The mining sector has also been plagued with difficulties.
Almost all the major minerals in West Africa are mined by foreign companies and these companies
generally have very favorable concessions. They pay little tax to the government and there is hardly
any linkage between the mining sector and other sectors of the economy.

West African countries have also been saddled with the debt burden. In their desire to provide needed
services for their people and initiate capital projects, West Africa’s leaders resorted to massive
borrowing with high-interest rates, from abroad. Nkrumah took huge loans from the World Bank, the
United States, and Britain for the Akosombo hydroelectric project. The costs of construction soared far
beyond the estimates. The result was to cripple Ghana, which was just emerging from colonial rule,
with a huge foreign debt. By 1992, Ghana’s external debts stood at $30 billion. Practically every West
African country has huge external and domestic debts and paying interest on these debts alone
sometimes consumes an appreciable percentage of the country’s revenue.
Economic Marginalization
Africa's relatively weak economic condition. It bears repeating the point of the material deficiency of
the African condition as the primary challenge, which is that African states have not been able to
establish self-activated and productive economic systems to generate prosperity and power. With
Africa as the primary producer of raw materials and a net importer of manufactured products still very
much unaltered. Intra African trade has also largely remained marginal in the context of global trade.
Although arguably, Africa's lost decade of the 1980s, precipitated mainly by the failed IMF and World
Bank, instigated policies have been mildly assuaged by an evident surge in economic growth statistics,
especially since the 21st century.

Facilitation and effective regulation of trade in goods and trade in-service. Trade is one of the critical
principles emanating from the seventh special session. Richard Gardner indicates that there has been
no objective decrease in the amount of trade between the third world and the industrialized
countries. There has been a steady flow of goods both ways. The problem is the instability of prices for
commodities exported by the third world. There are few instances when products such as cocoa
command a long-term stable price. The return on such goods tends to fluctuate at the whims of
purchasing power. Therefore a major component of dependency is the inability of third world nations
to control the markets where their goods are sold. These countries cannot withdraw their goods,
because long-term prospects for cauterization of most primary commodities other than oil are less
than favorable. Some of these reasons are the weak financial status of these countries, competition
from non-cartel sources, and the potentially large supplies from other sources. Moreover, compared to
the downward inflexibility of ( manufactures) - reflecting institutional organization such as industrial
concentration, oligopolistic business structures, import protection, and unionization. The price of most
raw materials is highly flexible because of their sensitivity to changes in aggregate demand of the
developed nations, among other things. Julius Nyerere of Tanzania sums this up: because of worsening
terms of trade between the north and the south and other external factors, Tanzania must grow three
times as many cashew nuts and 10 times as much tobacco as in the early 1970s to import the same
seven-ton trucks. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana made a similar point regarding the numerous
development of cocoa in Ghana and Nigeria: In 1954/55 when Ghana's production was 210,000 tons,
her 1954/55 earnings from cocoa crop were 85 million euros. This year (1964-65) with an estimated
crop of 590,000 tons, the external earnings were around 77 million euros. Nigeria suffered a similar
experience. In 1954-55 she produced 88,000 tons of beans and received 39 million euros for her crops
39 million euros. In 1965 it is estimated that Nigeria will produce 310,000 tons and is likely to receive
around 40 million euros. In the other words, Ghana and Nigeria have tripled their production but their
gross earnings have fallen from 125 million euros to 117 million euros.

Indeed, the evidence from Ghana shows what can happen without a mechanism for stabilizing prices.
Ghana was already the world's greatest producer of cocoa well before independence. However, the
greatest price fluctuations for the product made it uneconomic for farmers to continue investing; few
could take the risks of financial loss.
Subsequently, notwithstanding Nkrumah's early efforts to institute price guarantees, cocoa production
has continued to decline amidst fluctuating international pricing. At first Ghana's economy was in
shambles partly because of these losses and several other nations now are greater producers of cocoa.

Also, African States lack a strong voice in the global institution of the United Nations, which still
shapes and dominates World Politics. At the United Nations, the most important globally
representative institution ever created, Africa is still marginalized by the absence of a Permanent
representation in its Security Council, the only continent in the hemisphere so deprived. Efforts made
since the independence of African states to depend and democratize their membership have yielded
little result as the permanent members of the council who wield veto powers hold on to their
exclusive and absolute powers.

The nonparticipation of African countries in the series of meetings and deliberation in San Francisco
that led to the establishment of the UN in 1945, nor the processes that led to the creation of the
Bretton Woods institution such as the International Monetary Funds and World Bank. It was given that
their interests were not taken into account in the policies and programs that were evolved by these
bodies. Similarly, neither were African country's perspectives and views reflected in such Int'l Legal
and Human Rights as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948.
Problems of unemployment, under-employment and Civil Wars
All West African countries, without exception, have had serious employment problems and the youth
have been the greatest victims. Between 60 and 75 percent of the population of most West African
countries consists of young people. The youth are able-bodied but unskilled, jobless, and Ali Ioenated.
They pose grave security and political challenges because they are ready and willing to take up arms in
exchange for cash, recognition, looted property, and “wives”. They live in appalling slum conditions in
the vastly expanding cities of the sub-region and constitute potential material for mob action in times
of political and economic crises.

West Africa’s youths are also highly mobile and cross-border recruitment of young people for armed
conflict is all too common. In the civil wars that have plagued West Africa since the last quarter of the
20th century, the youth have been the main perpetrators of violence and bloodshed. These deadly
conflicts have resulted in the loss of lives and properties, the internal displacement of people; a
region-wide refugee crisis, poverty and disease; the proliferation of small arms and light weapons;
human and drug trafficking, and illegal exploitation of natural resources and banditry. The causes of
these wars include poverty, youth unemployment, human rights violations, bad governance and
corruption, ethnic marginalization, and small arms proliferation. Two fairly recent internal deadly
conflicts that have gravely impacted the overall development of their countries are the civil wars in
Sierra Leone and Liberia. Africa states are largely confronted with terrorism, a conflict of a new
challenge. Statistics indicate that since 1980, 28 out of the 54 countries in Africa have been in wars of
different kinds. Terrorism has had effects in these states in teenagers of disrupting social life,
destabilizing politics, and hindering development. There has been a loss of human lives which have
been as a result of terrorism and insurgency. Terrorism in Northern Mali, Civil Wars in Nigeria,
northeast Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Egypt, Liberia, Kenya, Libya, Boko Haram, Al- Shabab, Aquim in the
Maghreb regions gave caused damage to the economic, political, and social sphere of the countries.

REFERENCES:

R. Omotayo Olaniyan response to THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER

NIEO

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN RESPONSE

TO THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION IN AFRICA Volume 3 no 15 (August 2013)
Yobe state,x Nigeria
NIGERIA FORUM, (MARCH -APRIL 1987)? NOS 3 AND 4

Africa In Global Affairs: Impacts, Challenges, And Prospects- AMBASSADOR (DR.)

MARTIN IHOEGHIAN UHOMOIBHI

AFRICA CAPACITY BUILDING FOUNDATION; MAJOR DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES

AND THEIR CAPACITY BUILDING DIMENSION Paper NO 1 and 2

M. YAKUB AIYUB KADIR ON THE FAILURE OF NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC

ORDER VOLUME 6 NO 1 JANUARY 2021

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA REPORT 2018 UNCTAD

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL IN COMMERCE AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN RESPONSE TO

ECONOMIC LEGACIES OF COLONIALISM IN TGE POST INDEPENDENCE AFRICA
STATES VOLUME 2 :(February 2015)

UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS NEW YORK

AUTHOR: Zdenek Červenka

TITLE: La6w AND POLITICS IN AFRICA AND ASIA

Vol. 9, No. 2 (1976)

The IMF in the Nigerian Economy: Pressures and Responses

A.E. Davies First Published October 1, 1990