African Trip: Visit Hard Places, Secretary Of State Tells U.S. Students

*** Says Chinese Investment Leads To Debt,Unemployment

Tayo Olanipekun

The U.S Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, said Americans students should pay visits to Nigeria and other African countries, explaining that going to the hard places on earth will “change” their views of the world.

Tillerson said this at the George Mason University, Virginia, ahead of his trip to five African countries, which began on Wednesday, according to a statement from the U.S Department of State on Wednesday.

“Go to the hard places. Don’t go to the easy places. I went to Lima,Peru. I went out into the mountains and jungles. It was quite an experience to see how people exist around the world. Go to the hard places. It’ll change you,” Tillerson said when asked why American youths should go to Africa.

He said Nigeria, being the most populous country on the continent, is going to be critical to how Africa succeeds as a continent. “Nigeria, big country, very important country to the future of the continent,” he noted, even as he added the country is still on its “journey to succeed.”

Tillerson said his country pursues and develops sustainable growth that bolsters institutions, strengthens rule of law and builds capacity of African countries to stand on their two feet.

This, he said, stands country in contrast to China’s approach which “encourages dependency, using opaque contracts, predatory loan practices and corrupt deals that mire nations in debt and undermine their sovereignty, denying them their long term self sustaining growth.”

He lamented that Chinese investment has the potential to address Africa’s infrastructure gap but its approach has led to mounting debt and a few, if any, jobs in most countries. He added that such a practice, if coupled with the political and fiscal pressure, “endangers Africa’s natural resources and its long-term economic political stability.”

Tillerson is visiting Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria from March 6 to 13, 2018 on his first official trip to Africa.