Well it sounded like a good idea at the time

"Nearly every sub-Saharan African nation is poorer now than when they became independent during the '60s and '70s. Since that time, food production has fallen by roughly 20 percent. Since 1975, per capita GDP has fallen at a rate of half of one percent annually. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo estimated, "Corrupt African leaders have stolen at least $140 billion from their people in the [four] decades since independence." The call for more aid by George Bush, Tony Blair and other G-8 leaders will produce nothing but more of the same. "

To be fair, just as backward post-colonial places like Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore and more recently China and India have found prosperity by *gasp* opening up their markets and respecting contracts/property rites.