No African leader is a neophyte to the external oppression and exploitation of Africans. Most of them hide under the pretext of global integration and cooperation in exchange for Western support as they loot the leftover of African wealth.
We have a psychotic addiction to colonial definitions of who we were, who we are and who we ought to be. When he who exploits you controls you, you will remain in the middle of nowhere. Africans are caught up in the web of foreign dominance. The West especially, keeps blackmailing Africans as objects of penury and mediocrity that cannot survive without Western aids, contrary to the reality on ground that the West feeds from the tyranny and corrupt leadership settings they have been enforcing in Africa.
Switzerland has been a safe haven for stashing stolen African wealth and has been constantly rated in the global anti-corruption index as one of the holiest nations in the world. France is being celebrated for the return of Abacha’s loot, which automatically frees them from the guilt of receiving the loot in the first place.The receipt of stolen property makes one an accomplice in the crime. Western benign and malign in occurrences assessment is determined by their interest in a particular situation.
In 1983, the West drummed support for a coup that dethroned a democratic elected civilian government in Nigeria. The same West that got rattled over the military takeover in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic is silenced over a similar coup in Gabon. Could one be right to say the military coup in Gabon was Western arrangement?
African leaders copy Westerners with a vacuum sense of inferiority. We need to upgrade our mental, social, health and stomach frameworks as in our capacity to think for, educate, treat and feed ourselves.
We must excercise ally diversity not to be left in the pocket of few. Depending on a handful of allies will not be to our advantage. Competition breeds multiple options and a wider opportunity to make a better choice.
Imagine a South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham, asking United States of America to lay waste to every single nation around the world in a bid to secure global peace for Americans! Such demonic unguided utterances are coming from a Senator in a nation that portrays itself as the defender of the universe.
The world is full of optical and psychological illusions. Global politics are run in bluff. As Africans, we must be wiser than yesterday and rise in unison to go for the required light that will set us free from all foreign torments.
– Ambassador Ezewele Cyril Abionanojie is the author of the book ‘The Enemy Called Corruption’ and an Award Winner ‘Best Columnist of The Year’ ‘Giant in Security Support’ ‘The Nigerian Statesmanship-Integrity and Productivity’ among others. He is the President of Peace Ambassadors Global.