Still In Chain

AMBASSADOR EZEWELE CYRIL ABIONANOJIE

It is a natural phenomenon that the more time one spends in the dark, the clearer he sees, for it has become awfully visible that many of those who spectacle the flag of global peace in the open also beat the drums of war in secret; that many of those who give aids in the open were actually those who created the ugly situations that make the aids necessary in the first place; that many of those who yell for global human rights are the same people feasting on the blood of those whose chances are tinier and that many who refer to others as poor are actually the cause of their poverty.

The world has gotten to the spot that if indeed men fancy being factual to themselves, the heavy weight nations ought to selflessly defend justice, sameness and transparency over the veracity of men without regards to race, clique, geographical location, religious affiliation or gender. But as the world is being run in bluff, the gazettes can never be innocent as far as the adjudicators remain lions. The gazettes will be intimidated to forever remain victims of the lions’ immoderations. The superior fishes will keep feasting on the weaker fishes to grow bigger, unless the weaker ones would come together to form a potent body and do everything possible to bring in view their every wish. “It is a world that forces lifelong insecurity” says Bob Marley.

It has become a thing of ‘I won’t let go’ in respect to the colonial manipulation of our society for their sole interest. It will interest you to know that every colonial nation in Africa remains a neocolonial nation till date. There were certain seeds of instability and colonial pacts forced on us before independence was accorded to most African nations. I will mention but few of the pacts France as a nation forced our founding fathers to sign under duress before the so called independence were accorded to them. Firstly, it was spelt out categorically clear that the African countries should deposit 65% of their national monetary reserves into France Central Bank. Till date no account has been given to the African countries of the total money deposited so far and neither were they told of the interest the money had been generating as the French government keep trading with the money. Secondly, the African countries must consider French company interests in the award of contracts. It does not matter whether you have a better deal elsewhere. Thirdly, French government was given sole right to supply military equipment and to keep training the African countries military officers. When those who enslaved you trained you, you will never be trained to meet their standard. Fourthly, France was given the legal right to pre-deploy military troops, set up permanent military bases and facilities in those countries and also they were given the right to intervene militarily against any administration, group or anyone they feel is threatening the interest of France. And also, the African countries were made to renounce entering into military alliance with any other country unless authorized by France. And the countries were to be paying colonial tax for the benefits of colonization. Someone came uninvited from foreign land into your land to enslave, torture, rape, extort, export and kill your people and yet you are to keep paying him for doing so. These among other exploiting conditions form their so called “L’independence sur haut surveillance”.

When SekouToure of Guinea resisted their demands in 1958, hell was let loose. The French administration in Guinea destroyed everything in the country that represents their so called benefits from French colonization. Three thousand French nationals took all their belongings and destroyed anything they could not take along with them; Cows were killed, some warehouses filled with food were poisoned while others were burnt to ashes. Schools, hospitals, books, medicine, research instruments, public administration buildings and tractors among many other things they classified as colonial (slavery) benefits were destroyed. Imagine people with such mind sets to remain the definer of your values. How can one succeed in life when the one guiding him to success is filled with covetous intensions against him?

They enslaved and moped away the knowledge of our mightiness and brain-washed us to believe that we are children of a lesser god. Colonial masters construct a sub human fable, settled on it and delivered it to us as our history. And as we swallowed and digested the fake history, they needed no more chain to hold us down for we have become automata that happen to breathe as we keep hoping to survive under the surveillances, protection and the instructions of those who never and will never wish us well. It will interest you to know that the Church of England once said that black men do not have souls that they can be enslaved and be treated like lower animals. Today, the same Church is saying that you have souls and you can be considered as human after they have brainwashed you to be a slave to their political religion. Does it mean that their so called God could not remember that the black race were part of His creation as human with souls and later got his memory sanitized and recognized same black race as human with souls? The church’s refusal to recognize black race as humans with souls was just a political claim to satisfy the slave trade of that era.

The history of the conquered is nothing but a fable agreed upon by the victors. Nothing good was said about us before Trans-Atlantic slave era. How we birthed civilization in arithmetic, medicine, engineering, commerce among others were deleted from our knowledge through reprisal oppressions and the killings of the wise ones among us who dare to confront their evil intentions. They empowered the know-nothings among us to keep ruling and ruining us. Throughout the land of Africa, it was coup after coup as the colonial masters struggled to maintain their selfish interests in Africa. Individuals like Jean Bedel Bokassa of Central Africa Republic were supported by colonial powers to overthrow and take over power. Bokassa ruled his people with cruelty and wickedness. He killed school children simply because they did not buy school uniform from his wife. Yet, he remained in sweet terms with Valery Giscard the then president of France; but when Bokassa started making moves to regain his sanity and work for the interest of his people through the assistance of Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, France overthrew him and enthroned another individual who will represent their colonial interests.

If you can take a vehement study of the type of leaders that enjoy our colonial masters’ support till date, you will see nothing but the ‘Jean Bedel Bokassas’ of these days.

Today, the colonial use of coup as a tool to enthrone their choice of person over us has become obsolete. Regional instability has become the new colonial magical wand to either create or increases their chances of extortion or to obligate our leaders to keep dancing to the rhythm of their political intentions. They will brainwash and financially empower some of our short sighted brothers to create tensions either on political, tribal, religious or land dispute ground in order to either divide us into smaller groups or coax our leaders to yarn for their help and be forced to accept any condition they shall give. At times, they will navigate their intentions through a nation or foreign group that seems to be in friendly terms with a group or tribe among us to sell the idea of distrust or empowerment to the group or tribe.

It is time for us to pause, reflect, reform and work solely for the interest of our togetherness for our growth as a People is rooted in our working together without tribal, regional or religious distrust. Division is never a good option for the more copious the numbers of broom sticks tied together, the more difficult it becomes to break. It is our collective interest that ensures the inevitability and the sustainability of our personal interest, which in turn, will linger on to positively inspire our generations unborn to conserve and keep shooting for greater altitude.

It is imperative we white wash our psychological contents in the laundry of mental revolution to provoke a defining motion for our collective evolution.

The chain of slavery has been translated from the physical ion chain to the brainwashing and polluting of one’s color of thoughts with deleteriously fine-tuned ideologies.

NOTE: The nasty contents of neocolonialism peddlers should not lead us to the distrust of all their countries’ nationals, for as we have the Margaret Thatcher, so also, we have the John Browns among them, who are willing to sacrifice their lives for Africa to be freed indeed.

Ambassador Ezewele Cyril Abionanojie writes from Lagos, Nigeria.