How The Salaried Are Killing The African Dream

It is a widely known fact that Africa is unfairly weighed down by its vast opportunities. The wrong set of people live off the continent while its surging population captures the headlines for all the wrong reasons that the poverty forced on it can muster. The minerals find their way into the rich global north for a song poorly composed and again, badly sung. In human parlance, Africa is repeatedly raped, maimed, and abused by the very people who claim to champion human rights globally. But these 'champions' are not alone, locals too have mimicked them.

When making a road trip through several countries on the continent, the policemen/women on the beat extract money from you as soon as they confirm your foreign status. A road trip from Johannesburg to Nairobi would cost you more in bribes than in actual transport costs. This is one of the biggest factors undermining the spirit and letter of the AfCFTA and needlessly racking up the cost of doing intra-Africa business, thanks to police and customs officials—and who annoyingly, earn regular salaries and allowances.

We know all too well that government officials love to travel for a myriad of reasons including for travel perks such as the generous per diem allowances. This is a continental phenomenon that when done excessively diverts away much-needed resources from those requiring them the most.

One would argue that diaspora remittances by far outweigh the infamous bribes and allowances already discussed, and should therefore be a nonissue, but think again. The bribes extracted by people in authority are institutionalized products/services offered to a consuming public that's eager to quietly move on with life but at the expense of their countries. It is unnecessary.

We talked about the extractives sector earlier. They are the reason for coups in Africa. And behind such initiatives are men and women hired by someone powerful enough to fathom and execute the death and destruction of Africans. Our collective disenfranchisement is courtesy of money changing hands somewhere. It's high time Africa charged a disenfranchisement tax on the buyers/forceful takers of its minerals. These can be added on as debts to the sovereign funds of the respective countries. Even if they don't pay for it now, let it be documented somewhere so that someday, a brave generation issues a demand note. The extraction of freebies cannot go on into perpetuity.

The worst part of how the salaried are killing the African dream is that, literally, those who are gainfully employed in whichever sector on the continent and abroad, have maintained a studious silence over the occurrences indicated in this write-up. They will read it and do nothing more than forward the same to WhatsApp groups they belong to. Half of them are scared stiff of the consequences of losing their job to activism in a continent where jobs are few and far between.

 And the other half care less about the wrongs meted out just because it doesn't 'affect' them. It all amounts to letting a known blood clot formed at the small toe freely travel to the head without expecting or anticipating consequences. Nothing can be further from the truth but as a man thinketh, so he is. The silent majority of salaried compatriots in and outside Africa are killing us softly with their indifference to the wanton destruction of their motherland.

Why not create a fund to champion Africa's rights? Just a dollar a month given by all salaried Africans is enough to put the much-needed energy behind good activists who can advance our agenda. Unfortunately, Okiah Omtatah is now consumed by parliamentary business, so we must find another dedicated person to take up the mantle.

A dollar a month keeps Africa safe.

Salaried African! What say you?