by Kayode Oladein

The President of the US owes you nothing. His job is to protect American interests. He is their CEO and they are the shareholders of USA PLC. 

Dear African,

The West owes you nothing. Nada. Zilch. It’s as simple as that. When you are ready to make progress wake up. Until then sleep quietly, your snoring is annoyingly loud.

The average African nation has had 50 years to sort itself out, but what have they done? Squandered every opportunity and butchered each other at the slightest provocation.
I get tired of hearing about western conspiracies.

The reality is this. The west will eat you at the slightest opportunity. And guess what? They should eat you if they get the chance. You don’t get on a football pitch with boxing gloves. To play the game you need to know the rules. Ask China.

The President of the US owes you nothing. His job is to protect American interests. He is their CEO and they are the shareholders of USA PLC. Their GDP is their market cap and their currency is their share price. Every four years, they hold an AGM called elections and though you love to watch the outcome, it is none of your business, you are not a shareholder.

Given the opportunity Coca Cola would kill Pepsi, McDonalds would kill Burger King, Pizza Hut would kill Dominos and Google would kill Microsoft. This is the reality. This is the game. The rules are simple. Protect yourself at all times and plan for every eventuality.

You complain about slavery and ask for reparation. Guess what? You don’t get paid twice, you have been paid already. Without you, slavery would never have being what it became. Without you, maybe the US will not be the power house it is today. The only people that are due anything are the descendants of slavery.

You complain about colonisation and it’s obvious exploitation but refuse to build on the infrastructure it left. You have let education and health rot away. You rely on rail tracks built half a century ago. I can go on and on, but what is the point? You will only insult me and continue as usual.

When I think of colonisation I bring out a map and marvel at how such a small island nation like Britain could shape the world. I want to understand that mind-set, that determination to refuse to be confined to your natural boundaries, the hunger and desire to explore. Yes colonisation was unnecessarily brutal. What I ask is this. Why can’t we have that mind-set?

But I give you this, you are tough, “smart” and resilient, and you have a survival instinct not seen in any other race. You have survived the brutality of slavery and colonisation, non-ending civil wars, famine and HIV. Yet, you are almost a billion today. You have it in you, but you choose to survive and not live, when pushed to the wall you push the wall back instead of fighting back. You are threatened by Ebola today, the statistics say you will survive it and continue to be a nuisance to yourself and the world at large.

No continent has the potential you have, no people of any continent has been endowed like you. You have it all, fertile land and climate, natural resources and a young population, but you slumber on as though you know not it’s value. Then you complain when others see this value and take advantage.

You take sides when Russia, China, the EU and the US squabble. You find reasons why to support or not support them, you appear logical in your opinions about their squabbles. But in matters closer to home? You are blinded by ethnicity and foreign religions.

You have the blessing of the sun but can’t provide electricity for yourselves. You have oil but refuse to refine it. Fertile land but refuse to grow crops to feed yourselves. Dear African, ask yourself this question. If you were non-African how would you view Africa? Probably as a nuisance? The truth is that Africa is seen as a nuisance by many, the nuisance that keeps taking 1% of their GDP and adding it to it’s squander.

You say the west takes more than it gives in aid. What do you expect the west to do? Not to take if given the chance? You give them the chance to take, it’s that simple. If you want to stop it, you can. The truth is your leaders benefit from it so it will continue, don’t blame the west blame your leaders for allowing it and blame yourselves for having such useless leaders who by the way only reflect you.

You complain about racism yet you are among the most bigoted group on the planet, unable to see the similarities others see in you to discriminate against you but focus on the insignificant differences. The slightest misunderstanding leads to name calling, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Kenyan, Nigerian and Ghanaian.

You complain about gay rights as though that will lift the continent out of it’s slumber, you refuse to write your own history and complain when others do. If you did, you will realise that homophobia was brought from Europe and not homosexuality. But what do I know? I am just an angry black man. Make that a very angry black man.
And guess what? I am not angry at the white man. I am angry at the black man. I am angry at you. In Africa, blame the white man or the devil always sells, a better sell is to call the white man a devil. Guess what? The white man is sometimes a devil, the black man is sometimes a devil, we are all devils sometimes.

You have had 50 years to take advantage of every technology invented without having to see the necessity that is the mother. Yet you ignore and choose to believe in things you can’t explain. You run to church for answers to the explainable. Your churches are perhaps your most thriving SMEs. Yet those that gave you that religion have more or less abandoned it. They live in the age of reason.

You complain about police and army brutality but will lynch your fellow citizens if given the chance. What would you do with a uniform and a gun? You complain about your politicians being corrupt. You fail to realise that they are only a reflection of you. The only difference is that they have power and you don’t.
So let me say this as clearly as I can.

Dear African, the west is not your worst enemy, you are your own worst enemy.

I know you will insult me for writing this. But I take solace in the words of a great African, Chinua Achebe. He said, if you don’t like my book, write yours.

So I say. If you don’t like my post? Write your own!

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.