Before you start frothing at the mouth at yet another injustice meted out upon Africa, calm yourself; the colonisers might have thrown us a lifeline. Perhaps, a small step towards curtailing the longstanding brain drain from Africa.
The brain drain from Africa, home of the fastest-growing population, is a glaring blight on the legacy of Africa’s post-independence leaders. In December 2020, Al Jazeera reported wealthy Nigerians are increasingly buying citizenships of other countries as a backup plan. Over 90 countries allow wealthy individuals to become citizens or residents, for a fee ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
Al Jazeera further revealed that only 26 countries allow Nigerian citizens visa-free entry, and most of these countries are in West Africa. How inconvenient when most desire unfettered access to real ‘outside countries’ like the USA and UK! The article estimated in 2020, Nigerians spent at least $1 billion on citizenship schemes. Money and brains leaving Nigeria and Africa, leaving it poorer, leaving it to the poor, the have-nots.
A 2018 Pew Research Centre (PRC) study in Kenya, Tunisia and Nigeria showed majority of survey respondents planned to leave their countries within five years. Respondents in Nigeria and Kenya cited escaping violence as their main motivation. The study highlighted those with a secondary school education or higher were more likely to plan to move abroad.
More money and brains planning to leave. PRC noted a sharp increase in the migration of Africans from sub saharan Africa, observing nearly 1.5 million Africans have migrated to the USA and the EU between 2010 and 2017. The trend continues as Africa grapples with a crisis of leadership and stability amidst lack of opportunities for its people. Within Africa, the study indicated nearly five million people, mostly refugees, had left for other sub-Saharan African countries, since 2010.
Flip the coin, thousands of Africans risk hellish conditions migrating through Libya, described as a ‘market of human beings’, to reach the sea, imperiling their lives on dangerous boats at the hands of murderous traffickers and militias.
Rights groups consider this route the busiest and deadliest for migration. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) disclosed over 1,500 people drowned in 2021 attempting the treacherous journey to Europe. IOM estimates at least 23,000 people have perished since 2014 trying to cross the Mediterranean.
In the first three months of 2022, at least 600 people have died attempting the crossing. IOM figures indicate there were more than 600,000 migrants in Libya by September 2021; 90 percent left their countries for economic reasons. Majority of the migrants were from Niger, Sudan, Chad and Egypt.
In Uganda, the sight of hundreds of young people, especially women, at Entebbe airport leaving for menial jobs in the Middle East, through government-sanctioned labour export, is emasculating. Ministry of Gender statistics state 140,402 Ugandans have left for jobs in the Middle East from 2010 to 2021.
The Independent magazine in July 2021 estimated nearly 15,000 young women leave Uganda monthly for domestic work. The Independent quoted economist now secretary to the Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi, slamming the government for failing to create opportunities for its young people. Ggoobi expressed disappointment that many of his former students who excelled at university in statistics, procurement and logistics, business and commerce had opted for menial jobs in the Middle East for lack of opportunity.
May 25 is Africa day, observed annually to commemorate the founding of the Organization of African Unity, now known as the African Union (AU). This year’s hollow sounding yak for Africa Day is about fighting malnutrition. How can we pontificate about the dangers of eating bread vs cassava when bigger questions on African peace and stability remain unanswered?
On May 28, the AU held an extraordinary summit on terrorism and unconstitutional changes of government. Where? In Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The president of Equatorial Guinea, 80-year-old Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, a military man, came to power through a bloody coup deposing his brutal uncle, in 1979. The quintessential dictator, Nguema is the longest-serving African head of state; his country is a top oil-producer flushing his regime with oil money. Anthropologist Gustau Nerín describes Nguema’s regime as one where “the state protects, subsidises and defends the rich.”
The World Bank notes that 76 per cent of the country’s 1.4 million people are poor. Nguema’s son, the supercar-mad playboy with a flair for embezzlement, is the vice president for defense and security. He is in pole position to succeed daddy dearest. Yes, the AU met there to talk about important things. End of story. As you were.
smugmountain@gmail.com
The writer is a tayaad muzzukulu.
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