THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS - by Oluseyi Vandy

How do you get someone reliant on you? To get them to follow your every instruction? The answer is to give them what they can't get anywhere else, or make them believe so. Some call it love bombing; you give so much that they wouldn't think they could get that from (where/one) else. There have been stories across different cultures of people "making deals," pop culture calls it "selling your soul". It makes me remember a quote from my secondary school math teacher; "The devil will give you shoes and take your legs." We see a degree of this in politics, the people are kept hungry and then given charity by the very same people who steal their commonwealth. This charity makes them loyal and willing to fight to be used. We see artists do the same; they cry over deals they signed because of their ignorance or excitement in closing the deal. They say people unaware of their history are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. I believe that we never really left the colonial era, it just got rebranded and sold to us in a different light, but that is a topic for another day. Today, we focus on a lot of charity we see from foreigners. We forget that when they first came to Africa, they came with gifts and left with resources that dwarfed what they brought. I hold no ill will against some of their actions, I've even come to respect the brilliance in some of them. The issue is that as a continent, people still have an image of them as saviours. They see charities as a sign of goodwill and love but don't know that the perceived selfless act is in its right a power move. Nothing is free, even in Freetown. Even if the cost is not immediate payback of the loan with interest, there is some form of quid pro quo, an exchange of some sort. This in itself is normal in global politics and international relations, the main issue is when a nation becomes over-reliant on the charity of another.  Not only is it a bad look on the global stage, such a country will forever be subservient. As it says in the good book "The borrower is servant to the lender."  This is the worst place for a sovereign nation to be, because the interest of their own people becomes insignificant, especially when you have a debt that is too great. The price for this type of relationship is signing away precious resources that could have been used to better the lives of the citizens, especially future generations.  While charity is good, know that some gifts are like the Trojan horse. It deserves careful thought and deliberation, weighing the cost and price. I'm sure the Trojans would have benefited from looking at a gift horse in the mouth.

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