TwoCents | THE END OF COLONIALISM: AN UNPOPULAR OPINION PART 2

The colonialists were never going to let all that access to free resources go, we still hear of what the French did to countries like Niger from the stories of the coup. Which by the way, word has it that they now want to redeploy those soldiers kicked out into other African countries; including Nigeria, if we sign a new defence pact. A soverign nation allowing foreign military into it's borders, when in present day America wants to ban TikTok for fear of it being used to infiltrate and give access to their citizen's data, but I digress. They had set up their systems with our people, chiefs and Kings fronting as the head. This system was one of extraction of resources which only worked after they killed off or exiled those who seemed to stand in their way. We have heard of the likes of King Jaja of Opobo.  So, they had their systems in place. They had agreed to pull out of Africa, the date was set so they could ease out and transition into the new era of Nigerians ruling Nigerians. There was joy and jubilation in the streets, we had done it. We finally chased them out and our resources were ours again. Except it wasn't  If you recall the first half of this article, they had a history of taking away people they considered problematic and "anti progressive" another word for those who would not play ball with their agendas. You may have heard the stories that the first election that took place in Nigeria, was rigged. Which had always been the trademark of their influence. The only difference now was the system was PUBLICLY, being run by Africans. If you compare the social structures of the 2 worlds, theirs have a system of service, not saying theirs is perfect, but you see the focus is on the citizens' needs being met. When you look back at Africa, Nigeria to be exact, we serve the system. That was the whole point of the colonial system; to extract. Oil is being sold to them, refined and then sold back to us at higher prices when we could just do that for ourselves and sell to them. You see this replicated across many sectors, because it benefits them to buy it cheap. This is no different from when our people through indirect rule kept the peace, sold us to them and shipped our resources abroad. Our leaders still do to this day, and we all know the first place they go to invest. It's funny how they put out lists of corrupt nations, yet they take the funds they know are fruits of corruption and looting, they invest with it and use it to grow their economy.  They do not punish said corrupt people, or even return the stolen common wealth, since they are the watchdog of social justice and order. They instead give the people that have mismanaged these funds more access to invest. The problem with the system is it works so well that we end up substituting one master for another, selling out ourselves and our brothers to anyone who comes offering money, then we use that money to get foreign products and feel superior and exposed. At the core of this is a conditioning that the foreign race and their products are superior to our own. We praise their ways and take in everything they do, instead of adopting the best of theirs and mixing it with the best of ours. We do not put our Nation's interest ahead of theirs. This is the reason why they continually have the upper hand in trade deals, why pay for what you can figuratively get for free? I write this to give us a sense of awareness. To see that while our issue is partly that of leadership, we the people also play a huge role, not only by our acceptance and eager participation in corruption, but belief that we do not have a working system. We do, and it is called the colonial system, which is extractive by nature. It works so well because it makes the people believe they are fully in control, while they are being controlled by those in power. The leaders understand this, so they replicate the process on us, while they bow to the "higher foreign power".

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