West Enslaving Africans Through Work Visa – Lumumba

Popular Kenyan lawyer and activist, Prof. Patrick Lumumba, has described the new wave of emigration of African talents abroad as modern-day slavery.

According to Lumumba, though the colonialists left Africa decades ago they are still indirectly exploiting Africa.

The former head of the Kenyan anti-corruption agency was one of the speakers at this year’s edition of The Platform, an Independence Day Anniversary event organised in Lagos by Pastor Poju Oyemade’s The Covenant Nation.

According to Lumumba, Africa must redefine itself, saying that the trend of mass exodus of professionals from Africa to Europe, America and others was like modern slavery.

Lumumba said, “When we judge Africa, we must ask ourselves from whose lens are we judging Africa. The colonisers left (Africa) but never left. Africa is the only country that is still being referred to as francophone or anglophone.

“We were the enablers of the first industrial revolution when our ancestors were taken to work on the farms in Europe. We enabled that revolution. Right now, we’re enabling the fourth and fifth industrial revolutions which is why there are talent visas because they’re taking our talents. If it is not our nurses, it is our IT experts or our engineers. We are gleefully letting them away. When I see our heads of state say we have signed the contract to take our workers to Saudi Arabia, (it is) modern-day slavery.”

In his own presentation, Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, says President Bola Tinubu’s government is considering the introduction of the franchise system into Nigerian Postal Service in order to revive it.

Tijani said if NIPOST was not working as expected, a lot of sectors of the nation’s economy would not be able to add value to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products.

“The reality is that we can’t have a vibrant economy if people cannot move goods. If a farmer in Funtua cannot grow fresh vegetables and get them to Pastor Poju in Lagos, who is conscious of his health and wants to eat clean, then we have a problem. That farmer is not going to be able to add to our GDP, Pastor Poju is not going to get the service that he requires. So, the GDP number won’t be where we want it to be.

“So, NIPOST has a critical role to play in connecting all of us. So, we are trying as much as possible to re-imagine what NIPOST is all about, perhaps turn it into a franchise where a young businessman can own a NIPOST location, not own outright, but the government can franchise it out to you and you’ll run that location.”

“That location will not only serve for delivery purposes, it’ll also become a location where you can go and sign up for your passport if you want to. You can go there to open a bank account. You can go there to also transact all sorts of businesses. It becomes a business centre, really, for you. That’s also something we are reimagining,” the minister said.

• Yusuf Oketola