Page 19 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 27 Final
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and the story the fisherman told me and how USD, the food company makes 1000 USD
it all relates to what is happening in Africa. from turning that one basket of tomatoes
African countries will sell their crude oil at into paste and whatever else they use them
dirt-cheap prices to foreign companies and for. The same farmer goes to buy the tomato
then buy back finished petroleum products turned into paste from the supermarket,
at exorbitant rates, and then make their except this time with added poisons called
people pay for petroleum products through preservatives. But not for once does he ask
their noses. It never ceases to amaze me that himself why he is not turning his basket of
a country like Nigeria which is one of the tomatoes into paste or any other form of
largest exporters of crude oil in Africa does finished products, nor is the fisherman asking
not have a refinery that is working at full himself what is stopping him from selling his
capacity, apart from the new Dangote refinery, fish to the restaurants and hotels by himself.
which, as you already know, is a private
refinery. Internal and external thieves are It’s a systemic question I am asking, so you
parading massive tankers of stolen crude oil don’t go thinking I am speaking against the
everywhere in the Niger Delta, like no man’s farmer or the fisherman.
business. But it gets more interesting.
I am not speaking against the arrangement
I see this same dumbness of thought in our the fishermen and the agent have, I am just
entertainment industry in Africa. Our African saying that there is a systemic attitude of
celebrities like to hang diamond jewelry on servitude ingrained somewhere in the minds
their necks, looking like some expensive of some Africans that makes them want to be
pretty slaves. They buy them at prices that on the receiving end and not the producing
are high enough to buy diamond mines back side. We need to own factors of production
home. They buy or build houses in choice and not just be consumers of finished goods.
places around the world but they don’t live It is something that we need to deal with
in them. It makes me wonder if they have SYSTEMATICALLY.
ever wondered why Mark Zuckerberg, the
billionaire owner of Facebook or Meta, wears Note: While I was writing this article,
t-shirts and jeans mostly, even in the office. Nigeria introduced a significant reform
Or if they have thought about why Elon to its mining laws, aiming to boost the
Musk, the world’s richest man, for a couple local economy by mandating that minerals
of years, does not even have a personal house, extracted within the country must be
even though the amount of money he has processed locally before they can be exported.
can buy a whole city in Africa and still have
enough to play around with. Way to go Naija!! It’s about time all African
countries do away with the export of raw
I see the same trend with our African farmers materials from the continent.
and it’s equally sad what’s going on there.
For example, a local farmer will sell a basket
of tomatoes to foreign food companies at 10
ISSUE 27 | MAY 2024 19
