Africa owes President Donald Trump a lot of respect for his current efforts at getting rid of the United States of illegal immigrants. The action is a pointer to what to expect from other developed countries in the future. It is a message about the future of developing countries, particularly Africa, which is currently serving as the baby factory of the world. Africa has a very large proportion of illegal immigrants in most of the advanced countries around the world. No thanks to the attitude of African leaders in terms of lack of self-confidence, selfishness, greed and corruption, which together result in bad governance. The behaviour is in our genes. That was why the Whites could carry out slavery on the African continent without freedom wars.
The Whites conquered African leaders not with firepower but with what could be referred to as luxury items in those days. Firstly, the Americans came and shipped our forefathers in chains to their land as slaves to work on their plantations and provide food for them. After the abolition of the slave trade, the Europeans came to occupy our land forcefully in a few places and sometimes but largely under the guise of religion and religiosity to exploit our human and non-human resources, leaving the lands destroyed and the peoples’ orientation and thoughts disarticulated or distorted. Let us leave history to historians who would definitely present a more detailed or comprehensive account of what happened.
At their departure, they imposed on most African countries, leaders who would serve their interests and where they were unable to do so, they arranged the assassination of the leaders of choice to impose their leaders of convenience. They promote their mode of choosing leaders tagged democracy as against the traditional or cultural norms. In their quest to live a programmed standard luxury life, they erroneously concentrate on promoting the proliferation of machines as a mode of production and abandoned baby-making for future labour requirements. Machines were produced in sophistication and abundance with resultant rapidly increasing outputs, falling unit costs and affordable selling prices. Either they did not think they would need human beings to operate the machines or believed that they could always get human resources from the usual backwater side.
By the 1990s, most advanced economies have become aging societies and they have to turn again to Africa for people that will man their machines. It is a new form of modern slavery. Initially, we used our hands to fill out lottery forms to cross over and feel privileged to be there. They knew we would tell the story of good and abundant living to attract others without the formality of filling out forms. Either way, we begged to live in their community and could be rejected anytime they felt we were no longer needed. We could be getting there now.
They have set up institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to guide our governments, rightly or wrongly, on how to manage or mismanage the economies with resultant underdevelopment and the need to depend on advanced economies for survival became unavoidable. If perchance an economy is heading in the right direction, they engage in physical destruction by sending economic hitmen. Libya is a good example in Africa and Iraq in the Middle East. Have you read the account of the book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins? The new confessions are already out.
Developed countries do everything to attract educated citizens of developing countries to look for greener pastures abroad as part of labour mobility. Which pasture is greener than what we have in Africa? Which African economy that runs on foreign economic policies has developed? The countries are encouraged to borrow money after initially making them survive on aid, which bred laziness, complacency and low productivity. Part of the conditions for borrowing are currency devaluation and the adoption of liberalisation of economic fundamentals, including prices, both of which result in inflation. Inflation destroys an economy, as it makes local products uncompetitive in relation to imported goods; promotes accumulation of unsold inventory and by extension results in a fall in production and a rise in unemployment.
The unintended consequence of promoting labour mobility is the political angle which has resulted in foreigners fighting for space in the political arena either as voters or as principals. The ascension of Barrack Obama, a Black man, as the 44th President of the United States with largely support from mostly immigrants, has sent a message to people in President Trump’s category on White supremacy that the future of White supremacy is already in jeopardy. Britain had also produced its version of Barrack Obama in Rishi Sunak. Donald Trump could not imagine the eternal continuation of immigrants becoming head of government, controlling the owners of the land. Fortunately, he has lots of foot soldiers who hold the same view and will prefer he remains US President until he can flush out all ambitious immigrants.
There are many Donald Trumps in other Western countries that have not reached the pinnacle of leadership. They are currently studying America’s Donald Trump. How they react when they get the power may not be as direct as Donald Trump’s modus operandi but could be coloured with British diplomatic model. The battle is being gradually fought in the technological realm, but it is still in its infancy.
Some African countries are currently receiving huge funds from their diaspora citizens in the form of remittances and sales of financial securities like diaspora bonds. Such funds are mismanaged or stolen and probably repatriated as illegal outflow. Such funds will not be available forever. At some points, the diaspora citizens will not have dependents at home because their parents have gone to live with them or to live with the Lord. In some other cases, they will fail to subscribe to bond or security issues because reports have reached them that previous subscriptions have not resulted in positive development or repayments of previous issues have not been regular.
The first electronic robots were created by William Grey Walter of the Burden Neurological Institute, Bristol, England between 1948 and 1949. They have complex behaviour and are difficult to understand. But in 1954, George Devol introduced the first digitally operated and programmable robot tagged the Ultimate. Those were robots created to carry out the simple functions of movement from place to place carrying out small tasks. Since then, however, more complex robots have carried out complex tasks, including being used in war. The drones used in wars are a family of robots. In many cases, advanced countries that cannot attract immigrants like the Western economies have developed or purchased robots used in factories, restaurants and other services.
The use of robots to service patients with precision at the COVID-19 original site in Wuhan, China in 2019 was well reported. The research on the creation and use of robots for simple and complex tasks continues to increase and part of the agenda is to use these robots to completely take over the tasks of immigrants in the future. Although this may not be the original intention, new political developments make it plausible. The introduction and rapid development of artificial intelligence, which focuses more on human activities and actions have been developed to reinforce the relevance of robots and the ability to take over the tasks carried out by immigrants. It is, therefore, a matter of time before many of the advanced economies will close their borders to new immigrants from different parts of the world.
African governments, and the rest of the developing economies, must start thinking of the future without emigration funds and remittances. The future where their children will not be accepted to settle down in other countries. When and where international interactions, including foreign trade, will be exclusively on e-reactions and e-commerce. Where robots will man the land borders and airports, and the issue of compassion will no longer be available because you will not be dealing with human beings who are created to be compassionate.
African governments need to govern properly with transparency and compassion. They should focus on education with science and technology, with law and humanity, with compassion and consideration. We have seen situations where statues of leaders were pulled down and burnt. Hopefully, the future generation will not exhume the dead bodies of their past leaders and burn them. African leaders must start working on the future now.
Credit: Sheriffdeen Tella