Far too many times in my lifetime have I seen people seeking employment acting as if the one providing employment owes them an obligation to do so! This poor mindset is very annoying to experience as all and any job offer is merely a two-way contract. Some one wants something done and you on the other should have the SKILLS or capabilities to provide what the first person wants done that he/she is willing to go into an exchange with you for.

Unfortunately, more times than none the scales are tilted towards the employers favor as there are often thousands of applicants for every single job so the competition alone is heavy. When we as individuals fail to understand that we need to come with something tangible rather than merely “expectations” then we approach the two way interaction with the wrong mindset. Imagine an example of a person coming up to you to fill a carpentry role that you need done and that person when asked if he has any tools for the trade says NO and then expects YOU to supply them for him. This may be a simple example but it is an endless true story also.

NO ONE OWES YOU NOTHING AND IT IS WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND THIS REALITY WILL YOU THEN BE BETTER MENTALLY POSITIONED TO NOT LOSE ANY OPPORTUNITIES NOR ABUSE ANY FAVORS PASSED YOUR WAY. Each time you want the best for other that other often ends up abusing it simply because this simple fact here being explained has never occurred to them!

African Development can only happen when each and everyone of us understands and takes on, with dignity and pride, both personal and collective responsibilities rather than try to shelve them.

You can build all the global “Wakanda” cities you want but until ALL the remotest parts of Africa have clean running pipe borne water, proper objective educational institutions, reliable forms of electricity, well thought-out/implemented structured transportation infrastructures, high-speed intranet connected communication systems, decent accommodation, decent walkways, proper caring health systems for ALL, and are governed humanely as well as peacefully and humanely without fear or terror, coercion, censorship we DO NOT consider Africa DEVELOPED.

Our concept/standard of DEVELOPMENT is putting the necessary EFFORT, TIME, OUT-OF-THE-BOX-THINKING and RESOURCES to ensure ALL parts of Africa is equally served with a decent right to life and living. Only then will we rest out hats down and genuinely say “AFRICA HAS DEVELOPED. It is not enough to build “Wakanda” cities of frolic for tourists attractions while the people continue to be deprived of basic decency. The same effort, thought, excitement and resources put into constructing tourist attractions for FROLIC is the same amount of thought, time, excitement and effort needed to genuinely put Africa on the DEVELOPMENT MAP. Simply think beyond your own nose and self-centeredness on this issue and come up with answers to the above question without recourse to regurgitated text-book content as when AFRICA rises YOU rise also.

Some questions may make us feel uncomfortable but the more we avoid them the more we feed the beast! This is NOT an attack on the African woman but rather it is an honest pointer to reality as if we truly want to be PROUD of ourselves then we need to start being OURSELVES and we all know fully well that the wig is part of the dehumanization maintenance factor (irrespective of how we try to “justify” it) and it is something we all need to step back and do our bit to address. For those still in defensive denial let me ask ALL you females on simple question. If you were to see me walking down the street with my hair in James Brown “perm” or me having some horse tail wig on my head as a MAN WHY is it that you would be the very first to sniggle and giggle at me for being fool-hardy? Yet you justify the horse tail on your own head? There so many other ways to “beautify” yourself if you so need it:

Come on, it is time for us to face our own reality and genuinely stand up and be PROUD of WHO WE ARE, WHEN WE ARE, HOW WE ARE, and WHAT we are!

That time has come for Africans to start THINKING-OUTSIDE-THE-BOX and questioning their whole development process for solutions that are practical and meet the needs of the challenges ahead. Designing ROAD SYSTEMS (and any form of system) does not have to be an “ADOPTION/IMITATION” job as with a little bit of creative thinking (and preventing back-handed stabbing/sabotage by ones own) Africans can come up with creative and resourceful ways to produce sturdy road/transport systems. For example the “creator” did not say that “ROADS” must be made from “TARMAC”? That is the systematic legacy of Colonial rule saying that. Africans need to look inward to what is in abundance. For instance SAND is everywhere and in overwhelming abundance. There is nothing wrong with Africans experimenting and coming up with tested designs that can develop road/transportation systems that are mainly dependent on sand as a raw material unlike tarmac that is OIL based (a commodity they systematically have controlled both its development and related tooling.. AFRICANS you are NOT dumb it is just that far too many of you are sitting on your back-sides waiting for Jesus Christ to pop out of heaven and come and do these things for you. Many of you have TIME on your hands all you need to complete the cycle is skills and will power to learn and implement what you may self-learn.

See these things as “challenges” and simply STEP UP to them rather than SHY away from them. Yes, we know that there will be saboteurs who will collude with the west to thwart your efforts but when more of you start THINKING-OUTSIDE-THE-BOX and start actually practicalizing what you test and do then you make it harder for even the colluder’s/minions among your own kind to sabotage things. RISE and RISE to the challenges do not just sit there complaining!! Devise testing methods and learn how to convert raw materials to finished tools as tooling is crucial to the development process so LEARN IT somehow someway!!