Onye Nkuzi Profile picture
Sep 25, 2020 6 tweets 1 min read Read on X
My first consulting job took me to Kano. We were housed in a guest house. The senior manager was Brazilian, the big boss was Nigerian.

The senior manager was automatically housed in the best room, because he's "oyibo". The big boss was livid.
Mensah Otabil described Africa's "colonial legacy" is a deep inferiority complex. It still endures - even among the most educated/exposed segments of our society.

Like the Nigerian oil company guy who insisted "he be treated as an expatriate", not that locals be treated better.
You can't effectively colonize a people without proving, that somehow, you are "superior" to them. I.e. your culture is superior to theirs - and so is your technology.

Asians (Arabs, Chinese, Indians etc.) never fully accepted that Western culture was superior to theirs.
With the rise of Japan, it became increasingly difficult for European colonial power to prove to an Asian audience they were "all round superior" - even in technology.

George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" demonstrated those tensions before WW2.

Everything fell apart post WW2.
I recall Lee Kuan Yew's remarks about the British now living in Singapore, not as superiors, in secluded areas - but as equals, among Singaporeans. He appreciated the transition from colonialism.

In Africa, things are different. That transition is yet to occur.
In Anglophone Africa things are bad, but they are a lot worse in Francophone Africa. In Abidjan, Nigerians would be considered "assertive", by the French, who still dominate that city the same way they did in 1959.

(I am speaking from experience).

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More from @cchukudebelu

Jul 12, 2023
I just heard about an African American scholar (this guy had a PhD in Economics from Heidelberg), who had a four hour conversation with Adolf Hitler;

In summary, Hitler told him "he belonged to a race of humans so inferior, that they would never build anything worthwhile".
Hitler neither said anything new, nor original to him. (The conversation was held in 1932).

Lugard, in his 1923, "Dual Mandate" echoed the sentiments.

Anyway, f**k Hitler and Lugard.

My problem is many Nigerians have internalized this; "we're never going to make it".
Psychologically defeated people.

For all their swagger and bluster, lack the essential ingredient for progress, as a society;

Self-confidence.

James Aggrey (of Achimota College fame) told a story about an eagle who was brought up as a chicken. It lacked the confidence to fly.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 30, 2023
Babangida did a lot more to prepare Nigeria for his "Structural Adjustment Program", than this current crew.

There was a public debate on accepting/rejecting an IMF loan.

Kalu Idika Kalu, Olu Falae and Chu Okongwu spent a lot of time explaining the journey ahead.
Along the way, Babangida abandoned all desire for debate, and reverted to repression.

The mantra was, "there is no alternative to SAP".

Gani Fawehinmi (may God bless his memory) countered, "there's even an alternative to living; dying - so there's an alternative to SAP".
Obasanjo remarked that, "SAP lacks a human face, and the milk of human kindness".

SAP was introduced by IBB in 1986, but it took time for people to push back - with the 1989 Anti-SAP Riots.

We don't study history, dozens of students lost their lives.
Read 5 tweets
May 23, 2023
In the 1960s, Lee Kuan Yew had a problem;

Singapore's economy depended on a British naval base, and the Brits were pulling out.

He figured out that he had to woo Americans - who didn't even know Singapore existed.
He had to educate them on Singapore's strategic importance to the US first - they bought it, and a relationship was built.

He also realized that young Singaporeans were better off studying in the US, learning how the US worked (he studied at Cambridge).
Lee Kuan Yew strategically took advantage of a unique moment in history - to drive prosperity in Singapore.

(Later on, he made Mandarin compulsory in schools, as China's rise became apparent).
Read 5 tweets
Mar 16, 2023
Some of you cannot read, many more of you will not read.

This is clear evidence of Oxford University soliciting for funds from Hope Uzodinma of all people.

So what does an African kleptocrat get in exchange for funding Oxford? Your guess is as good as mine.
You people don't know Oxford, and its history of accepting money from all sorts of shady characters.

I mean, they accepted money from Cecil Rhodes, a thoroughly nasty piece of business. (Please read up on him, and what he thought of Africans).
As late in the day as the mid 1960s, Hugh Trevor-Roper, the "Regius Professor of History" at Oxford University described African History, as;

"The unrewarding gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant parts of the globe".
Read 5 tweets
Mar 14, 2023
I watched Yvette Cooper tear Suella Braverman to pieces.

Many Africans haven't fully appreciated what the UK Conservative Government's singular on focus really Rwanda means.

It means the UK Government prefers African authoritarians, who do their bidding, to African democracies.
Trust me, this isn't the time for shallow thinking.

If you extrapolate, you'll understand the implications.

Some of you believe "Kagame is smart" by accepting the offer. Trust me, he isn't - he's cementing Africa's reputation as a dumping ground for Europe's problems.
I'm not going to bore you with the details - just use your brains, do a little thinking.

Also internalize this, just as Europe sees Africa as a dumping ground for its migrant problems - they also sees Africa as a dumping ground for their "climate change" problems.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 2, 2023
Christianity was introduced to Africans with the idea of "generational curses" - and since then, African Christians have been obsessed with that idea.

It started with the "Curse of Ham" - which was a cynical ploy to justify slavery, and many Blacks fell for that nonsense.
When the "Curse of Ham" failed, "Nimrod", an obscure figure from thousands of years ago, was dredged up as an excuse for our position as the slaves, servants and wretched of the Earth.

After that came the syncretism of "ancestral curses" - borrowed from our traditional beliefs.
But the Bible is clear;

"The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him".
Read 5 tweets

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