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THE CAPITALIST NIGER

Chika Onyeani ………………………Every African must internalise this book - period….DAA INTRODUCTION In October 1960, Nigeria received its independence from Britain. By then, Ghana the former Gold Coast had been independent for three years under the great Osagyefo Kwame Nkumah. It was a time for celebrating Africa’s coming of age, as more and more African countries received their independence either from Britain or France. It was especially a poignant time for Africa, as then British Prime Minister Harold McMillan articulated his now famous “winds of change” sweeping Africa. We had high hopes for Africa, for the Black race, that the insidious imposition of foreign rule on us, the looting of Africa’s natural resources by our colonial masters accorded us would be things of history. That is more than forty years ago. Unfortunately, the promise of independence has not been fulfilled. Today, Africa has become more desolate; there is more starvation, diseases and non-provision of essential services than when we got our independence. There are all kinds of wars in Africa than the rest of world put together. The majority of so-called Africans leaders want to stay in power until the day their bodies are put in the grave. Through buffoonery, utter mismanagement and downright stealing of the wealth of the masses, these leaders have so impoverished Africa that we are now nothing but a beggar continent. We beg for everything; we are more dependent on our colonial masters than when we received our independence from them. Africa owes the West more money than we and our generations to come can pay. I arrived in America in December of 1967as an official of what we believed was going to be a dynamic African nation – the young Republic of Biafra. But Biafra was defeated and Nigeria remained one, as a giant of Africa. In the last 32 years, I have watched with horror and outright helplessness as the downward slide of the African race continues to escalate. But rather than...