The Grand Illusion Of African Independence

Imagine this: you are in your own home, having a nice evening meal. Your neighbor comes in uninvited, sits down on your couch, and turns your television off. He then looks at you and says, “By the way, I’ve decided you are only going to watch the channels I approve of. End of discussion.” You’d instinctively jump up and say, “Are you crazy? Who invited you? This is my house!”

But let me ask you, what if I were to tell you that a similar thing is happening right here in Nigeria? This time, it’s not about your house, but our country. All these years, we have allowed other countries to build and own just about everything we use: our roads, our railways, our power plants, our steel plants, our airports, our refineries, our universities and even the internet we browse. And now, these countries are simply acting like they own this place. They have, as a matter of fact, started dictating what we should see, hear, and even think! So, how did we get here, and what can we do about it?

First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: our love affair with foreign partners. From China to Russia to the Europeans and the Americans, everybody seems to have a hand in our affairs. Our railways? Well, China built them. Our roads and ports? That would be China again. Our power plants? Russia is in on that. Our telecommunications and banking? The Americans and Europeans have a tight grip on those. And yes, they helped build all these things, but at what real cost, you see? When someone else is building your house, it is easy for them to dictate events within its walls. They have the spare keys. They never had to send in men in trench coats or wannabe James Bonds. No. They use high technology to pick off their enemies with remote-controlled bombings of pagers. Now, before you may say, “That’s not our problem; we’re not Hezbollah,” let’s dive just a bit deeper. The lesson here is simple: if one nation can control your technology, then it can pretty much do anything it wants – even from half the world away. And if you think this kind of technological power can’t be used to control us here in Nigeria, think again.

Let me talk about one issue that is already happening: the blocking of Russia Today (popularly known as RT channel) across Africa. How did it happen? The Americans got into some quarrel with Russia and then shut down this Russian news channel. An order signed by some American politician in Washington got the European company supplying Multichoice to stop streaming RT on DSTV to 20.9 million households across Africa. The result? We in Nigeria woke up one day to find we could no longer watch RT on TV or stream them on Facebook because of some drama happening in Washington and Moscow.

Imagine the audacity! It was a decision made by Americans and Europeans without asking anybody here in Africa how we felt about it. They decided what we could and could not watch on our own TVs. If you don’t see a problem with this, imagine if it was the Chinese who decided to block NTA, BBC or CNN on DSTV because they don’t like how they are portrayed. We’d be up in arms, shouting about “imperialism” and “sovereignty.” But now, it is the Americans doing it, and we just let that go quietly and move on.

This is only the beginning. You don’t hear anything now about the grand scheme to censor what you see on the internet. The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently hinted at building a “more resilient global information system”. Translation: They want control over what you can and cannot access online. Soon, our Nigerian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) might have to comply with some foreign laws forcing them to block certain websites and information. Don’t even think that NCC will come to the rescue; it’s part of the same Western network. So, the moment they will decide we shouldn’t read news from some sources, we’ll be just cut off, no questions asked.

Now, let me go back to China for a second: Oh, how we love our railways and airports in Nigeria. But what if one day, China decides they don’t like the way some Western news outlet is reporting on them, and says, “Nigeria, block that channel or we won’t finish building that new Abuja airport”? What will we do? We shall be between the devil and the deep sea because we would have gotten so hooked on their infrastructure. Let’s not even get started on Russia. They control a good part of our energy infrastructure. If Russia decides that Nigeria should take their side in some geopolitical quarrel and we refuse, what happens if they suddenly “experience technical difficulties” with their gas and power equipment here?

This is the reality, my fellow Nigerians. The more you look up to outsiders to build your house for you, the more you should not be shocked when they start instructing you on what to do inside your house. We are like that tenant who used his landlord’s money to build a mansion. It looks good on the outside, but inside, you always have this feeling that the landlord could just walk in anytime and readjust the rules of the house and send you to the boy’s quarters.

What do we do, then? It is about time we started investing in ourselves. Yes, foreign partnerships are good, they bring in the much-needed capital and expertise. Strategically, we must learn from them; build our own indigenous industries and take control of our key infrastructure. Let us begin to build our own roads, our railways, and our power plants. Let us develop our own technology and internet services, our social media platforms so that we are not at the mercy of the whims from Washington, Beijing, or Moscow.

Sovereignty is not just some elaborate word uttered by politicians during Independence Day speeches; it has to do with having control over our own house, our Nigeria. And until we start taking responsibility for our own infrastructure and information channels, we’re leaving the front door open for outsiders to walk in anytime they please. Remember: he who pays the piper calls the tune. It is now time we started paying for our own tunes and stopped letting others control the music in our house.

Ozogwu is a public affairs commentator based in Abuja. He’s the Chairman & CEO of Derasoft Consulting

The Grand Illusion Of African Independence is first published on The Whistler Newspaper