India is deliberately drawing global attention through tech. Indians are the CEOs of most multi-billion dollar Silicon Valley tech companies in the US and they are the ones availing majority of global software. India banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, because they are self-sufficient in tech. Tik Tok was replaced with MX Taka Tak now called MOJ. This was done deliberately to grow local capacity. Today, India has gained so much global influence that they are the only country currently holding two Prime Ministerial positions. One in Delhi and one in the UK. It is intentional!
The Middle Eastern countries are deliberately preparing for a post-oil economy by investing billions of their oil money in building tourism infrastructure and expanding interest in sports. Qatar just hosted the World Cup and will also be co-hosting the under-17 FIFA World Cup with Morocco for the next five years. Dubai is building an underground bullet train tunnel to India in addition to its already existing top-notch infrastructure. Saudi Arabia is now hosting all the elite boxing tournaments and buying up most celebrity footballers into their league to grow local and international audiences and interest in their football league. Saudi is also building a new multi-billion dollar tourism city in their Vision 2030 program. It is intentional!
China is infrastructure drunk. Deliberately, they are connecting their massive country with breathtaking infrastructure. They are scintillating the world with bridges across, mountains, valleys, and rivers that we could only have imagined. They are railing their country on modern electric trains that are increasingly reducing travel time between hitherto far-flung regions. They are achieving this feat, not just at home but also by making a bold statement in other parts of the world, in a bid to impose their own global relevance. It is intentional!
The imperial West is still invading and disrupting peace in weaker countries, as has been their stock in trade. With cunning tokenism, they are still baiting, dividing, and ruling. They are still scrupulously encroaching into resource-rich rich weaker countries to farm their minerals to maintain their superiority. They are still baiting with aid and grants. They are still financing divisions, coups, and wars, to fester their economic interest in their colonies. It is intentional!
Africa is also deliberate and intentional. We are not left behind. We have refined the “mineral” that we mined from the West and are returning the finished product to them. Africa today probably boasts of some of the richest preachers and biggest churches in the world. We are arguably the highest exporters of religion back to those who brought it to us. The richest people in our land are those who steal from us, (politicians) and those who collect from us, (preachers), not those who create Enterprise. That’s our vision 2050. It’s intentional!
Where exactly are the willful visioners? Where are the people with intention that can leapfrog us? Is it that we do not have them at all or is the system averse to their emergence? Will our devotion houses, to whom we have thrust our hopes, come to build us roads and bridges and hospitals and the economy one day or will these houses rather tell their devotees who are their attendees the truth that the nation is bleeding because of their intentional acts?
CrossRiverWatch and a rights activist, a Cross Riverian, and writes from Lagos.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.