We all know that very few African countries are in the business of manufacturing arms of any kind save for South Africa. We are all net importers of military armaments we deploy in our conflicts. We dont even manufacture gas masks, teargas, bullet-proof vests and helmets. All we export to industrialised Europe, America and China are raw materials like oil, diamonds, gold, uranium, tea and coffee, most of which they extract themselves and pay us peanuts for! In exchange, our countries have huge and secretive military budgets that we must spend year in year out whether we are at war or not.
This state of affairs has been made worse by our selfish, unfocused and uncaring political leadership from our region for nearly half a century. At the centre of it all is deep-seated corruption and insatiable greed for individual wealth. This is the greed that has enslaved our countries to the industrialised nations with occasional belief that we can depend on them in our hour of need when hunger ravages our neighbourhoods. It is a slave-master relationship that will take time to break.
This state of affairs has been made worse by our selfish, unfocused and uncaring political leadership from our region for nearly half a century. At the centre of it all is deep-seated corruption and insatiable greed for individual wealth. This is the greed that has enslaved our countries to the industrialised nations with occasional belief that we can depend on them in our hour of need when hunger ravages our neighbourhoods. It is a slave-master relationship that will take time to break.
