It is around 10:00 pm on 30th, December 2017. I am chatting with my best friend via “sms” before retiring to sleep. Marking the date, this conversation is filled with resolutions and plan for 2018. “The Dos and the Don’ts.” What are friends for if not to build and empower each other? So we discussed lots of things, from our spiritual relationship with God, career, education, financially, e.t.c The whole intention of this conversation was to help each other to raise the bar in all aspects of life. We clearly have to achieve this!
I have develop a habit of waking up one hour earlier than my usual waking up time, just to dedicate it solely on reflecting and reviewing my life, what I want of it. What I should do and how to achieve it. This is because of The Reason listed above. One of my favorite lectures once told me we should always evaluate our relationship with friends, does it add value, is that value worth it? If not then such relationships should be terminated.
This is the same aspect that my beloved continent is facing, having various relations and engagements that are not worthy and if it has value then not valuable enough. Both inter and intra-states relationship has less to offer for our countries and Africa as a whole. The relationship is characterized by exploitation from other continents. They take more than what they give and yet African states seems to ignore that fact.
Kenya seems to be in those ‘flashy’ and ‘extravagant’ relationship which looks wonderful but quickly leads you to lots of dept. Ignorant plays a major role in this with greed being the fuel- its comparable to a jobless person borrowing lots of money just to buy expensive gadgets and spend the rest on leisure instead of investing on ventures that can generate wealth- Currently the Kenya’s principal debt is at sh4.4trillion threatening to hit sh5trillion celling by beginning of the year. Mathematically speaking, the government is borrowing approximately sh86billion per month! That’s huge, but where all this money do go is a mystery- has it changed your life now that each Kenyan owes at least sh97000 (computed against 45 million people according to the latest economic survey by Kenyan National Bureau of Statistic).
How you carry yourself is what defines you, it is what determines the kind of relationship with people around you. African states are like a beautiful lady, who is curvaceous, awesome make up. I mean appealing to the eye, just like what we Kenyans refer to as “slay queen” yet she does not have the same appeal intellectually. Not because she is dumb, but because she decided to be ignorant. We can all imagine the relationship that such a description will have with the opposite sex. African states are rich with resources, minerals, oil, agriculture, tourist attraction sites, awesome climate… name them, yet our foreign policy are wanting regarding how we engage with other countries based on our resources. I was quite disappointed when I read the Sino –Africa policy measures. The saddest fact is that they were drafted by Chinese, ours was just to sign the agreement. It looked all colorful and impressive but yet in action it is not.
If our country is really serious about getting industrialized by 2030- if that dream is still alive that is- we should seriously evaluate our bilateral trade policies with other countries. In 2017 alone, Kenya imported goods worth more than sh400billion from China alone! With Kenya only managing to export about 175billion worth of goods to China. This deficit of trade in the side of Kenya is unhealthy. Balance of trade is important in a country’s economic growth, it’s clear China is gaining whoppingly at the expense of Kenya. This must change, we cannot play dead in such a toxic relationship which is hurting our local industries which are going out of business with many more not seeing the light of day. Yet we want to industrialize by 2030, what a joke!
I think it is time African needs to raise their bar and behave or carry themselves like they are worth and not to be manipulated by short term goodies (if you like you can call it development) that will not take any impact in our society. We might just end up like Siri Lanka which is in a sorry state due to over-borrowing to build flashy infrastructure, which cannot generate enough income to pay the loan leave alone grow the economy. The country is slowly being placed under receivership by China in the bid to recover their money.
As a new year begin, let our country and Africa at large to do a serious sole searching. We should evaluate our relationship with the so called ‘Donor” countries to check if we are in a healthy or exploitive relationship. We should also use our loans to do economy improving and wealth creating projects for not only in improving our life (citizens) but also paying our loans with comfy or ease.
Wishing you a prosperous New Year filled of God’s Blessings
Says B.N
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