Japajantis: Discipline & Talents Turned Natural Resources Into Finished Products

Japajantis take heed. God is not coming down to save Africans. Heaven helps those who help themselves. God gave Humans the skills, intelligence and knowledge to use technology for transforming natural or artificial resources into usable and valuable products. There is a list of countries with the least natural resources: Vatican City. Costa Rica. Switzerland. Belgium. Taiwan. Japan. Hong Kong. Gibraltar.

Our darkest time in life, if we don't forget, can spur us into a better future. Necessity is the mother of invention, we say. Many people fall, it is those that get up and move on that make it. There is a Yoruba adage: Adani loro, Agbara lo fi koni (adversity makes us stronger). Japan was defeated, without natural resources but their talents, sweat, discipline and determination raised them, and they learned their lessons that turned their land and people into greatness. Build a miracle out of our villages.

Africa can rise from 500 years of Dark Continent instead of wallowing in self-pity. Indeed, more of our problems today are not natural calamity but come from a few privileged Africans at the expense of those that work very hard at home and economic refugees in the Diaspora trying to rebuild. Our problems are indulging in a leaky Basket. No matter how much sweat is poured in, most of it is wasted. Twice or more as much income as is made from gold, diamond, uranium, oil etc is laundered outside.

We are not talking of the Great Empires of Ghana, Mali or Songhai. But if Western Region of Nigeria could build many Firsts in Africa, better than some countries in Europe in the 60s from meager Cocoa Income, there is no reason we could not have built on that potential with the relatively enormous amount of income made from Oil. Nigeria and other African countries squandered the income outside. Some desperate Africans colluded with foreigners to defraud their own countries.

Few of them forgot their foreign accounts forfeited to better use. The finished goods, where the profit is invested, rewards new ownerships. Unlike raw materials after leaving their sources and labor unions, it is not subject to negotiation. They name their price only to make sure it is in line with those of competitors, if they lack a monopoly. It can be a little less to capture market share or more based on branding. We have known this for decades.

Africans with comfortable fortune at home seek greener pastures abroad where their money turns to less than minimum wage. We must find out how people with minimum wage or less live abroad compared to that small fortune at home. Many of us have bought into the excuse of politicians that our big population made us poor and unmanageable. This difference in population only makes sense with Seychelles, the richest compared to Burundi the poorest, though with higher GDP than Seychelles.

However, China, India, Bangladesh have bigger populations than Nigeria. If we have talents, skills and enterprising spirit but cannot manage or exploit them in our fertile environment, hostile environments will lure us into glorified slavery and even pay us less at home. These are the essential ingredients used to produce finished manufactured products at home and abroad.

African leaders and their cronies pay consultants, accountants, lawyers etc. awoof fees to launder foreign income. Even money recovered abroad from Vagabonds In Power, are laundered back outside. We may remember the story of talents in the holy books regarding the increase of what they had; while those who hid their talents wherever (lost it) were taken from them and given to those who multiplied theirs. What have we as Africans done to our natural talents, skills and resources?

Yet, antibiotics, aspirin and many other drugs were discovered in Africa by foreign scientists on excursions or missions. In Medicine, the Chinese gave us Acupuncture, the Indians gave us Ayurveda. Instead of publishing our traditional medicine for independent efficacy and to exploit it at the world stage, others hijacked them. Apart from the children of Babalawo recruited into medical schools, other medical students do not want to be associated with traditional medicine. What do we, apart from explorers that discovered our traditional medicine, give to the world where infectious and parasitic diseases are rampant?

The same discipline, talents and sweat used to turn African Natural Resources into finished products and services overseas are stolen locally. We did not lose our talents, we begged others to take it for nothing. Actually, we are willing to sell talents, skills and resources dirt cheap in return for vanity the same way our chiefs exchange gold for mirrors. Even many products that are produced locally, have to be taken across the border and branded as imports in Nigeria!

Before our textile industry was suffocated by imported materials, lace was manufactured locally and labeled as imported materials. The same is true of Aba made shoes, Ijebu and Okrika made products. Local machines like Trytors are begging for private investments and distribution since we cannot expect governments to do everything. Once the government gets involved, allocations are diverted into their pockets. They suffocate the initiatives!

It is even worse today because we cannot hold foreigners accountable, defined as Neo Colonialism by Nkrumah. The days we used to have effective deterrents to discourage looters are scarce and gone. Many of us are waiting for our share of the national cake. Our African Vagabonds In Power have been chartered like the old Royal Niger Company before Independence by the British, Americans, Asians or the highest bidders to loot our Continent recklessly without qualm.

There are two types of money. One type is ready, fast and immediate, the other comes from investment that takes longer to yield profit. This is the reason local laborers are paid daily to dig natural resources out of the ground. The big profit is made by those who pay chicken fees to local chiefs and laborers upfront in order to export the materials to where it is turned into finished goods. Investors wait and sell their finished products to the markets at wholesale and retail prices.

However, nobody would pay you what you are worth. If they do, they get less on their profits. Time makes the difference between those willing to wait until their investments mature and grow compared to those who need the money immediately for stomach infrastructure, body and soul. People create wealth by their perseverance, effort and diligence within their environment. Readymade (Olorunsogo, come and chop) is dead!

When humans are hungry and become desperate for wealth, the way politicians use stomach infrastructure, money is used to attract talents and natural resources. Money is readily available as immediate gratification for talents and natural resources that take time to be fruitful. So talents and natural resources are hidden in workers and in the ground while little money that will take care of urgent need or greed is flaunted to enhance huge returns.