PUNCH
A popular Kenyan lawyer and activist, Prof. Patrick Lumumba, has described the new wave of emigration of African talents abroad as modern-day slavery.
According to Lumumba, though the colonialists left Africa decades ago they are still indirectly exploiting Africa.
The former head of the Kenyan anti-corruption agency was one of the speakers at this year’s edition of The Platform, an Independence Day Anniversary event organised in Lagos by Pastor Poju Oyemade’s The Covenant Nation.
Speaking, Lumumba said Africa must redefine itself, saying that the trend of mass exodus of professionals from Africa to Europe, America and others was like modern slavery.
Lumumba said, “When we judge Africa, we must ask ourselves from whose lens are we judging Africa. The colonisers left (Africa) but never left. Africa is the only country that is still being referred to as francophone or anglophone.
“We were the enablers of the first industrial revolution when our ancestors were taken to work on the farms in Europe. We enabled that revolution. Right now, we’re enabling the fourth and fifth industrial revolutions which is why there are talent visas because they’re taking our talents. If it is not our nurses, it is our IT experts or our engineers. We are gleefully letting them away. When I see our heads of state say we have signed the contract to take our workers to Saudi Arabia, (it is) modern-day slavery.”
In his own presentation, Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, says President Bola Tinubu’s government is considering the introduction of the franchise system into Nigerian Postal Service in order to revive it.
Tijani said if NIPOST was not working as expected, a lot of sectors of the nation’s economy would not be able to add value to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products.
