Emillia Uupindi, a Namibian undergraduate, won the maiden Africa Regional Inter-Collegiate and Inter-University Debate on Human Security held at the Obasanjo Presidential Library at Oke-Mosan in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The event was held to mark former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s 76th birthday. It drew participants from 32 universities in Africa.
To Emillia, a Computer Science student of the University of Science and Technology, Namibia, the topic of the debate: Threats to human security in Africa are self inflicted and not induced by the West, which she argued against was in a way connected to the situation in her country.
Perhaps, this explains why she spoke with a tinge of vehemence while making her points drawing endless applause from the guests and participants.
“The first argument is propaganda,” said Emillia as she argued against the motion. “I refer to the propaganda the Western media is using on Africa. Basically, everything affecting Africa, including our problems and the solutions are defined by the West. But the question is: Is it for our own benefit or theirs? The other is that Africa’s economy has a good potential in terms of resources, but we don’t have the skills and infrastructure. We don’t have the machines to process the minerals that will give us those products that will boost our economy. So, we are actually dependent on the West and through that, they control us and control our leaders.”
Emillia continued: “Now in Africa, the grants are being given to our universities by European Union without stringent process. That on the surface is deemed to be help, but on closer look, it is another colonisation. Then, we are also looking at the issue of foreign aids which are not given to us on a platter of gold. There are a lot of laws of contracts in Africa, including Namibia guiding these aids. Sadly, many of our leaders didn’t read or understand some of the clauses inserted in the contracts when negotiations were being made. Unfortunately, our leaders realised this rather too late and now, they cannot get out of the trap, which will make their people subservient to the imperial moneybags.”
She said if the West had not induced African leaders with the conditional aids, the continent would not have been embroiled in the security and economic quagmire it found itself presently.
Insisting that African leaders are gullible, Emillia said: “Like in Namibia, chunk of the country’s land mass does not belong to native people. We are a people struggling; we don’t have a little land to live, not even a farm. Owning a small residential land is even a risk. We have a lot of white people owning the land. Secondly, if you look at the economy of Namibia, all businesses belong to the white. The white people own the firms; not even the government owns up to 50 per cent. If you look at the agricultural sector, Namibia is very rich in fish which used to be the preserve of the natives. But then, the white are now penetrating into the market. We are not only competing against the whites, we are also competing against the Chinese because they also now own land owners more than the Namibians.
“The construction industry in Namibia is powered by the Chinese. They are the ones that get government tenders. And because China gives loans to the government to carry out its programmes, Chinese people are able to control our leaders. So how do I, as a native, survive in my continent of birth when contracts are given to outsiders? In all these, the West cannot be exonerated. They have seen that everything is in Africa, but in their countries, they don’t really have many resources.”
Emillia became more agitated when she said the West cornered Africa’s natural resources and converted them into finished products and sold to Africans at unaffordable prices.
“They are selling jewelry to us; where did they get the gold? They are bringing cell phones to Africa, where did they get the materials? We are buying their processed fishes and beefs, where did all those come from? Africa has it all. Uranium is a material that is vital in the manufacturing of weapons. Africa does not make weapons, the West does. But the 97 per cent of uranium deposit is in Africa. So the West has realised that in order for them to stay in control, they have to get our key resources,” she argued.
Emillia described Africans as sheep, who hardly resisted oppression. She said from time to time, concerned Namibians team up and hold conferences to brainstorm on the nation’s challenges. She quickly added that such forums usually ended up in fiasco.
“Namibians are people who take things as they are. For them, life continues. We still have that colonial mindset when you have to take whatever is given to you by your rulers,” she lamented.
Though it’s her first visit to Nigeria, but Emillia said she learned a lot from the programme, including her renewed passion for African unity. “One lesson I am taking back home is to promote unity in Africa,” she said excitedly.
