Abuja: Immanuel Kant said it all, “humans should act so well that their conduct could give rise to universal law.” Civilized people are not just a tolerant people. They are a people whose words and actions are not sources of violence and threat to other people. Africans have for centuries demonstrated a culture rich in great civilization. Even under such immense external threats Africans have never stopped de-emphasising violence and vengeance.

Little wonder our Caucasian brothers and sisters have for the past eight centuries misconstrued our humaneness as our weakness. Little wonder they have fully exploited this high moral cultural standing in us, and our sheer embracement of others with great sense of hospitality. No wonder our humane and non-vengeful culture, has turned out to be our burden. Since 1272 it has remained so.

With the bible in one hand and the gun in another, they lured our ancestors into selling their brothers and sisters into slavery. And later returned back, this time to violently occupy and divide Africa into partitions that suited their commercial interests. This insatiable quest for Africa’s raw materials, made them to return back again in the 1980s, this time dangling “cheap loans” to our dictators, who they helped prop up for that purpose.

Because all these centuries our Caucasian brothers and sister have gotten away with all the atrocities committed in Africa, they equally felt they were operating in a familiar territory. And a familiar territory they believed it was when this time they had to reoccupy our economy by transferring Africa’s monetary and financial decisions to western capital cities. Exactly, they did what their ancestors did during slave trade. Manufacturing one political and economic instability or another across the continent.

Also like their ancestors, they did not have any problem finding ready connivers in some of our supposed leaders, those who were willing to sell their entire countries’ economies in exchange for mere Swiss accounts. No wonder helping hands were easily found in dictators like Mobutu, who they helped steal as much as $6 billion to be deposited in Swiss accounts. And here the Swiss banks demonstrated their “great civilization” that as soon as Mobutu died they stole these billions of US dollars.

Imagine the kind of message dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko would be sending our western creditors were they still alive with over $6 billion in their Swiss bank accounts. They too, of course, would be publicly denouncing our illegal debt and privately asking for no debt forgiveness. Are there not so many Mobutus in Africa today singing that song of debt forgiveness: “please have mercy on us for our children are dying?” But as foolish as these Mobutus might sound, they would be wise enough never to want to become the first casualties of western reprisals should the battle against our debt be fought.

Because their ancestors got away with their atrocities up till four decades ago, the sons and daughters of our former colonial rulers thought they too were in for the repeat of history. Unfortunately, underrating today’s Africa is a mistake, indeed a mistake of not understanding that with Africa coming of age that will never ever happen again. They will be astonished how this is the beginning of a series of battles for the final liberation of Africa. They must now realise we are now out for this confrontation. They have to understand why we are out to win this first battle at all costs. Why our patience, after all these centuries of exploitation, now is going to be let loose? Why we want to declare their so-called debt null and void and stand by our words?

It is now up to them to come to the realisation that this to us is not just any battle, but a necessary battle for the survival of the black race, a race that can no longer be treated as an uninvited guest. They will be surprised where we are ready to take this battle to: their sacred territories, including their courts and their citizens. Having exhausted our patience, we now have no other option but to intelligently employ every powerful weapon at our disposal to fight off this menace from our Caucasian brothers and sisters, this recklessness and the inhumanity once and for all.

There is no doubt that given their devil-may-care culture, our Caucasian brothers and sisters wouldn’t have lost a night’s sleep over this problem would they ever found themselves in our present predicament. In fact, not only would they quickly declare the debt null and void, they would go further to drag our leaders and business people involved in the debt fraud to every court in the world, seeking reparations here and there for dare conniving with their illegitimate leaders.

Truly ready for this battle of the century, our leaders must not fail to understand that we will never just throw ourselves into the battle, hoping that a miracle will happen. Just like the general who knows that before sending his men into a battle he must have full knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, our leaders too, must be fully prepared ahead of their western opponents. Had it been I was one of them, I would have seen this as a unique opportunity to demonstrate my readiness to stand toe-to-toe with them, a demonstration that Africans are never the cowards they thought we are. Had it been I was one of these leaders, I would have made to understand that we are ready to fight in order to repossess what belongs to our people, just like the founding fathers of American democracy fiercely fought the British in an effort to repossess America. And should the need arise, as one of Africa’s leaders, I would not hesitate to tell the entire world how our so-called debt has not just bankrupted Africa but has been the sole cause of today’s massive poverty and HIV/AIDS pandemic in the continent.

There is no better time for us take full advantage of using our oil power as one single weapon, should the need arise. This is the excellent time to be ready to respond back, including sending their oil companies packing should they dare withhold our investments in their countries. Should they dare dream of withholding our investments in the west, we should see their actions as an eye opener, the reason why Africans should begin to increase their internal trade.

Just imagine what will happen in today’s global oil market should Nigeria disrupt global supply? Just think about the colossal uncertainty that could be generated in the global economy should Nigeria ask western oil companies to leave the country within the next 48 hours? Imagine the irreparable damage grounding western economies, economies fully dependent on oil would cause?

Imagine how western leaders end up becoming the political scapegoats for having allowed their local economies to suffer such irreparable damage? Imagine all the controversies and the moral hazards that this single action of ours could generate across the globe, with sympathizers trooping out in the streets in their hundreds of thousand supporting our action, and some with the slogan: “enough of Africa’s exploitation.” Imagine how humiliated their citizens would feel for their leaders’ immorality in poor Africa countries. There is no doubt that levels of protest would never be higher than the globalization protests witnessed in the west in the recent times. In fact, it would be an excellent historic opportunity for Diaspora Africans and friends of Africa the world over to express their support for Africa. I doubt our so-called creditors would want us to get to this level, especially the damage that would bring to their already questionable reputation. But should they, we must never look back since they will have themselves to blame. This is no violence. It is about fighting to save Africa from extinction.

Some concerned Nigerians might be tempted to ask: What about western investors as if they didn’t know that in today’s globalization investors all over the world scan through where they have the greatest production and market opportunities irrespective of other bilateral or multilateral factors? If western investors could all congregate in communist China simply because of its huge market and its cheap and educated workforce – despite China’s human rights records and potential economic and political threat to the west – certainly there is no other place they couldn’t go. Let us not forget that western investors have never and will never be first mover investors in Nigeria. It is the responsibility of such local investors to first lead the way for others to follow. This is the only way, given that western investors’ only interests have never gone beyond our extractive industries.

Senator Udoma’s team’s recent tour of some western capitals was an excellent way of informing them that the days of our debt are now numbered. It is now time both President Obasanjo and Senate President Nnamani worked closely together on this issue because the future of our children is under immense threat. This is an opportunity to demonstrate to future generations that we were not what our history might say about us – that is that while our nationalist, anti-colonial leaders fought fiercely to liberate us from European occupation, we fought merely to fill our stomachs and our pockets at such an incredible cost to the country.

If I were to advice our Western brothers and sisters, I would ask them to imagine how our children and their children would feel 200 years from now, when Africa will undoubtedly emerge economically and politically superior. I would advice them to fully appreciate the fact that our children, looking back to how their ancestors were continuously humiliated by their western counterparts simply because they were more powerful economically and politically, might be tempted to seek outright vengeance. I hope they wouldn’t go that far because vengeance is not in African blood.

Basil Enwegbara, This Day, May 22, 2005