Human Capital Flight. The New Export Out Of Africa

C+G+I+(X-M) is a very critical tool in administering the affairs of a state. My focus today will be on X-M (net exports). Theoretically, exports are key drivers of growth and economic prosperity for a country but this theorem has become a fallacy for African nations. Africa has been exporting it's natural endowments in its crudest form and therefore received insignificant returns for the valuable products it sells to the world. The latest export out of Africa SHOULD be a major cause for concern for African governments. Authors such as Walter Rodney have delve on the issue of Under Development in Africa and the mass exodus of Africa's prized asset (Human resource). The recent out flow of human capital (back wayers) out of the continent represents an export of a talent pool that Africa cannot afford to part ways with. Our major towns and cities are are being deserted by the emerging young generation of Africans who represent our future leaders, entrepreneurial magnates, teachers, law enforcers etc and this void will further relegate Africa to the periphery of the global development agenda.

Our public policy practitioners are touting the attainment of some of our MDG goals as barometers of a positive development. My argument is what if we attain most if not all the MDG goals and there is no able body left on the continent what good is this achievement for Africa? It is therefore incumbent on African policy experts to go back to the drawing board and critically diagnose the menace that is boosting the export of our young and productive bodies to Europe. This should be an immediate exercise for our governments and owning up to our systemic failure will be the first step in addressing the menace that befell the continent. Globalization and the easy access of information has made the African youth to benchmark his/her existence to their counterparts in the west and being rational human beings, they are yearning for better opportunities for social upward mobility and this is the challenge faced by our leadership class (how to stem the tide of migration). I am yet to see the continental and regional bodies making migration an emergency issue that needs resolution to curb the tide of outflow of much needed African brain power and brute force. Our governments MUST work on opening up the democratic space by enlarging political inclusion, and more leadership roles for the youth folk so as to carve a future for them in the pie called Africa. Finally, I am of the view that leadership is not a reactionary machinery but a futuristic approach to problem solving by mitigating eventualities that adversely affect the well being of the populace. Africa need next generation leaders who can look at Africa's problem holistically and out of the myopic box that most of our leaders look at our ailments from. 2015 public leadership expectation is not only real time but cutting edge with a requisite tool kit to smoothen the development hiccups along our desired trajectory. Africa's youths are crying for help and assistance from the very people they voted in office and to whom much is given much is expected of.

De-Militarization of Africa. A Way Towards Peace Building

The drama continues and the sooner Africans learn that militarization is not for the poor, the better we are as a continent. The current problem in Burkina was precipitated by the pronouncement of the interim Prime Minister to reduce the size of the Presidential guards and eventually the army as a whole. The people with the guns felt threatened and unilaterally acted on their caprices to instill their will on the population. The same happened when the military complex in Egypt felt threatened during the popular uprising. The ouster of Morsi and his subsequent prosecution was orchestrated by a selfish minority who imposed their will on a defenseless population. This question was somehow a topic on a previous blog post as per the notion of African Liberation Day. My question is who is the African attempting to liberate themselves from? Surely not the Europeans but the entrenched elites who have a vested interest in perpetuating the status quo. Africa's problems and ailments are home grown and the sooner our leaders look at the bigger picture, the better for all. Campaore may be out of sight but his ghost is haunting Burkina today because the size of the army he created and these men will not relent because they don't want to loose the privileges they once enjoyed. 

Partial demilitarization of the continent should be a priority agenda for the regional groupings and the African Union. We should legislate and institute fiscal mandates that curb the growth and expenditure of the military in Africa. Our primary preoccupation should not be military expenditure but poverty reduction and employment creation. Am glad that sanity has been restored in Burkina albeit a temporal respite. A lasting solution can only be brokered forcefully by disarming 60% of the army. The poor tax payers in Burkina want value for their money and they surely not getting value in an entrenched army. Peace is not the absence of war and fostering peace is not achieved through intimidation or strong military presence. Societies achieve peace through an equitable wealth distribution schemes and social empowerment. The new African reality should not only be progressive but futuristic in the sense that we have been in the doldrums of the prosperity boom and the citizenry deserve more than what have been dished out to them by their leaders.It is quite agonizing for me as I ponder on the complexities and self inflicted predicament the Africans find themselves in. Traditionally, the Africans via proxy have entrusted their leaders to set out the agenda for them but the time has come for the African populace to not only set the agenda for their leaders but curb the excesses of their leaders by becoming the masters of their destinies. Simply taking the bull by the horn. The population who elect leaders are the "Principals" and the leaders are the "agents" therefore power lies in the principal (the people). I always constrain my emotional state with with logical proposition but it is hard for me not to feel angry and frustrated as per how the 95% of Africans have been short changed by their political and intellectual elites. This is not the Africa, Kwame Nkrumah, Samora Michel, Gamel Nassar and others envisage when they agitated for self determination and eventual independence. Yes we have shattered the yolk and bonds of colonialism but the African have found themselves in a new frontier squabbling with their leadership/elite for the wanton disregard of the interest of the majority. The likes of me have vowed to live this continent forever despite the short comings inherent in our lives as per the predicament and frustrations we find our continent in. 

Conversation With My Dad

Writing has always been therapeutic and uplifting for me. Having people read my post and conceptualize my views inspires me to keep on writing. I've noticed with pride that my father Omar Njie​ not only endorsed my recent post but gave me insights that craves my indulgence to further probe into the issues raised on that particular post. I attempted to address the issue of domestic production and consumption as an "Import Substitution Strategy" in a bid to equiliberate our balance of payment statistics and boost employment figures for our national economy. My position of an import substitution strategy was conceived after a heated deliberation with my buddy and brother Salieu Taal who passionately advocates for the promotion of home grown business talents and this is a credo he lives by judging the business and economic decisions he partakes in his daily commercial interactions. Having said this, I crafted a paragraph identifying the issues relating to national production and the inherent lost opportunities therein in not partaking in import substitution ventures. The paragraph in parenthesis was my status update on FaceBook and it it reflected my concerns for the economy that I so love dearly [We either produce as a nation, or we get consumed in the business of global consumption. In this business, the seller dictates terms, pricing and subsequently the quality of goods delivered. The choice is ours and if we want to be masters of our destiny, then we embark on the path of import substitution for our daily national food intake. Much rhetoric has been advanced regarding food self sustenance and growth of our domestic agribusiness but it starts with a commitment to entice and reward market participants who partake in developing and deepening our local agri markets. Fiscal incentives such as subsidies, tax reduction and import duty exemptions on farming implements should be the inducement for a game changer. Public policy is not dogma and reorienting national planning objectives to meet desirable socioeconomic realities should be the worry of public policy makers. Good morning Gambia lets constructively engage public policy practitioners for the emergence of commercial farming ventures]. 

My dad after perusing through my post decided to give me a short lecture on the issue at hand but with a broader perspective that was beyond my scope and comprehension. The following was his response to my status update and it surely reoriented my world view as my good friend Salieu Taal will always harp on me that Gambians need to augment their knowledge base in order to accelerate our development agenda and trajectory.  He stated the following "Thank you very much Nyang Njie AKA Daddy. l really do appreciate your continuous efforts to raise the social and economic awareness of Gambians by using the Normative Re-dactive Strategy of change. It is a very valuable effective way to make people understand and face up with some of the significant factors and realities that impinges daily on our lives. Education is not all about book learning, it also warrants for us to understand the nature of things within and beyond our environment; and to ask the how and why of things. Furthermore, an education that doesn't equipped the individual to be able to discern, and distinguish right from wrong render that education to be meaningless. In a way, as human beings we are supposed to be problem solvers and should have inquisitive minds and attitudes to make us effective change agents in society. Let us take Kura Njie's notion of growing, harvesting and utilizing calabash for the use of the people in the community. It was part of The Gambian culture and tradition which has significantly eroded to a point whereby calabash is imported from neighboring Guinea Bissau. Doesn't this kind of social and economic situation ring a bell that as a society, we are busy doing the wrong sums and the irony is that even if we have the answers right it will not benefit us as a community /and or society.
Like Nyang said, we either produce or be consumed in the global market economy. Secondly, he stated that the seller dictates the price of his products. I agree with this line of argument up to a point. The reason being that the price of products in the Labor Market is relative to Supply and Demand. The nature of this relativity viz-a viz are further dictated by the scarcity and availability of goods and services . The crux of the matter is that if the materials used for the manufacture of products are harness locally, it will help in the cost reduction of products in the local market. If on the other hand, such materials are imported either for local manufacturing and /or consumption it will drastically inflate consumer products and prizes. 

Another aspect of this argument lies in the policies of our education and training systems to nurture an effective human resource development. First and foremost, as much as I appreciate the introduction of western education in The Gambia and elsewhere in other countries that were colonized, it left us with a dual socio-economic legacy. The former is that it has equipped us with a universal tool of communication i.e. English and to use it effectively through comparative studies and analysis to enhance our development process. Secondly, as much as we harness the benefits of such education on a day to day basis, we have failed to look deeper to understand and acknowledge the severe socio-cultural damaged it has done to our communities /and or societies especially in The Gambia and elsewhere in Africa. We have also failed to understand that education from a moral perspective as stated by a British Philosopher (John Dewey ) that " the use of education to brainwashed and change people is not an educational crime, but sometimes it must be viewed as a necessity in life ". The acquisition of western education has changed both old and young in our societies through Western assimilation which we cherished so much more than some of the traditional and cultural ways /and or norms that we failed to nurture and transfer to our younger generations. Rather, than the Gambia communal way of life that bonded us together irrespective of tribe or religion, we let this noble way of life erode gradually and hasten embrace the concept of the nuclear family which has significantly divided us at the family, community and national levels. The irony of this divide is getting worse and it's trends will haunt us and generations yet unborn. It is this brainwashing in education that made us to look at our cultural and social ways of life as being inferior to Western ways of life. The nature of this inferiority complex is one of the reason for the mass exodus of rural urban drift, youth's not wanting to farm,or engage in vocational and skills training because it will dirty their hands. Another factor is the transfer and retention factor of vital traditional skills in the Gambian Labor Market such as the calabash trade cited by Kura Njie, the local boat builders industry which has dwindled to a very low ebb just to name a few.           

Thanks very much Nyang Njie for your sincere comments regarding my input on this valuable topic on national development. I know that age is often a complimentary factor to wisdom; Nonetheless, age is not sage, neither age is a criteria, for it is the capabilities of men that counts. Furthermore, I acknowledge the idea that you share with brother Sal Taal to nurture a knowledge base society that will propagate "the willful exchange of ideas in furtherance of our national development". One of the reason why I endorsed your views is based on the fact as highlighted by Amadou Matharr Mbow both former Minister of Education in Senegal and Secretary General UNESCO when he stated that " development must come from within and has to be attuned towards the aspirations of the people. In this regard, we as Gambians must aim to contribute towards the machinery of national development for the interest of our people and country and must not allow to be divided by any of the neo - colonial social tools that are used as wedges to divide us such as materialism, tribalism, politics, religious sectarianism which are all part of the brainwashing strategy that encourages the branding of individuals /and or groups in society based on the old colonial adage of divide and rule. Our development efforts must strive to promote a nation of national unity with a common understanding of working and sharing positive ideas that will benefit all Gambians. We have to be sincere and committed to the development of our people and our country and encourage every Gambian to be a productive member of society. The notion of this new social paradigm as a shift must gradually reject those artificial barriers we inherited as a bondage that tends to tint and hinder our visions and efforts for national unity"   

Dad's mini lecture was more than I bargained for and it went further than I envisage in accentuating clarity on my status update. His logically consistent thought inspired this blog post and as our dearly departed muse of yester years Kochi Barma Fall once stated "Mag jar na bayii chi reew". Thanks for giving me a lecture that refocuses and reoriented my view on a pertinent issue that begs for immediate national attention by both policy makers and entrepreneurs. This local consumption initiative should be part of a broader National Initiative dubbed "Proudly Gambian" Consume local and help strengthen the dalasis.

Caveat Emptor! The Grass is Not Greener on the Other Side. Warning To Would Be Back Wayers

The dynamics of the global economy is fast changing and the economic paradigms of yester years are evolving at an unprecedented pace. Outsourcing, sweatshop operations, product dumping, tariffs and subsidies are to name a few that have significantly distorted trade in the past 2 decades and also accelerated unemployment all over the world. The rapid pace of productivity and the efficiency of artificial intelligence has brought about the demise of the worker. Automated drive throughs, unmanned checkout counters, highly mechanized farming outfits are to name a few that are making hard days work redundant even in most economically structured societies. Therefore it saddens me to see young productive African youths thinking the grass greener on the other side and they mostly end up in organized concentration camps reminiscence of Bavaria and Austria of Adolf Hitler. Indeed the African has been dealt a raw deal from Slavery (Both Atlantic and Sahara trade), Colonialism and of recent imperialism and the hegemonic practices of the world economic order. We cannot just blame our woes on our contact with the world for it has also brought about some good. Our governments have ill prepared the booming youth population for self reliance and financial independence. Furthermore, the absence of deliberate sustainable youth investment schemes have plunged bulk of our youth folk into destitution. Education and skills training should be synchronized with labor market demands to ensure an interrupted supply of labor to a thriving market. The ideal of a viable market has been hindered by civil strife, disease and political mismanagement. This in turn have been pushing Africa's youth folk to venture out but only if they know what awaits them across those rough Mediterranean waters. The landing points (Greece, Spain and Portugal) are heading south to enlist in the third world therefore, there is nothing but broken dreams for most of would be migrants and therefore the word Caveat Emptor really applies to their ill fated decisions to venture across the Mediterranean. If these African youths can work half as hard as they would have for the farms in Spain and other European countries then they would have made a meaningful impact on the continent of Africa. Lets turn the "Back Way" to "Our Way" by encouraging our governments to invest more in Youth development initiatives and sustainable economic policies that will stem the tide of migration. Happy Labor Day to my friends and Family in North America and lets collectively strive for the preservation and dignity of the worker as we once knew it

Are Gambians Up To The Task of Nation Building As A Collective Entity?

The Gambian crusade for redemption surpasses political awareness and civic education for the polity to understand and appreciate their inalienable rights. I am still in awe having to read some vitriolic threads spewed by us on us. The net effect of our verbal assault online makes all of us losers in this game for recognition and jockeying for relevance.  Having a loud mouth does not make one a winner. The winner amongst us is the one that can meaningfully change the lives of the Sutay Sonkos in Jarra Sutukung who are struggling to put food on their tables or ensure the provision of a basic shelter for their families. Gambia needs all hands on deck for the attainment of this noble objective, We need to search deep into the Gambian psyche and ask where we deviated from our game plan with regards to nation building and a commonality of a tight knit Gambian family. I believe the detour happened way before 1994 and the absence of chaos doesn't imply an orderly semblance of peace and social cohesion. One needs equity in a venture to have a vested interest in the outcome. Therefore we need to have a stake in the enterprise called Gambia or better yet a slice of the Gambian pie in order to foster our unity of purpose as one people, one nation under God. Sorry for my incessant rants these past few days but am just not happy with the zealous attitudes of our compatriots. Social reorientation is the precursor to political awareness. Once these two prerequisites are instilled in the Gambian psyche, then the business of nation building will not be a daunting task because the citizenry will give society what is expected of them and equally, they will demand what is rightfully owed to them by virtue of their civic entitlements. Our political tool kit is quite empty and needs stocking with the issues that can advance the Gambian agenda not character assassination and politics of personal attacks. It’s pathetic listening to Gambian political commentary because we hardly delve into issues that can be appealing to voters.  Our national pride and love for country should teach us a lesson that the interest of our motherland dearest far exceeds the interest of an individual and or group of people. Love for country starts with love for self and fellow compatriots that constitute the grouping called Gambia. Let's join our diverse people towards man's brotherhood. We cannot pledge our firm allegiance if we are not each others keepers. Our diversity is the core asset that keeps this improbable nation afloat for over 50 years. Therefore, we all need to renew our promise to Kambi bolongho for this tropical princess has given us more than we gave her. If that task is not achieved, I will still for the Gambia remain ever true. I am a proud Gambian that will never short change this majestic princess. One way ticket to my first and eternal love The Gambia.

The Death of Civility and the Emergence of Decadence in Gambian Social Circles

I am an avid follower of Gambian social media and the chaos and decadence I've witnessed these past few weeks are a clear manifestation of the breakdown of social order and civility amongst the Gambian populace both in the Diaspora and at home. Social order creates structures that deter chaos and foster harmony amongst a group of people. Listening and reading commentaries on most of the online mediums have confirmed the advance of decadence and immorality in our discourse. The word FaceBook, clearly depicts the intentions of the creators of the platform which is to share info and pleasantries with people you know or have a common interest in. Unfortunately, our moral deficit has allowed us to adopt fake profiles and pseudo names just to torment and harass people with impunity. 

Social media as a platform has best practice and etiquette that we need to abide by to meaningfully harness the benefits therein. Charting a way forward starts with self respect and value for what others bring to the table. Though small, the Gambia boast of a complex population with a litany of issues that are difficult to resolve. I now believe that Gambians are a difficult lot to govern because everybody wants to be a don without a constituent. What a sad narrative to depict our current predicament. Those in the know are relegated to obscurity and the briefcase professionals/practitioners have not only taken over but railroaded the narrative to the boondocks. It is not elitist to question who directs the narrative but we need to screen and sequester the narrative in order to have a productive discourse. The recent outburst being perpetrated by fools with microphones and keyboards is a wanton disregard for decency and human dignity. Self expression is a fundamental right that need to be safeguarded but equally, all rights do come with responsibilities and it is therefore incumbent on us to not only self regulate but behave in a manner consistent with civilized people. If what I see on social media represents the next generation of Gambians, then I can conclude without hesitation we have not only written our obituary but also we have hit the nail on the coffin. Our behavior is utter disgust and shameful to say the least. So lets reflect and look inward for a deep soul searching and our reason d'etre as civilized Gambians. 

The venom being spewed on social media shows the in-congruence that Gambians are suffering from in 2015. Our plethora of issues are all anchored on our social misgivings and transforming the Gambian psyche starts with reorienting the minds and hearts of our people. The Gambian renaissance will not take root unless and until the Gambian heart is purged. I am not a trained sociologist but I know for a fact that most Gambians suffer from a social deficit I call "inferiority complex" and this not only allow them to self destruct but also pull people along their trajectory of doom. Self made perceptions of others are like a mirage in the desert that is elusive and most of the time none existent. We need to purge hate and self entitlement from our hearts and minds for us to be socially progressive. The dog eat dog and pull him down syndrome only creates missed opportunities for the collective good. Once again, I will unequivocally state without hesitation that the Gambian ailment is underpin by self hate and jealousy which is perpetrated by the social deficit inherent in our societal dynamics. We don't have anything good to say about each other talk less of having the will to celebrate the best and the brightest amongst our lot. This is a sad fact but a tangible Gambian reality that is sinking the Gambian boat