Greece and Africa’s non-expansionist billionaires

Dangote started with petty trading, moved to spaghetti and is now a continental cement mogul. With alleged divine connivance, the Israelis once ruled the globe (some swear they still do), then their sin robbed them of the price and they passed it to the Greeks who passed the baton to the Romans (or was it […]

Dangote started with petty trading, moved to spaghetti and is now a continental cement mogul. With alleged divine connivance, the Israelis once ruled the globe (some swear they still do), then their sin robbed them of the price and they passed it to the Greeks who passed the baton to the Romans (or was it vice versa). The only thing history has for African expansionism is found in reggae artist Matumbi’s lyrics – we had our gold and diamonds and many a cultural thing/before there was slavery there were black Kings and Queens! The point is, when the Queen of Sheba had an empire, she surrendered it Israel’s King Solomon instead of taking over Judah!
Today, we thank Mungo Park for discovering the flow of the River Niger, which had fed millions from its base in Guinea to the creeks of Otuoke. And after discovering the black continent and its hunky men and women, Park and co had ideas and established slavery.
So, I was taking a deserved leave, not eager to write this week until I started listening to radio and watching television. Yes, the last couple of days have been unnerving. The Boko Haram insurgency that President Jones appeared to be defeating in his final hour has gone bloody ballistic. So horrendous were the casualty figures and spread of carnage that a friend recently said that PMB’s Changi has buried more casualties in 30 days than those interred in six years of the Jones presidency. So benumbing are the figures that Buhari finds it difficult to keep up with the usual Jones template of rehashed press statements.
But Boko Haram is not hitting global news headlines – except as kickers. In the last week or so, the satellite of news has focused on Greece – a legion of islands in the heart of Europe. This has nothing to do with their rediscovery of the key to the Acropolis but rather the anger of abandoned gods chewing off with frenetic frenzy the roots of the Greek economy. I know how PMB critics have been measuring the elasticity of the difference between GMB’s promise of Naira-dollar parity and the PMB reality. Yes. But Naija men of means who have complied with Central Bank’s BVN have neither ceiling nor floor to currency withdrawal. Aliko Dangote can still sign his cheques in six or more figures so much so that he dreams of buying an English football club. Ditto for the likes of Folorunsho Alakija, Bola Shagaya, Femi Otedola and Tony Elumelu. The only time I had the opportunity of becoming a millionaire, I didn’t even have to open an account. In the old Istanbul or Lefkosa $100 was all it took. Today I understand that Turkey spends Euros. We, the Naija are members of the Ecuzone but wait a minute, what happened to the ECOWAS Monetary Union? Is it still forever in the pipeline?
Anyway, so if you live in Greece, your cash withdrawal limit is sixty Euros per week – not good for the loyalty of those with demanding 419-Naija girlfriends. It doesn’t matter whether you were importing chopsticks from China or timber and rubber from Liberia – sixty Euros sak! It doesn’t matter whether you were running a ministry (not church silly), or a coffee shop. It is an unimaginable restriction even in the doggone days of the Buhari/Idiagbon regime. If you ask the Bretton Wood experts – the Greek economy is burst! As you’re reading this, their European ethnic kinsmen and Auntie Merkel are trying to put Greek’s humpty dumpty back together again. Yet, the Greeks massively rejected IMF bailout just as Naija people rejected PDP!
This is where the lack of territorial ambition of the Dangotes, Otedolas, Alakijas rankles me. I mean, guys, this is a golden opportunity to prove that Africa did not come here to watch others conquer the world, go to the moon and return to ask us for rent (apology to Pius Adesanmi). I thought that these behemoths of industry and dollarnaires would march to Athens, frog-jump Alexis Tsipras and buy his islands and archipelagoes, lock stock and barrel; then call the guys in Washington DC to do the needful. Yes, I’ve heard the argument that these home bred billionaires did nothing to bail out the 23 Naija-states that would forever need bailout or IMF loans to pay staff salaries; but wouldn’t it just be a badge of honour for an African stowaway or economic migrant marooned on the straits of Gibraltar to proudly look an EU immigration officer in the eyes and say – “we’re not economic migrants – we’re going on holiday to our newly acquired island in the sun?” That its not happening is due to the non-expansionist vision of home-bred billionaires; and that includes Mo Ibrahim!