We need the Will

Life is so difficult in Cameroon and in Africa. That is why our youths would travel to any country out of the continent without even thinking twice. The stories are so many. Let me tell you one. This relative of mine traveled to Switzerland. She had a temporal job with some international organisation but when her contract was over she refused to return home. Of course she wasn't a legal resident but coming home to poverty far outweighed any thing they could do to her, she taught. So she began working as a maid and was sent to clean an old white's house. When she got there, the guy had nothing on but strings. It turns out the guy had assumed all African maids were prostitutes.

Like I said, this is just one story. There are many others. I am sure you may have heard of illegal migrants that are picked up from the streets in Germany or France who claim they cannot understand German or French. They refuse to show their passports or give their names or where they come from so they cannot be repatriated. Some of the women go and have babies with residents just so they can stay there. How about those who try to cross through Libya and die in the high seas? Or those that are arrested and sent back to their countries, like the repatriated Nigerians that made headline news on BBC recently?

Some of them travel through fake travel agencies and when they get to their destination they become modern slaves, working with little or no pay, no health insurance and no decent place to live in. Some make the choice not to come back because they cannot face the hungry looks relatives back home will have on their faces.

One the other side of the coin, there are the legal immigrants. But that to is detrimental to our countries. It's called brain drain. The most brilliant in every field have been sucked out of the continent. We have Cameroonians that work for NASA. There are hundreds and hundreds of Cameroonian Cardiovascular surgeons, internists, neurosurgeons, in the diaspora. In Cameroon, these are found only in the capital.

There needs to be an awakening. Amongs us back in Africa and those in the diaspora. Africa needs change. Remember the pan african movement of the fifties? Remember men like Du Bois and Nkrumah and Nyerere? The helped start the wave of Independence that washed across all of Africa.

We have the resources. We have the man power. We need the will.