Africa has to move with time to be truly independent and lead in civilization. We no longer live in a century of labour intensity, where how much you grow is dependent on how much labour you employ. We live in a century of intelligence intensity, where how much you grow is dependent on how much intelligence you apply.
We no longer live in a century where people are trained to work in offices and farms, we live in a century where people should be trained on creativity and innovation, so that you cannot succeed even in office or farm without creativity and innovation.
Labour was a great determinant of growth in 20th century, and that’s why some Western countries illegally invaded Africa and took Africans to their countries as labourers/slaves. Now, they realized that human labour is no longer desirable, because we have machines that can do human work, they closed their borders and created visas.
Now, they don’t need Africans, because with intelligence, creativity and innovation, they can achieve higher results. We live in an era where putting so much physical energy without mental energy cannot guarantee you success. People with mental strength and intelligence tend to succeed more than those with just the physical energy.
So, as long as Africa does not grow its mental intelligence and creativity, Africans will continue to be willing to be trafficked to the western world. Africa has to reform its outdated educational system that does not prepare students for modern skills, creativity, and innovations.
In the fast pace 21st century, you don’t have to spend 16 years to find purpose and to specialize in your chosen skill. In fact, competence and excellence is not strictly based on what you study in school. In the presence a huge database like google, and with amazing technological devises, how much facts you can retain in your head is becoming less required.
Sticking to the 20th century curriculums that teach students repeated and mostly irrelevant subjects is tantamount to producing unfitting graduates that will be competing with machines, leading to permanent and increasing unemployment, because no one will pay continues wages while they can acquire a machine that will do the same job without paying continues wages.
So, building minds is the way to go, no country can make people great, it is the people that make countries great, and that can only happen with great minds. As much as we spend money growing our bodies and making our faces, we should spend more to build our minds.
Africans should now realize that in a fixed technology and intelligence, adding population cannot guarantee their success. Even China realized they need to cut down population and invest more in creativity, innovation and intelligence. A job that 10 people can do in the past, now a single machine can do that, so, instead of competing with machines, we should be ahead of the machine. Even less populous nations succeeded more than the most populous nations, but only with the higher intelligence and creativity. To curb illegal migration and trafficking in persons, everyone must take responsibility of their personal growth beyond school, especially in mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and financial capacities.
