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Afrocentric colonialism: The new face of African oppression
Nkrumah argues that “her (Africa’s) earth is rich, yet the products that come from above and below her soil continue to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa’s impoverishment”.

By Kingsley Akam
Afrocentric colonialism represents a troubling and insidious form of oppression within Africa-one that is orchestrated not by foreign powers but by African leaders themselves. Despite the continent’s struggle for independence and the subsequent narrative of neo-colonialism, the root cause of Africa’s persistent challenges lies within its own leadership.
This idea, which I have explored in both public and academic forums, calls for a reassessment of the true sources of Africa’s underdevelopment. The argument that Africa’s challenges stem from historical colonialism and neo-colonialism, as proposed by figures like Kwame Nkrumah, remains influential. Nkrumah argues that “her (Africa’s) earth is rich, yet the products that come from above and below her soil continue to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa’s impoverishment”.
However, after decades of independence, it is clear that the primary obstacles to progress are rooted in bad governance and the exploitation of resources by African leaders themselves. These leaders, who pretend to be democrats, have created a system that perpetuates poverty and injustice, often with devastating consequences for their citizens. In my recent work, including my PhD thesis, a conference paper titled, ‘The Politics of Afrocentric Colonialism and Corruption Codification in Edosio’s The Governor (2016) and Adetiba’s King of Boys (2018),’ which I presented at the 32nd International Screen Studies Conference at the University of Glasgow, and my forthcoming paper titled, ‘Gendered Power Dynamics and Afrocentric Colonialism in Nollywood…,’ I argue that Afrocentric colonialism is a major contributor to Nigeria’s poverty, underdevelopment, and social strife.
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The ongoing protests across African nations are a direct response to this internal form of colonialism. Afrocentric colonialism is characterised by the exploitation of Africans by their leaders—individuals who, rather than serving the public good, are driven by greed and self-interest. These leaders misappropriate public funds, abuse their power, and perpetuate a system of misrule that mirrors the worst aspects of traditional colonialism. While the legacy of external colonial powers is undeniable, the current plight of Africa is more closely tied to the failures of its own rulers.
At this point, it is imperative to state that Afrocentric colonialism is closely related to patrimonialism and prebendalism, which revolve around the cartel mentality of “big men/women” in government and business, who steal and distribute public resources among themselves (see Richard A. Joseph, Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: The Rise and Fall of the Second Republic,1987 and Paul Ugor, Nollywood: Popular Culture and Narratives of Youth Struggles in Nigeria, 2016).
Afrocentric colonialism is broader in scope, embodying all the characteristics of traditional colonialism, including exploration, exploitation, imposition, oppression, bias, injustice, and the killing of Africans by a few colonial masters during the colonial era. For instance, during the Aba Women’s Protest in 1929, colonial forces killed about 50 unarmed women, and about 20 women were killed during a similar protest in Abeokuta in 1947 (see Max Siollun, What Britain Did to Nigeria: A Short History of Conquest and Rule, 2021). These elements of colonialism, now perpetrated by many Nigerian rulers who show no regard for human lives and dignity, are clearly visible in the current situation in Africa. African rulers, who are themselves Africans, exhibit the same traits of the colonial masters(traits of being killers, explorers, and exploiters).
In contemporary Nigerian society, there have been numerous instances of killings across the country by Nigerian security agencies and ethnic militias. Examples include the Odi Massacre on November 20, 1999; the Zaki-Biam Massacre (Operation No Living Thing) from October 20-24, 2001; and the genocide/massacre of unarmed Nigerian youths during the peaceful EndSARS protest on October 20, 2020.
It is unfortunate that Nigerian rulers and exploiters have not learned from past experiences, including the recent events in Kenya. In Kenya, citizens were beaten, injured, and killed by Afrocentric colonialists and their agents for simply demanding good governance. The same wave of protests is currently spreading across other African countries as people demand an end to Afrocentric colonialism. In Nigeria, there was #EndBadGovernance peaceful protest from August 1 to 10, 2024, in which Nigerian citizens called on the government to reverse the fuel subsidy removal, stop the floating of the Naira, cut the cost of governance, address electricity bills, implement electoral reforms, end insecurity, end hunger, curb corruption, reduce unemployment, and more.
Instead of responding as a true democracy would, the government chose to exhibit the true attributes of colonial masters by using state power to attack peaceful protesters who were exercising their constitutional rights. The protests, which called for reforms and better governance, were met with brutal force by the state, resulting in the deaths of 22 protesters, according to Amnesty International. Besides the deaths, many were injured, and properties were destroyed across the country.
This response highlights the disconnect between the government and the people, and the extent to which Afrocentric colonialism has taken root in African politics. This internal misgovernance is evident in the actions of leaders who, rather than investing in their nations’ development, engage in corrupt practices, exploitation, and victimisation that undermine their countries’ potential. It is pertinent to show further how Afrocentric colonialism, as a system in which African leaders emulate the exploitative practices of former colonial powers, continues to oppress their own people, with Nigeria as a focal point and some specific examples:
Corruption(Embezzlement), and Resource Mismanagement: Many Nigerian leaders have been implicated in large-scale corruption and embezzlement of public funds. For instance, former military ruler Sani Abacha was reported to have looted billions of dollars from the Nigerian treasury. The same corruption is ongoing during the democratic era, and corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigerian state. Corruption in Nigeria comes in different forms, such as budget padding and mismanagement of foreign loans and aid, which have trapped the country in a cycle of perpetual underdevelopment.
The International Monetary Fund, IMF, projected that “the Nigerian government may spend nearly 100 percent of its revenue on debt servicing by 2026”; the World Bank warned that the country’s debt, while seemingly sustainable, is “vulnerable and costly”; and government officials have borrowed and spent to satisfy their needs without any positive impact on the citizens, as the level of poverty and hardship keeps rising. Regarding budget padding, a serving Senator, Abdul Ningi, said over N53 billion worth of projects in the 2024 Appropriations Act are without specific locations.
Entertainment
P. Diddy: Full List Of Lawsuits, Allegations Against The American Music Mogul
Puff Daddy, is currently in jail as he faces charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.

American Rapper and Hip-hop Mogul, P. Diddy, Sean Diddy Combs, Puff Daddy, is currently in jail as he faces charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. Sky News reported that P. Diddy was allegedly indicted on the following:
- Combs is alleged to have “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfil his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct” dating back to at least 2008.
- The 54-year-old is accused of leveraging his employees, resources, and industry influence to establish a “criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice”.
- He is accused of coercing female victims and male sex workers into participating in drug-fueled sexual acts, referred to as “Freak Offs,” according to the legal document.
- Sky News said that the document mentions “Freak Offs” 16 times, describing them as elaborate, staged sexual performances that Combs orchestrated, directed, and often recorded, while also engaging in the acts.
- Prosecutors claim that victims were administered controlled substances during events that sometimes lasted for days, keeping them “obedient and compliant.” Combs allegedly subjected them to “physical, emotional, and verbal abuse” to compel their participation.
- The indictment further alleges that Combs and his business associates “engaged in acts of violence, threats of harm, both physical and reputational and verbal abuse.” These acts reportedly included kidnapping and arson when individuals who witnessed the alleged abuse challenged his authority or reputation.
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List Of Other Lawsuits Against Puffy, Puffy Daddy, P. Diddy, Sean Diddy
April Lampros
CNN reported that Lampros’ suit claims: “What Mr. Combs displayed as kind gestures quickly manifested into an aggressive, coercive, and abusive relationship based on sex.”
Joi Dickerson-Neal
Also in November last year, Joi Dickerson-Neal filed a lawsuit claiming Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her in 1991 while she was a college student.
She also alleged that Combs secretly recorded the assault.
This lawsuit was filed under New York’s temporary window allowing older sexual assault claims that would typically be beyond the statute of limitations.
Additional Sexual Assault Allegations
The music mogul faced another lawsuit in December 2023, where an unnamed woman accused him of drugging and gang-raping her in 2003 when she was 17 years old.
Diddy’s Son Christian Accused of Sexual Assault
In April, a lawsuit naming “Diddy” and his son Christian Combs alleged that Christian sexually assaulted a woman working on a chartered boat in 2022.
The plaintiff’s attorney said: “Like father, like son. It gives us no joy or pleasure in filing this suit against Christian Combs who has clearly adopted his father’s pattern and practice of depravity,” according to NBC. Sean and Christian Combs’ lawyers have denied the claim.
Crystal McKinney
In May, former model Crystal McKinney filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court accusing Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting her at his New York recording studio in 2003.
Forbes makes a list of lawsuits against the American rap mogul, Puff Daddy:
Forbes reported that on September 24, Thalia Graves filed a federal lawsuit in New York on Tuesday claiming she was offered a glass of wine by Combs and Sherman in 2001, when she was 25, that made her “lightheaded, dizzy and physically weak” before she lost consciousness and was raped by the two men her while her hands were tied behind her back.
September 24, Combs is sharing a unit with disgraced former cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, according to The New York Times, as the former crypto mogul serves out a 25-year sentence in prison for counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering linked to a scheme that lost former FTX customers, lenders and investors several billion dollars.
September 17, A memo filed with New York judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky accuses Combs and co-conspirators of setting fire to an unnamed person’s car using a Moltov cocktail in an accusation that matches one brought by Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, who said in a lawsuit filed last year that Combs blew up a car owned by rapper Kid Cudi.
September 17, A federal court in Manhattan unseals charges against Combs for racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, alleging he “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
September 16, Combs is arrested in Manhattan after being indicted by a grand jury.
May 29, Federal investigators may bring Combs’ accusers to testify before a grand jury soon and most plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits against the rapper have already been interviewed by investigators, sources told CNN—a move that could indicate prosecutors are looking to charge somebody, though no charges have been filed yet.
February 26, In February, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones sues the rapper in New York in February and alleges he was “subjected to unwanted advances by associates of Diddy at his direction” and was forced to engage in relations with sex workers he hired. In a set of widely covered allegations, Jones says in the lawsuit that Combs regularly hosted “sex-trafficking parties” with underage women and illegal drugs, and implies record label executives who looked the other way financially benefited from access to celebrities and dignitaries like the British royal Prince Harry, who is not accused of any wrongdoing or of attending parties himself (Combs’ attorney tells the Los Angeles Times the suit includes “reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction”).
December 6, Combs is hit with another sexual assault suit in December, accusing the rapper of drugging and participating in a gang rape of the unnamed woman in 2003, when the accuser was 17 years old.
November 23, An anonymous plaintiff accuses Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall of raping her and a friend in 1990 or 1991 after meeting at an MCA Records event in New York—a suit that, like the Dickerson-Neal complaint, was filed shortly before the expiration of a New York law temporarily allowing lawsuits for older assault allegations that would ordinarily be past the statute of limitations.
Cassie Ventura was former girlfriend of P. Diddy who accused him of abuse and rape.
November 17, Ventura’s $30 million suit is settled the day after it was filed for an undisclosed amount, with Ventura telling CNN she chose to “resolve this matter amicably,” while Combs’ attorney says the settlement was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing” and didn’t change his denial of the allegations.
November 16, Cassie Ventura files the suit against Combs, alleging he raped her in 2018 and subjected her to a years-long abusive relationship that included physical abuse and his assertion of “complete control” over her personal and professional life.
Business
Nigeria To Receive $5.600,000 From Bill Gates, For Health And Agricultural Reforms, GMOs
Alongside the activities surrounding the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York, Vice President Kashim Shettima held a meeting with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation leading to the announcement of the donation by the Foundation’s head of Global Development.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving Nigeria through Vice President Kashim Shettima, a $5.600,000 funds to speedy up health and agricultural reforms in favour of the GMOs in Nigeria, and flood relief.
Through the Foundation’s head of Global Development Programme, Dr Christopher Elias, Bill Gates pledged $5 million grant approved for Lagos Business School and partners to develop the agricultural economics they called “industrial cassava” and $600,000 for flood relief in Borno State and other health sector initiatives.
Alongside the activities surrounding the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York, Vice President Kashim Shettima held a meeting with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation leading to the announcement of the donation by the Foundation’s head of Global Development.
Recall that on 4 September, Bill Gates had described the Nigeria’s economy as “stagnated” and proposed agricultural reforms for faster and increased growths in crops, fruits, vegetables amongst others to enhance nutritional values of the Nigerian citizens through the agricultural sector.
In that meeting Chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima, Bill gates urged Nigeria to adopt “innovative crop varieties with shorter growing periods, higher yields, and better pest resistance” pointing to the GMOs to address the food crisis.
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Moreover, at the 79th UN General Assembly in New York, VP Shettima reaffirmed to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the commitment of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu prioritizing health, nutrition, and agricultural development in Nigeria’s national agenda.
In a statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, Shettima said: “we are deeply committed to addressing the pressing developmental challenges facing our nation, particularly the significant malnutrition crisis”.
He emphasised the Federal Government’s dedication and urgently working to secure locations for maize production under the Telemaze programme.
VP Shettima, promising swift action to the Gate’s Foundation on import permits for certified seeds, the VP said, “We recognize the critical importance of food security and industrial agricultural development. The Cassava Accelerator programme, in particular, holds immense potential for our economy.
“We are pursuing a whole-of-government approach to digitisation and data exchange systems, which we believe will revolutionise our public services,” he added while reiterating the government’s focus and commitment to digital transformation.
“With the expertise” of Nigeria’s ministers, “and the continued support of partners like the Gates Foundation,” the nation remains confident in its “ability to drive meaningful change and improve the lives of all Nigerians.”
In his response, President of the Global Development Programme at the Gates Foundation, Dr. Christopher Elias, said the Foundation is burdened with worries of the severe flooding in Borno, and is “committed to supporting Nigeria in times of crisis.”
Speaking of Polio, the Foundation said, “We’re impressed by the national task force’s efforts to eliminate variant polioviruses by year-end,” Dr. Elias noted.
Also, President of Global Growth & Opportunity Division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rodger Voorhies, detailed plans for scaling up drought-tolerant maize production and advancing the Nigeria Cassava Investment Accelerator programme emphasizing that a $5 million grant has been approved for Lagos Business School and partners to develop the agricultural economics of industrial cassava.
In his words, “Industrial cassava presents a multi-billion-dollar opportunity for Nigeria,” Voorhees stressed.
He requested import permits for 5,000 metric tons of certified GMO maize seed to build a foundation seed system in Nigeria.
Business
Managing, Leading, Building Institutions And Sustainability
The two primary tasks of a top-level leader are to exploit and explore the organisation with people for now and in the future.

By Babs Olugbemi
One of my concerns for leaders is their capacity to be ambidextrous. Regardless of years of experience, knowledge, and leadership capacity, the lack of a clear distinction between managing and leading on the one hand, leading and building institutions on the second layer, and ultimately focussing on sustainability is a significant threat to successful leadership change.
I have followed events and people at C-suites, coached some, and developed frameworks for leadership development. Based on the personalities and styles of the new leaders, I have confirmed my fears about leadership sustainability in most African organisations.
“Successful leaders can aptly differentiate themselves and their roles without necessarily seeing activities as performance, focussing on what is required of them with appropriate tenacity and influence.”
The challenge for leaders is how to lead for the present and future without losing sight of the stakeholders’ immediate performance expectations. Successful leaders can aptly differentiate themselves and their roles without necessarily seeing activities as performance, focussing on what is required of them with appropriate tenacity and influence.
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In my walk as a leadership coach, I have keenly observed leaders who are managing rather than leading. Managing involves ensuring that processes achieve their intended outcomes. Leaders are above managing and should focus on creating an enabling environment for innovation, inventions, and team collaboration. The primary role in leading is not to monitor process outcomes, though critical to the company’s overall objectives, but to align corporate values with the people’s aspirations to create an engaged and ownership-thinking mindset ready to take on challenges and explore opportunities. An alignment of corporate and personal goals will not only deliver the present performance expectations. Still, it will also incubate innovations to adapt to future market demands and the sustainability of the business.
Unfortunately, the capacity for ambidexterity is rare and often marked by leaders’ exposure, approach and styles, perception, and perspective of their roles in the organisation. A leader with a wrong foundation in these areas is set for failure and awaits unfavourable decisions from the board of directors. A top-level leader might manage their teams instead of leading them. Not all leaders can combine leading for the present with building institutions. However, anyone able to submit themselves to an institution-building mechanism can champion sustainability. Aside from being a leadership coach, I help leaders achieve sustainability.
Mathematically, creating an ambidextrous organisation is beyond leading. It is to lead and build an institution that focuses on sustainability in all aspects of the organisation—employee fulfilment, customer retention, strategy effectiveness, performance evaluation, stakeholder management, process improvement, and goal congruence.
In a nutshell, the role of successful leaders in ambidextrous organisations is striking a balance between exploiting current assets and capabilities to ensure short-term success and allocating enough energy and resources to exploration to ensure future viability. The two primary tasks of a top-level leader are to exploit and explore the organisation with people for now and in the future. The two seemingly contradictory aspects—exploitation and exploration—encompass different strategies and processes and have different targets and outcomes (March 1991; O’Reilly & Tushman, 2004; O’Reilly & Tushman, 2013).
O’Reilly and Tushman described the two concepts as follows:
- Exploiting: Exploiting involves building on an organisation’s achievements and maximising returns on previous investments. It focuses on responding to current business demands to remain efficient and competitive within an established market niche, as well as on maintaining an existing customer base and stakeholder relationships. Examples of exploiting are activities focused on continuous improvement, benchmarking, and redesigning business processes.
- Exploring: Exploring focuses on expanding an organisation’s knowledge and capabilities, pioneering new products and services, and discovering and venturing into untapped markets.
The common area of practical bottlenecks in exploiting and exploring in organisations is a need for foundational trust and cohesion among the resources, especially the human capital, which are often treated as costs rather than assets to the organisations. Among all the factors of production, only humans can be ambidextrous with the capacity to think about changes in economic parameters and adjust their behaviours to match the time, content, and contextual requirements.
While organisations might have the resources to deploy in fighting competition, technology to obtain first-mover advantages, and production capacity to maximise output from input, none is compared with the potential of an engaged workforce.
Therefore, for leaders to be successful, they must refrain from operating in the realm of managing. They should operate in the capacity of institution builders, with the mindset of creating sustainable leadership and growth with people first and other factors of production second.
Consequently, only the leaders who prioritise their people over profits, pride, and organisational arrogance will be successful in the long term.
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