I don’t know whether I should be ashamed to say this, but I’ve been ‘attending’ church from home lately.

I’m assuming that you have had a moment to judge me or are just surprised that I actually take time to enhance my spirituality; it’s still judging you know.

Relax! I ain’t here to preach to you but to share something Pastor Muriithi (Pastor M) of Mavuno Church said the other day.

According to him, “We should be the ones issuing Green Cards to visitors coming into the region.” I laughed as I contemplated how complicated it would be but this does not mean that it is not a great idea.

Africans still lack togetherness in very many areas such as how some of us elbow each other when taking public transport and even how we show complete immaturity at occassions such as funerals.

Think of any African family business you know of and then think of an Asian family business – I’m sure you’ll agree that the latter has the possibility of remaining profitable for more years.

Grumble, choose to misunderstand me, but it’s a fact that a lot of Africans love to be given things on a silver platter.

I used to wonder why Asian kids in school excelled, I now know why. It’s largely because of that early business exposure.

I remember when one of my African friends would call a certain American household in the evening only to be told his friend was reading and therefore, he would return the call later.

I do not want to say that it’s all gloom and doom but there’s plenty of room for improvement as I’m quite sure that there are African parents who do wonderful things for their children.

But when we are together as Africans, egos tend to clash. I’ve seen some of us embrace people from the West in jobs and positions here that a fellow African comrade can do.

I do need to clear the air again and say that there are a lot of good business people from the West.

But as nice as the idea of issuing “Green Cards” sounds, I would have to wonder what they would be coming to do.

I recall a certain friend of mine who was a boss at a Five Star hotel. He was appalled at the labour laws which didn’t allow him to fire incompetent staff.

Something to do with a clause about probation or something like that confused the blackness in me too.

So, anyway, I really wish we could have people from outside the continent scrambling to pay to come in. But the reality of the matter is, some of us are not ready to take ownership, we want to do deals.

Some of us don’t want to work hard; we look for shortcuts and whine and dream of wine.

Some of us are only in employment because of nepotsim and we know that we are untouchable.

So surely, if we cannot control ourselves in our own yard and have discipline, integrity, and other positive attributes, then how can we entertain guests from outside except at our national parks.

I don’t believe that is all we are good for; let’s build Africa for all to envy.

{first published in Citizen

author is a Tanzanian

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