EP 1 Senegal looks at Amnesty I Sahel breaks West's mining Deals I Trump tariffs crushes Lesotho I African News Review 🌍

In this conversation, Adesoji Iginla and Milton Allimadi discuss the impact of US tariffs on African economies, particularly focusing on Lesotho. They explore the broader implications of economic independence, the role of women in the workforce, and the challenges posed by foreign ownership of industries. 

The discussion also touches on the need for unity among African nations, the recent amnesty law in Senegal, and the dynamics of coalition governments in South Africa. 

The conversation emphasizes the importance of local resource management and the necessity for dedicated leadership to drive economic transformation in Africa.

Takeaways

*The US tariffs on Lesotho will significantly impact its economy.
*Economic independence is crucial for political sovereignty in Africa.
*Women play a vital role in the workforce and economic development.
*Foreign ownership of industries limits local economic benefits.
*African unity and leadership are essential for progress.
*The Sahel region is taking steps towards economic liberation.
*Amnesty laws can have complex implications for justice and governance.
*Coalition governments face inherent contradictions that can lead to instability.
*Local resource management is key to sustainable development.
*Education and infrastructure are foundational for economic growth.

Chapters
00:00  Introduction to African News Review
00:46 The Changing Global Landscape
02:00 Impact of US Tariffs on Lesotho
05:06 Economic Consequences of Tariffs
10:22 Lesotho's Economic Context
11:38 The Role of Women in Lesotho's Economy
13:07 Manufacturing Ownership in Africa
15:49 Challenges of Economic Independence
20:01 Emerging Mining Strategies in the Sahel
21:47 Economic Liberation in Africa
25:53 The Importance of Local Ownership
31:15 Balancing Sovereignty and Investment Needs
35:17 Environmental Impact and Corporate Responsibility
36:39 Government Accountability and Economic Consequences
37:31 Amnesty Laws and Their Implications
41:32 Comparative Analysis of Political Systems
44:49 Youth Leadership and Democratic Progress in Africa
46:25 Truth and Reconciliation: Lessons from History
52:34 Land Rights and Historical Injustices
52:58 Coalition Governments: Challenges and Predictions
01:01:16 Societal Norms and Political Realities

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:03.404)
Yes, greetings, greetings, and welcome again to African News Review, your topical news discussion program where we pass through the news as we see it in the Western press and how it impacts on Africa. With me as usual is our regular guest, comrade Milton Alimadi. You know him well from being the author of Manufacturing Hates.

program, the book which inspired this program. How are you, sir?

Milton Allimadi (00:36.473)
Yes, and just an update. I got my copyright back last week, we're going to be in business. Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (00:40.802)
Yeah, congratulations. Congratulations, congratulations. So first things first, how is it on the animal farm that is the United States of America?

Milton Allimadi (00:56.859)
Hahaha!

Adesoji Iginla (00:59.99)
You

Milton Allimadi (01:03.076)
No, we are living at a time comparable to when people started seeing tremendous change in the fortunes of Great Britain.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04.162)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:12.782)
Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (01:15.694)
And it took a while for Britain to adjust to its new global status. And the United States is going through that process right now. You know, as you know, other powers have emerged. China is a global power now. Countries like Brazil, India, Turkey, all rising. And eventually Africa will as well, because at the end of the day, that's where

Adesoji Iginla (01:19.052)
reality.

Adesoji Iginla (01:24.878)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (01:35.128)
Turkey.

Milton Allimadi (01:45.968)
the Fort Knox of the world resides in Africa.

Adesoji Iginla (01:48.702)
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. Very much so. And yeah, thinking of how the United States has impacted the world, we cannot but talk about the tariffs regime that was served to the world. And the man made a grandstanding of it. And the immediate impact of it has been felt.

Milton Allimadi (02:05.007)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (02:15.304)
in Fireplaces as Lesotho, which is where we go to for our first news article, stemming from The Guardian, and I'll share. And it goes...

Adesoji Iginla (02:30.112)
Lesotho, the only job I know. Tiny Lesotho's garment workers, real from Trump's 50 % tariffs. And the news comes from The Guardian. It reads, impoverished African country hit by highest tariff rates, overturning decades of global trade policy. And it goes into it, and the story is filed in Johannesburg.

by Rachel Savage and Margerita Lattello in Masero, Masero being the capital of Lesotho. The day after Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs, Lesotho's garment workers feared for their jobs. Last year, Lesotho sent about 20 % of his $1.1 billion, $845 million worth of exports to the United States, most of it clothing under a continent-wide

trade agreement meant to help African countries develop via tariff-free exports as well as diamonds. Now all is at risk after US President imposed a 50 % tariff on the impoverished landlocked country, which he claimed last month nobody has ever heard of. Your initial thoughts.

Milton Allimadi (03:51.821)
Well, I mean, it's building up, but obviously it's going to be a huge hit on the country because if you are putting 50 % tariffs on Lesotho, means that its export of garments are going to be transferred. Lesotho is not paying the tariffs, by the way. It's American consumers because now the price, once it reaches the United States, is going to be assessed, tax rate, you see?

Adesoji Iginla (04:09.197)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (04:21.968)
The tariff is a form of tax. So let's say the value of let's say a hundred million dollars, right? So now you're going to slap an additional $50 million to that once it reaches the U.S. in terms of the cost to the U.S. consumers. So how it impacts Lesotho is that American consumers are going to turn away from that product, right?

Adesoji Iginla (04:50.702)
correct.

Milton Allimadi (04:52.521)
meaning there will no longer be a market for that product in the United States. And that is where it impacts Lesotho in terms of the labor of the workers will no longer be required in the factories because suddenly that particular market is now gone because consumers are abandoning the product because of the increased cost, the increased price due to the tariffs. And as a result, people will...

Adesoji Iginla (05:05.646)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (05:22.098)
If it materializes that way, people on the ground in Lesotho would indeed end up losing their jobs. Unless that same bundle of exports, a new market can be found for it.

Adesoji Iginla (05:59.262)
Okay, I'll And goes on.

I will be forced to return home to the very poverty I thought I had escaped when I moved to the city. And it goes on. On Wednesday, Trump unveiled what he claimed was reciprocal tariffs overturning decades of global trade policies. The tariff rates, which were due to come into force on April 9, ranges from 10 % to 50 % and were calculated with what economies labeled

an idiotic formula penalizing countries that have the highest trade surplus with the US relative to their imports from the United States. Now, judging the fact that you have people as, you know, economists ascribing idiocy to the idea of how it was calculated, do you think that will bear any impact on the government or

They're just basically, you know, as they will say, the United States government.

Milton Allimadi (07:04.059)
On which government? On which government?

No, it will because look, it's called idiotic because that's not how you evaluate these things, correct? You can't say I'm going to look at the total.

Adesoji Iginla (07:16.75)
Correct,

Milton Allimadi (07:23.821)
exports that the US has to country A, right? And the total imports that the US has from country A, right? Which means the exports of country A to the US, right? Is imports by the US from country A. You can't say, I'm just going to look at that and see if it's balanced, right? I can't say I'm doing business with S.O.G.

Adesoji Iginla (07:23.842)
Mm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (07:32.182)
Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (07:54.211)
I buy $100 worth of goods from Adey Soji and Adey Soji also buys $100 worth of goods from Milton. So we are good. And then I'm going to go to Patrick, right? Or Mohammed, right? Or Omari, right? And I'm going to say, okay, they export $200 worth.

Adesoji Iginla (08:08.238)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (08:13.102)
Correct? Correct?

Milton Allimadi (08:23.236)
of products to Milton? And does Milton also export $200 million worth of goods to these three individuals? You can't evaluate that way. And let me tell you why.

There some things that Milton does not produce.

Adesoji Iginla (08:42.254)
Mmm.

Correct?

Milton Allimadi (08:45.105)
Right?

The US imports a lot of oil from Saudi Arabia, right? Because the US, of course, it has its own oil reserves, but it wants to eat up Saudi Arabia's first. Are you going to tell me that you are going to evaluate and set your tax rate relative to Saudi Arabia, dependent on how much of goods that they also import from the United States?

Adesoji Iginla (08:58.955)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (09:15.372)
highly unlikely.

Milton Allimadi (09:16.793)
even if they don't need it. Let's say I need a billion dollars worth of oil from Saudi Arabia. I'm going to punish them because they don't import a billion dollars worth of goods from the United States, even though they may not want the goods, but I want their oil. You see what I'm saying? So you cannot evaluate trade on that basis. And that's why it's going to start backfiring at a particular point.

Adesoji Iginla (09:32.814)
Correct, correct.

Milton Allimadi (09:46.788)
The goods that the US has, that's only one part of it, right? The goods that the US needs because it does not produce or have access to, okay? So that's only one part of the equation. The other part is that you can't just evaluate physical products, right? So when you say the US has a deficit with China, because they're just looking at the physical merchandise,

that China sells to the US and the US sells to China, right? And then Trump is not happy because it's not balanced. But you are not counting the investment that China sends to the US in terms of the treasury bills that it buys. China is one of the world's leading investors in terms of buying US treasuries, right? At one point, I think it was around $2 trillion.

Adesoji Iginla (10:23.747)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (10:33.368)
Mmm

Adesoji Iginla (10:39.246)
Correct.

Adesoji Iginla (10:43.256)
What else? Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (10:44.642)
I think it's slightly under $1 trillion. That is a form of export from China as well, you see.

So you can't just assess it on physical goods alone. you know, I remember years ago, people accused, I think it was Reagan of voodoo economics, right? So now this guy is coming out with his own brand. don't even, there's no label for it yet. I guess maybe the Guardian article is suggesting that this is idiocy economics, based on the term it's using.

Adesoji Iginla (11:04.622)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (11:18.476)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's one way of looking at it. I would continue. It says, Lesotho, which has a population of 2.3 million. Could you put that into context? How many states in the United States is that?

Milton Allimadi (11:39.171)
3.3 million, I think, is that the population of my city, Washington? Maybe slightly more, more than that. But it's New York City. New York City, know, dwarfs the entire population of that country by, you know, almost three to four times, right?

Adesoji Iginla (11:47.702)
of DC. Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (11:54.2)
Do you ma-

So that population has now been hit by a 50 % tariff. So I'll continue. So Lesothowea has a population of 2.3 million, was hit with the highest rate in Africa. It was followed by Madagascar, a vanilla exporter with a tariff of 47%, Botswana, a diamond producer on 37%, oil-rich Angola with 32%, and the continent's most industrialized economy, South Africa, on 30%.

Milton Allimadi (12:03.938)
to run.

Adesoji Iginla (12:27.392)
Now, the final part would take it then I'll take your thoughts. It's there are over 30,000 garment workers in Lesotho, mostly women, with 12,000 making clothes for US brands including Levi's, Calvin Klein, and Walmart in Chinese and Taiwanese owned factories. While most of the jobs pay monthly minimum wages of $100.

Milton Allimadi (12:28.203)
Mm-mm.

Adesoji Iginla (12:55.054)
$46 to $163. They are highly sought after in the poor and largely informal economy. So, by the fact that this tariff is likely to impact women in an impoverished economy,

What do you see?

Milton Allimadi (13:18.919)
Well, I mean, I don't know from whose perspective. I mean, from the U.S. president perspective, we know his...

Adesoji Iginla (13:22.646)
No, I'm now looking from the African perspective in, you know.

Milton Allimadi (13:28.096)
it has an adverse negative impact on many respects because first of all, know, and I hate to be biased against my brothers, but women take care of the household, you see, very much more efficiently, you see. So it's going to diminish the welfare of the children as well, directly.

Adesoji Iginla (13:44.366)
Correct.

Milton Allimadi (13:57.649)
it's going to have negative impact on the evolution of the social structure because we have women employed, you know, they're getting away from the so-called kitchen, so to speak, and, you know, they're evolving in society, you see? So it's going to like set that back tremendously well. So that, of course, is terrible. But the story also reveals something which is

Adesoji Iginla (14:15.438)
Mm-hmm.

Milton Allimadi (14:27.482)
of course, very, very disturbing that they're producing the merchandise in Chinese and Taiwanese-owned factories.

Adesoji Iginla (14:37.696)
Hmm. I knew you weren't going to miss that.

Milton Allimadi (14:40.947)
that is just terrible and tragic because it means that they are only the program that allows African countries to export under AGOA, African, what is called, Growth and Opportunity Act. I think that's the name of that congressional legislation. Particularly, it's focused on

Adesoji Iginla (15:01.12)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Milton Allimadi (15:10.813)
trying to promote manufacturing in Africa. And typically, historically, one gateway to manufacturing has been textiles industry, historically, all over the world, right? It's typically been the easiest one to start and then evolve from there to other products. So now you're telling me that those factories are actually not owned by the people, the citizens of Lesotho.

Adesoji Iginla (15:24.334)
Correct, yep.

Milton Allimadi (15:43.471)
That's terrible. And it suggests to me that that situation is probably duplicated in many African countries that are right now supposed to be benefiting from this AGOA legislation. It means they're only retaining a minuscule of the profit, right? In other words, Lesotho is benefiting basically by the government probably taxing the owners of the factory.

Adesoji Iginla (16:04.108)
and the wages as well.

Milton Allimadi (16:13.883)
taxing the salary of the employees and the employees benefiting by having jobs, right? But the bulk of the profit from the actual textile that is exported to the US, millions of dollars, that is going to end up being retained by the Chinese and Taiwanese owners of those factories. That's abysmal. That's something that needs to be dealt with.

Adesoji Iginla (16:20.142)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (16:43.117)
in every African country. And you know what, this reminds me exactly of what...

what Samir Amin said in a lecture that's on YouTube, not a lecture interview. It's called Africa's Industrialization Challenge. And he said, you can have industries without being industrialized. And this is exactly what he's talking about. You know, have factories, but the factories are not even owned by the citizens of your country. And that's a big problem.

Adesoji Iginla (17:16.494)
OK, one final question on that. So I mean, you've just pointed out to what Samir Amir spoke about there. And this will probably go on back of it. And it will point to Walter Rodney's book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, which is, how can African countries develop independent and resilient economies that are not directly or indirectly dependent on Western markets?

Milton Allimadi (17:48.78)
Well, it's difficult because it has to be a concerted policy because they're going to be very aggressive against you and very hostile to the extent of even eliminating you, as we saw with Thomas Sankara. So it needs dedicated and serious leaders. You see what I'm saying? You have five leaders of the caliber and dedication of Sankara, they can do it.

Adesoji Iginla (17:55.854)
Hmm

Milton Allimadi (18:17.973)
collectively. They will say that in this region...

so that in the future, we'll grow the content.

Milton Allimadi (18:29.175)
A Mali will have the factories.

they'll be located in Mali, you see? The factories are in Mali. Let's say three countries are involved. Mali will provide 40 % of the employees. The other two countries can provide 30 % of the employees, you see? So now you're creating an industry for producing cotton.

You have factories now where employees are having relatively skilled labor, producing the clothes. You're creating jobs that are almost evenly distributed, benefiting all the three countries participating in this joint agreement. And you have three leaders involved. And to go back to the warning provided by Sankarna,

It's very difficult to kill three leaders at the same time, you see? Right? So that's just for textiles and cotton. Now you pick another product. Let's say you have, you have coltan, or you have cobalt. You're saying the same kind of arrangement. The cobalt is located in Mali. That's where the mines are. The other countries don't have that, right?

Adesoji Iginla (19:38.903)
You

Adesoji Iginla (20:06.286)
Correct.

Milton Allimadi (20:07.942)
The mining company is going to be owned jointly by those three countries. They each put in 33 % subscription and they invest and they get the technology needed. If they need to hire expatriate managers initially who will train domestic people, you do that, but you own the factories, you see? You own the mine, you own the factory and the mining company. The expertise...

Adesoji Iginla (20:11.918)
three countries.

Adesoji Iginla (20:30.648)
Mm-hmm.

Milton Allimadi (20:37.808)
You know, you can hire. I mean, even the World Bank, even in the national institutions, hire experts from all over the world, right? You hire them. Now, you are not producing the cobalt and exporting it as cobalt. No. You're going to manufacture batteries for electric cars within these three countries and export it to the countries now that produce

Adesoji Iginla (20:42.803)
Correct.

Adesoji Iginla (21:01.838)
factories okay

Milton Allimadi (21:07.631)
the electric cars. As your economy grows, at some point, you start producing electric cars within these three countries. Whether it's three countries, four countries, five hundred, it can be done on a regional basis. East Africa, we have Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi. We have Congo, you know, powerful Congo with all its resources.

Adesoji Iginla (21:13.582)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (21:34.689)
In West Africa, you can have the same arrangement. In South Africa, have SADC, South Africa and all those other regional countries. It can be done, easy. But they need to have the same vision, same dedication, and they should not allow one single country to undermine them. If one leader is trying to sell them out, they should cause trouble for their leader. And if they outnumber him or her, they can encourage the people

Adesoji Iginla (21:41.656)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (22:04.004)
that particular country to get rid of that leader. No, really, they need to be like that because that's how the Europeans are. They don't play games when it comes to their interests. So we have to become serious as well. Otherwise, we won't survive as a people.

Adesoji Iginla (22:17.368)
So speaking of survival and someone's probably listening to the advice he just gave, I'll go to the likes of Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad for our next story, which is filed in by Radio Deutsche Welle, the German news organization. And it says.

Adesoji Iginla (22:39.316)
It reads that the Sahel Yonta drive new era in mineral extraction. The story is filed in by Marty Shivoski. In Niger, a local company has been granted a license to mine copper. Meanwhile, military governments in Mali and Burkina Faso aim to reduce dependence on foreign mining companies and diversify their economies.

And it goes further. says Niger wants to boost its economy and expand its mining industry by mining copper in the Agadez region. The country granted a permit to national firm Campagnier Mineur Del Nair. Niger is continuing its program of diversifying mining production with a move that marks its entry into the restricted circle of countries producing this strategic mineral.

According to a statement from the Mineral Military Government, which took power following a 2023 coup, Alf Leeson, head of Conrad Adnir Foundation Sahel's regional program in neighboring Mali, said the concession is part of Niger's strategy to reduce its reliance on foreign companies for mineral extraction. He said that it's impossible to predict how successful the

project would be. The copper mine is in the north, not far from Libya, where the security situation is poor," he noted, adding that Niger is following a trend seen in Burkina and Mali, where military governments rely more on local companies rather than Western ones. Your initial thoughts?

Milton Allimadi (24:29.133)
But that precisely is what I was alluding to. These countries are embarking on economic liberation, economic independence. You know, many African countries got paper independence in the 1960s, formal independence. But as we know, it is impossible to be politically independent if you are not economically independent.

Here is the worst, worst, worst, but best example. If African sisters and brothers who are listening to us, watching us, do not recognize what I mean when I talk about Africa's total dependency, right?

Milton Allimadi (25:28.022)
Can you imagine producing something that you don't consume just because you want to export it and earn dollars or euros, right? Foreign currency, they call it. And the impact it has on your economy when the demand for that product suddenly declines or disappears.

Adesoji Iginla (25:49.464)
Drops.

Milton Allimadi (25:55.21)
So you're producing cocoa, cotton, coffee, tobacco, you name it, flowers, products that you cannot consume. And then the market crashes and you've not been producing food. And now you have less money. You can't even buy food. And you had abandoned growing food when in fact you have land.

Adesoji Iginla (26:02.03)
Flowers.

Milton Allimadi (26:24.543)
to grow your own food. What happens? Famine, right? You cannot grow your economy based on the demand for your products by outside consumers. Because it means if they no longer want to consume your products or best case scenario, they do not want to consume your products now because of the kind of tariffs that Trump is setting up.

What are you going to do? The first story already told us. People are talking about the possibility of starving, right?

That is why.

any rational economic system. I don't care whether you say you're a capitalist or socialist or what have you. The number one requirement is for you to produce to satisfy the needs of your domestic citizens, your country. Anything else must become secondary to that dictate. And that's how you build your economy. You see? So I like the fact

then Nija even said, know what, we're not using the uranium ourselves anyway. Right? Number one. Number two, we're getting paid pennies by France. We might miss those pennies a little bit, but in the long run, it's worth biting the bullet.

Milton Allimadi (28:00.51)
to do the right thing, right? Eventually, we'll get someone willing to pay the price that we're demanding for our uranium and for our other minerals. Number one. Number two, why should we be dependent on foreign mining companies extracting these resources from the ground? It's not nuclear. Physics?

Adesoji Iginla (28:01.036)
Mm. Yep.

Milton Allimadi (28:28.721)
Let's support the creation of our own companies. And as I said earlier, if you need expertise, know, pay for that. So long as you own the factory, the mining company, the entity yourself. And I'm glad to see that that is a strategy they are now embarking on. And that strategy should be duplicated in all African countries. I mean, when we come to

Adesoji Iginla (28:35.469)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (28:58.235)
mineral resources. It has environmental impact, right? But that's a discussion that we can have at another time, for another show. So long as you're producing these minerals and extracting them, why should you let Total of France be doing that in Mozambique, for example?

Adesoji Iginla (28:58.83)
Correct.

Adesoji Iginla (29:20.754)
Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (29:23.588)
or even the oil in Uganda, for example. And of course, that's one of the reasons why Gaddafi was killed, in addition to wanting to create the African currency backed by Libyan gold. The other reason why they had resented him for decades was because Libya's oil was produced by Libya's national oil company.

Adesoji Iginla (29:35.042)
the gold. Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (29:46.007)
company. Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (29:49.193)
It didn't have Total, it didn't have Exxon Mobil, it didn't have British Petroleum or Shell. No, it was a Libyan company. And that is how they were able to retain the substantial part of the profit and build up the magnificent cities and schools and roads and bridges in Libya and give people free education through university, free healthcare.

Adesoji Iginla (29:54.314)
or British earlier. Ciao.

Milton Allimadi (30:18.695)
and all that stuff. And that is what... Sorry.

Adesoji Iginla (30:19.458)
all of which has subsequently been destroyed.

I said all of which has subsequently been laid waste to.

Milton Allimadi (30:28.131)
Absolutely. They never forgave him for that. So while they were saying, we are coming in to prevent Qadhafi from killing his own people, they bombed the Qandha 24-7 for 10 months and probably killed tens of times more Libyans than Qadhafi could have ever killed. You see? Obviously, they wanted to take back control of the oil production. But in their desperate, reckless policy, destroyed the whole country. Now nobody is benefiting from their oil.

You see?

Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (31:01.998)
One more part from this. There is a part where, yeah. So when it comes to job creation, Mr. Leysen says, the operators of the mine located in Niger's second largest city, Moradi, expect to produce an average of 2,700 tons of copper per year over a period of 10 years. Niger's government hopes that the mine will create hundreds of new jobs and a lucrative business.

Copper is currently traded on the world market at $9,700 which is 8,789 euros per tonne. A small scale permit has been granted to Nigerian company, Campinié Minére de Rocher for Adanat to produce lithium, a key component of the rechargeable lithium ion batteries that power everything from cell phones

electric vehicles. The company expects to produce 300 pounds of lithium a day a year. The Nigerian state holds a 25 percent stake in the Cominare copper mine and a 40 percent stake in ComiRex in order to maintain the government's control over the nature's resources. So, I mean, you pointed out the fact that this is the people's wealth being traded for pennies.

Milton Allimadi (32:31.516)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (32:32.024)
Clearly, these three governments, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, have realised the value that has been lost over the years and are trying to recoup.

Milton Allimadi (32:43.697)
Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for saying that because that's something I am meant to touch on and I totally forgot. Any negotiations with any of these foreign companies that have been exploiting, if they want to come back in some capacity, of course, maybe as minority partners, because if they're going to be providing technological skills, then you may still want to negotiate with them.

But any return should also be predicated on refunding some of the excess profit that they accumulated over the many, many years. And since many of the products that these countries have are kind of unique, they're not found all over the world. Don't be surprised. Some of them might listen and say, okay, let's talk. It doesn't have to be paid in a lump sum.

But let's say you agree that, we retained a billion dollars illegally. Spread the payment back over 10 years, you know?

Adesoji Iginla (33:48.718)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (33:52.718)
Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (33:54.16)
You know, pay us, you know, 10 or 20 years, pay us 50 million a year or something, know, as refund for that.

Adesoji Iginla (33:55.278)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (34:02.208)
Okay, so one final question with regards to.

Milton Allimadi (34:04.794)
We have to be very creative. We have to be very creative as African people. We have to start thinking outside the box. Let's maximize what we can get from the people that owe us, you see?

Adesoji Iginla (34:11.276)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (34:17.206)
OK. One question while reading this was, I mean, we've tabled this question over and over again, but sometimes it's a recurring theme. So one needs to beat the drum as it were. How do African governments balance sovereignty, investment needs, and technological gap in welcoming foreign investment?

Milton Allimadi (34:44.482)
Well, you obviously we have to set our investment agenda first. We have to set our priorities. What are our priorities? And I think for most African countries, the priorities should be actually what many of them had in the 1960s. Education, Education, because education allows you to transform the people who will transform Africa.

Adesoji Iginla (35:03.552)
Mmm. Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (35:12.669)
Every individual is transformed through the benefits of education Then you are secure your chances of transforming the entire country and the entire continent Which itself we want to end up being one country. Anyway, it's tremendously enhanced You see? Number one that of course infrastructure, you know We need to invest in infrastructure You can't have a call a country like Congo all its

mineral resources. Part of the problem. Why?

There's incentive.

And of course, I'm not condoning it. These are criminal, multinational criminals who are sponsoring the terrorism from Uganda and Rwanda against Eastern Congo is because it's easier to extract those resources from Eastern Congo and then use the infrastructure in Uganda and Rwanda to get them to the international market.

Adesoji Iginla (35:53.912)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (36:06.51)
And

Milton Allimadi (36:22.402)
Uganda, even with all the economic problems they have, there are better roads and better infrastructure than Congo does. You see? So that's one of the things. Obviously, first things first, we need to make sure that these invading troops are expelled from Congo and Congo gets back its sovereignty and total control of its territory. But then after that, Congo needs to embark on a massive infrastructure building.

Adesoji Iginla (36:33.325)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (36:52.545)
roads, railways, airports, so that it becomes easier to extract those resources and go through the proper channel to Kinshasa and outside the country. see? I mean, after all, it's not like, Congo is the one that has access to the sea. Uganda and Rwanda are landlocked countries. So not like they have any advantage.

Adesoji Iginla (37:04.536)
So get them to market.

Adesoji Iginla (37:18.808)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (37:21.922)
They just have an advantage that they have better roads, right? And they have better propaganda. know, they have better propaganda. They've been able to disguise this genocidal war that they've been conducting on behalf of multinationals as domestic rebellion or us going into rescue.

Adesoji Iginla (37:26.779)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (37:41.068)
as some sort of rebellion.

Milton Allimadi (37:49.474)
Tutsi who are being massacred by the central government, propaganda, you see. But Congo also seems to be doing a little better now in countering the propaganda. Yeah, so obviously the investment needs to benefit the recipient country and take care of my needs. And then, but your profit cannot be the number one concern. If the investment is going to have

Adesoji Iginla (37:54.296)
Mm-mm.

Adesoji Iginla (38:01.165)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (38:07.822)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Milton Allimadi (38:18.879)
significant adverse environmental negative impact? Of course, I don't want it, you see. But then you have to have a serious...you can imagine, Thomas Sankara would not accept that, right? But we have many unscrupulous leaders who would accept it. They would take the money even if, you there's a very interesting documentary.

Adesoji Iginla (38:31.618)
Got it, got it.

Milton Allimadi (38:44.901)
it's called, I think it's called, Why African Poverty? I think maybe that's a subtitle, but it's, but it's very interesting and it shows the destruction, environmental destruction in Zambia over the copper production in one location. mean, the company is making one year, we're exporting like billions of dollars worth of copper, but

Adesoji Iginla (38:55.607)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (39:07.725)
Hmm

Adesoji Iginla (39:14.254)
That's Glencoe. That's Glencoe.

Milton Allimadi (39:15.551)
Glencora, yes, absolutely, Glencora. was producing, even the color of the rain had changed because of the chemicals being emanated to the atmosphere, right? Everybody in that community was falling sick, right? Intestinal, abdominal pains, vomiting and all that,

Adesoji Iginla (39:18.712)
Yeah, that's good.

Adesoji Iginla (39:25.58)
The dust, yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Milton Allimadi (39:42.715)
The government that doesn't care is just going to be counting the money. And in fact, the government that it reveals how government can be so destructive to Africa's interest, that particular documentary. It showed in one year where the Glencore made billions of dollars, right?

The government, not only did it not make any money, but it ended up owing Glencombe money because it had accepted an electricity rate, you know, which ended up resulting in negative income for the government because the rates were so preposterously low, right, that the government ended up having to pay for it.

Adesoji Iginla (40:20.856)
deficit.

Adesoji Iginla (40:24.515)
Whoa.

Milton Allimadi (40:34.364)
and pay the government, you know, oh, at least I don't know whether they were paid, but they ended up owing $150 million to Glencoe. You see? So we need to have governments that are serious, not just looking to line their own pockets. You see?

Adesoji Iginla (40:50.182)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And speaking of government who care about their people, for the next story, we go to Senegal. And Senegal was in the news, and the news comes from the AP. And it reads, Senegal revises amnesty law that covered deadly protests. The story is filed by Mark.

Milton Allimadi (40:52.06)
Right.

Adesoji Iginla (41:19.692)
Bacheria and Babacar Dionne. It reads, Senegal's parliament approved revision to a law passed under the former president that granted amnesties for offenses committed during the deadly opposition protest in West Africa. The law was passed in March 2024, shortly before the presidential election, and granted amnesty for offenses by both security forces and protesters.

during violent demonstrations between 2021 and 2024. Right groups, Amnesty International, said at least 65 people were killed during the clashes. Your initial thoughts at the revision. Does this sound familiar?

Milton Allimadi (42:03.129)
All right, so yeah, of course it does. But here's the deal. When you have a law like that, It sounds familiar, sounds like it's very close to home here in the US. So in this particular case, right, when you hear something like that, you know that the primary beneficiary is going to be the security forces.

Adesoji Iginla (42:06.99)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (42:23.448)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (42:31.766)
Eurydice forces. Correct.

Milton Allimadi (42:34.775)
You know, and obviously when they say, both sides, you know, no, both sides didn't have those kinds of weapons. You see, you know, so it means the, I mean, how many members of security forces were killed? How many civilians were killed? You see, you know, so the balance of violence is going to weigh against

Adesoji Iginla (42:43.032)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (42:55.938)
Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (43:03.256)
the security forces as having perpetrated the violence against civilians. So you can have a law that treats both sides as perps and equally. You see? I believe any such amnesty should be properly calibrated. You see? If you have a protest, it's organized as a peaceful protest. One or two particular people involved in the protest

Adesoji Iginla (43:07.182)
Correct.

Milton Allimadi (43:32.761)
go out of their way and they harm security personnel who are there to enforce the peace because even peaceful protests are supervised, you see, so that they don't get out of hand, right? So the police that conduct themselves properly, those are fine. And you have others that go out of their way as well and they commit violence.

Adesoji Iginla (43:47.34)
rich.

Adesoji Iginla (44:02.094)
Correct. Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (44:02.913)
right? So those should be punished as well. And the punish should be consistent with the crime that was committed. You see? So in theory, I have no objection to the concept itself. You see?

Adesoji Iginla (44:12.174)
Correct.

Adesoji Iginla (44:18.094)
To the concept of granting amnesty to both sides, is that what you mean?

Milton Allimadi (44:26.08)
I have no concept. I have no qualm with that. But I'm saying if members of security forces committed crimes, and that's why it has to be calibrated, you cannot have a blanket amnesty. You see? Because a blanket amnesty then, of course, would exonerate crimes. And then what happens next time?

Adesoji Iginla (44:36.534)
went out of their way.

Adesoji Iginla (44:43.075)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (44:49.859)
Correct.

Adesoji Iginla (44:54.229)
Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (44:54.485)
You have to grant it again because you granted it in the past. What is your reason for denying it if it happens in the future? So blanket amnesty, I oppose.

Adesoji Iginla (44:57.55)
Correct.

Adesoji Iginla (45:06.158)
OK. OK. I'll continue. So he goes on. Rights groups and lawyers criticized the law because it prevented any prosecution of the sponsors and perpetrators of the violence. The protests were triggered by the concern that the president at the time, Marquis Saur, was attempting to muzzle his opponents and seek a third term in office, despite being prevented by the Constitution. Saur denied seeking.

Milton Allimadi (45:34.103)
Precisely, precisely. And you see the similarity, right, between what Mackey was doing and between what the leader, the leader at that time in the United States was also trying to do. You see?

Adesoji Iginla (45:34.894)
It's hot.

You

Adesoji Iginla (45:43.552)
and January 6th.

You

Adesoji Iginla (45:52.865)
Yep.

Milton Allimadi (45:55.073)
So now when you have Amnesty, as I said in the beginning, whole, the reason for initiating it, right, in the case of Senegal was to cover the security forces. And you see the flip side here, Cover the security forces who were ordered basically by Maki Sah.

Adesoji Iginla (46:14.518)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, correct.

Milton Allimadi (46:23.765)
carry out that policy, So now he wants to pardon them, but nobody's going to allow a blanket pardon. And that's why he says both sides, because now he wants it to appear as if he's being even handed, right? The flip side here in the United States, you know, obviously the amnesty would be to exonerate, in this case, civilians.

Adesoji Iginla (46:36.94)
Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (46:52.244)
the civilians who were actually the ones who were committing violence in this particular case, including violence against security forces, you see? It was the exact opposite, you see? But in these case, in each case, the desire was to exonerate

Adesoji Iginla (46:54.23)
You

Adesoji Iginla (47:01.602)
Yeah, that was captured.

Adesoji Iginla (47:09.752)
Mm-hmm.

Milton Allimadi (47:15.274)
the supporters of each of those particular presidents at the time.

Adesoji Iginla (47:20.044)
Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (47:22.294)
In Senegal, it was security forces, supporters of the president, carrying out his orders at least, right? So his incentive was to exonerate them. In the U.S., it was the opposite. The violent civilians who are incited to violence by the president himself, right? So obviously, he felt obligated to exonerate.

Adesoji Iginla (47:28.577)
Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (47:44.3)
Yeah, correct.

Adesoji Iginla (47:48.504)
to, yeah, he did call them political prisoners.

Milton Allimadi (47:55.753)
political prisoners, patriots, know, victims, know, victims and all, you but he kept, he kept adjusting, of course, you know, in the beginning, first he welcomed them, then he said some of them went overboard. And then depending on when he's speaking, you know, he embraced all of them eventually as patriots.

Adesoji Iginla (48:04.59)
You

Adesoji Iginla (48:19.854)
So one question I glean from this is, judging by the reversal of this amnesty, would you say this is the government of Basiru Fayeh and Osmas Onkho laying the groundwork of what it looks like for a truly democratic society holding

the affairs of states to question. Because if you're clearly saying the tools of state should not be used as a suppression tactic, as a suppression mechanism against the people, and that they are not above the law, what are you saying to the wider African society which regards to the reversal of this law?

Milton Allimadi (49:17.03)
Well, I don't think they're totally reversing. I think they are mending it, which I support. And I think...

Adesoji Iginla (49:19.916)
Yeah, yeah, mean, yeah, but in the grand scheme of things, normally when laws like this are passed, they often don't get a second look in. They just stay on the books. Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (49:30.779)
Right, mean, listen, we have a government of young, serious, dedicated leaders in Senegal. And so I hope that other African countries, other young people are learning from what is happening in Senegal. Just as many of these young leaders that we have learned from what happened in Burkina Faso when Sankara was the leader of Burkina Faso.

Adesoji Iginla (49:41.293)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (50:00.898)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (50:01.348)
You see? They know that government can be transformative and government can only be taken as serious as the leaders take it as well. know, in the beginning, I have mixed thoughts about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, to be honest with you. I don't think...

Adesoji Iginla (50:13.454)
Correct.

Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (50:27.681)
Okay.

It's a.

Milton Allimadi (50:30.734)
you know, the people who, the brutal killers of Steve Biko should have been, should qualify for any type of amnesty. You know, I think we are breathing impunity, you see? And people committed crimes of that caliber. I think the principle itself was fine, but I think there should have been exceptions for certain crimes.

Adesoji Iginla (50:40.59)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (50:56.878)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (50:59.332)
that exceeded the pale, you know, and that particular brutal murder of Stig Biko was just one example of many that should not have qualified for the truth and reconciliation permission. Number one, and then in retrospect, I don't think it was also correct to exonerate the crimes of apartheid in terms of the economic crimes committed.

including the land. I've been reading, yeah, I've been reading Sol Plache, P-L-A-A-T-J-E, Native Life in South Africa, which was published in 1916. It's a remarkable, remarkable book. It describes the land act of 1913.

Adesoji Iginla (51:31.704)
seizure.

Adesoji Iginla (51:57.762)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (51:58.037)
It's one of the few books written contemporaneously at that time by an African. He's not widely known. He should be much more known than he is. He was a journalist and author. I think he was one of the first secretary generals of, I think initially it was the African Native National Congress before he became the African National Congress.

So if you read the accounts, you know, he was brilliant journalist because he was going there to see for himself, eyewitness. Because what happened is one million Africans were, all Africans were impacted, right? And one million were working on white owned farms.

Adesoji Iginla (52:47.662)
Okay. Okay.

Milton Allimadi (52:56.623)
A million, I guess you count the workers and their families as well.

Milton Allimadi (53:03.404)
And they had, so they would lease the land from the white owners. Africans owned their land as well at the time. There were some that owned their lands, but there were a million who were leasing from these white farm owners. And then at the end of the year, they would split the produce 50-50. So both sides were accumulating.

Adesoji Iginla (53:12.056)
most like sharecropping.

Adesoji Iginla (53:21.774)
Okay.

Milton Allimadi (53:30.889)
You know, wealth increasing for the European and the African standard of life increasing every year. With the land act, it made it illegal for Africans to buy land in the, except in the designated location for Africans. At that time, Africans made about 70 % of the population. The European mixed race, Indian was still relatively high at that time, relatively.

Adesoji Iginla (53:36.067)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (54:01.515)
because now Africans make, you know, 80 % now. But even with the 70%, they were allocated 5%, 5.5 % of their land, right? Number one. So in a designated location, barren land. So now every African, no matter where you are located, if you want land, you have to go to that.

consigned 5.5%.

The ones who had been leasing in white-owned farms, they had two options.

since they could no longer lease. You either leave or you continue working, but this time as a servant for the white farmers. So the world was moving forward historically. People moving from slavery to serfdom to proletariat and owner of capital, right? You workers and South Africa, they were reversing the history.

Adesoji Iginla (54:45.09)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (55:14.226)
people who had been accumulating land, I mean wealth by leasing and producing, were reverted back into self-knowing. They became servants, essentially like slave. Paid labor, know, paid minuscule wages. That was number one option. And of course, in the land that they leased, they had their livestock, right? In some cases, hundreds of cattle, sheep, goats, and you name it.

Adesoji Iginla (55:19.843)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (55:44.366)
They lost all of them.

Milton Allimadi (55:44.52)
So now you don't own the land, you don't lease the land, what are you going to do? If you decide to remain there as a servant, you're going to sell your livestock for pennies to the European landowner. The second option was of course leaving and many set out on the road in ox drawn wagons with hundreds of cattle ahead of them.

Adesoji Iginla (55:50.51)
Can I have just a move?

Milton Allimadi (56:13.575)
some in the winter, right? And he describing in detail the cattle becoming emaciated. You don't even know where you're heading to, heading toward, you know, what is now Botswana. Many of them died along the way, the people as well as the cattle. He describes accounts of in one location, European farmers shooting the Africans.

burying them and taking over their livestock. In one account, he's describing a couple who was kicked off the land. the elder, then they had a baby who was sick and they started traveling along the road. The baby died after a few days. So they had to secretly bury the baby along the roadside. It's just like, so it's like the knockback.

if you know the Palestinian Nakba. This is what they faced in South Africa. And this story is not widely told. And I know why now, because now you read this account and you come familiar with it, you said, there's no way this should have been exonerated. They should have been compensated. Compensated not only for the land stolen, compensated for the heads of the livestock stolen from them.

Adesoji Iginla (57:14.271)
Mm, mm, mm.

Milton Allimadi (57:38.648)
And whether it's something that is paid over years, this should have been computed, you see?

Adesoji Iginla (57:43.438)
Yep. Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (57:47.576)
So speaking of that, the final story we're actually going into South Africa. And it's a story that has been running and I think is about to come to a head. And it's from the BBC. And it reads, is the South African coalition governments about to fall apart? The story is filed by.

Milton Allimadi (58:12.869)
All right, I'm laughing because if you go back, if you go back and you look at our podcast around the time that the coalition was formed, I think we had that discussion and I gave a prediction. said, it's just a question of time. said, I didn't know when, but I said, this is what you call a government of national disunity.

Adesoji Iginla (58:18.648)
Yeah.

dear.

Adesoji Iginla (58:30.368)
Mmm. Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (58:36.686)
Okay, I'll continue. And the story is filed in by Farouk Chirtsia. It reads, South African coalition government is on shaky ground with the sharp divisions between its two biggest parties, the African National Congress, ANC, and Democratic Alliance, DA, exposed in a crucial vote on the national budget. The center-right, DA, voted against the fiscal framework, a key part of the budget.

Milton Allimadi (58:39.076)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (59:05.998)
after rejecting an increase in VAT and demanding a cut in spending across all government departments. The ANC, which positioned itself as a centre-left party, refused to bow to what it called the DA demand for an austerity budget. It demonstrated its political acumen by winning the support of a slew of smaller parties both inside and outside government to get the physical framework through parliament by 194 votes.

to 182. The DA subsequently filed papers in court to challenge the vote, saying it was procedurally flawed while its thought leadership is due to meet later to decide whether or not to remain in what South Africa calls a government of national unity. Your initial thought before I finish up.

Milton Allimadi (59:59.638)
Well, I mean, it's the same contradictions that existed at the time that this coalition government was formed, which we discussed, I think, the week after it was formed, or maybe the same week when we had the show. And I said, how can you have a marriage of parties with so diametrically opposed visions of South Africa? The Democratic Alliance does not

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:05.336)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:08.846)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:25.175)
Hmm

Milton Allimadi (01:00:29.396)
support land reform, Or land justice, I should call it, right? They don't support that. They did not support economic empowerment for the historically deprived population, the African population. They didn't support that.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:32.29)
reform.

Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:48.867)
Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (01:00:52.748)
So I didn't see how such a coalition really could survive in the long run. And now they're going obviously to the same World Bank type solution. You just cut jobs, right? They're doing the Elon Musk,

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:20.952)
Do it.

Milton Allimadi (01:01:22.401)
solution that is being applied here in the United States. Just fire people, know, fire people. And that, of course, is not a policy that the ANC can pursue. It would be like political suicide for the ANC. Given its waning fortunes in each election cycle, you can imagine what this would do to it by the time the next election comes around.

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:40.558)
Mm. Mm.

Milton Allimadi (01:01:52.084)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:53.678)
Yeah, let me finish up. It says, the coalition government was formed less than a year after ANC lost its parliamentary majority in elections for the first time since Nelson Mandela led it to power in 1994 at the end of white minority rule. While hinting that the DA's participation is no longer setting, DA spokesman Willie Ackman accused the ANC of a serious infraction and said the party had crossed a line in the sand.

DEA's federal chair Hailey Zillie said the party would consider all its options and not rush into a decision. We know that being in a coalition requires compromise. You can get it all. But the ANC cannot get it all and they are refusing point blank to share power, Zill added. The ANC took an equally tough stance with its parliamentary chief whip Udiminisi Untuli accusing the DEA of complex betrayal.

by seeking to break ranks with its partner in the government of national unity. President Syriam Afozo's spokesman, Vincent Maguire, also threw down the gauntlet to the DA saying, you can't be part of a government whose budget you oppose. The DA found itself voting alongside South Africa's two biggest and most populous opposition parties, former president Jacob Zuma's Nkwem To Siigwe and Julius Malema's economy freedom fight.

EFF, advocating those two were advocating for the nationalization of the key sectors of the economy. These two parties are the implacable force of the pro-business DA, but the three parties were united in opposing a VAT increase, believing it will hit the poor very hard.

Your thoughts.

Milton Allimadi (01:03:47.444)
Yeah, yeah, it's the it's very ironic, of course. The article says that now you have the DA voting on the same side against the ANC's proposal, together with the economic freedom fighters of Julius Malema and Jaco Zuma's Conto party. But at the end of the day, they do have to raise money. They have to raise money.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:51.534)
You

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:06.466)
Mm-hmm.

Milton Allimadi (01:04:16.672)
and they're going to raise it by the taxes or they're going to raise it by cutting services, meaning cutting jobs. I see that as highly unlikely. Most likely, the approach is going to be some sort of tax structure. Now, I would have to look at the be more familiar with the economy. Obviously, it will have impact because

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:43.499)
Hmm

Milton Allimadi (01:04:46.715)
your VAT, if it's across the board, it would affect, you all products. I don't see why it should be, you know, just a uniform rate. mean, I mean, the food products, for example, you see, transportation, like, you know, public transportation. I don't see why those should be taxed at the same rate as products that are more, mostly consumed.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:52.142)
Mm-hmm.

Milton Allimadi (01:05:17.018)
by wealthy of South Africans. So I think it should be targeted in such a way that those that pay actually are the ones that can afford to pay. I mean, obviously everybody also always will say that, you know, I can't afford to pay either, but there's some that are in a less adverse position than others. So that's how it should be balanced.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:27.693)
Okay.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:42.572)
I couldn't help but, you know, gudging the stories of failing to think that for some reason this week has felt like being on...

Milton Allimadi (01:05:57.34)
I have one of his illustrated books as well. have 1984 actually.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:59.362)
Like being on the animal farm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:06.318)
I have 1990. But I mean, Animal Farm, was... Every time I read the story, I'm like, what is... Okay. You know.

Milton Allimadi (01:06:15.172)
Sorry. It's classic, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:22.862)
mean, up is down, down is up. The concept of normalcy is turned upside down. You can't help but think from the tariff regime to, yeah.

Milton Allimadi (01:06:28.817)
Yeah.

Milton Allimadi (01:06:40.719)
No, but it makes you think a lot. It makes you think about your own and society's definition of normalcy. Things will never be the same.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:48.172)
Mm. Mm. Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:54.284)
Hmm. Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (01:06:58.277)
Sometimes that's good, but in many senses, it's also not good based on what we're seeing. But as I said in the beginning, there is a readjustment ongoing in the United States. At the end of the day, empires are built based on accumulation from external sources, right? And you build up the power and you are on ascendancy.

trajectory for quite some time. And then at the end of the day, that changes, that start occurring. And that's what we're seeing, my friend. No, We're seeing, in fact, you think about it this way.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:39.734)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Milton Allimadi (01:07:47.8)
Obviously, I mean, it's upside down. for Trump to be seen as a savior shows you how desperate working people really are. But it worked because, as I was saying the other day, if you have Republicans saying, we're going to a wall to keep these immigrants who are coming across the border,

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:54.644)
You

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:00.02)
Mm. Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:10.315)
out.

Milton Allimadi (01:08:14.072)
and stealing our minimum wage, McDonald jobs, and therefore threatening our economy. You know, that's the argument, right? Not the 1 % that is accumulating all the wealth, right? And installing into place governments that keep focusing on tax cuts for the wealthy. Those are not the problem. It's those immigrants, you know, streaming across the border. It's Republican solution. We're going to build a wall.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:21.966)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:37.108)
It's, yeah.

Milton Allimadi (01:08:43.563)
And the Democrats, what did they say? They essentially said, we're going to build a world too. So if you have, these are the two parties that are the vision. Then of course, working people are in deep, deep trouble. And of course, Trump was coming in like the outsider. Right? So I am going to be for you working people by blocking these immigrants from coming in.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:58.446)
Mmm.

Milton Allimadi (01:09:13.065)
What kind of mindset has the working person been reduced to to believe that in fact his biggest or her biggest enemy are indeed those people coming from across the border? Just think about that. But it worked. But it worked. It got him elected. So where are his working people friends now? Is Elon Musk a working person? Is Elon a working person? See? But that is called a short

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:22.35)
Exactly. Exactly.

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:33.805)
Hmm!

Milton Allimadi (01:09:42.729)
term gap. How many times can you sell that fiction? How many times really? So the emperor is being undressed and we're living at that special period. As I said in the beginning, at one point Great Britain was undressed. Gradually, gradually they took until they left her with the panties.

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:44.769)
and

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:51.511)
Well, we-

Milton Allimadi (01:10:12.754)
the U.S., that's now cutting and new emerging regions are coming up. And that's just how history is, you know?

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:24.184)
mean, the worst part is the Mr. Piggies.

created the illusion in the minds of America's boxers that if only they work hard, they can also be... No, I mean...

Milton Allimadi (01:10:42.279)
Yup.

Milton Allimadi (01:10:48.318)
No, not really. mean, that's why it remains a classic. You know, it remains a classic. The power of propaganda, right?

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:54.249)
God. Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:59.308)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (01:11:02.206)
Here we are.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:04.651)
Yeah, yes. Yeah, we've come to the end of another episode of African News Review. Again, hit like, share, do subscribe. We also like to announce that we will be rolling out memberships, you know, support by joining memberships either on YouTube or Patreon to support, you know, the channel so that we can, you know,

grow. The aim is not only to continue doing this, but also to invite voices from the African continent that would go out and corroborate the stories that were running on. I mean, imagine what it would have been like if we had somebody in Lesotho to tell us what the people on the factory made of floors are thinking, you know. yeah. Brother Milton?

Milton Allimadi (01:12:05.285)
Yes, I mean, we live in special times. And as I kept saying, we are seeing the emergence of new regions. And that's why people should pay close attention to what is going on in the alliance of the Sahelian states. They are doing what African countries should have been doing since decades ago, trying to take control over their resources.

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:30.382)
Hmm.

Milton Allimadi (01:12:34.075)
take control over the economic policy. Because without economic liberation, as we've seen the evidence, they'll fail to exercise political independence and political sovereignty. And I think if this journey continues, we're going to see more African countries adopting similar approach. And then we'll be able to see transformation over the next five, 10 years, going forward, real transformation. So that is my hope.

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:36.899)
Mm.

Milton Allimadi (01:13:04.08)
And we will be here analyzing these stories on a regular basis, so please do support this podcast. Otherwise, see you all next week. Aluta continua. The struggle continues.

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:17.678)
And remember, stay off the farm. Yes. Thank you. Yeah, get your copy, actually, you old. Yes. Thank you all for coming through. And hit like, share, subscribe, and bring a friend that brings a friend. So thank you. And until next week, it's goodbye for now.

Milton Allimadi (01:13:21.197)
Get your copy.