Who do African Leaders Serve?

I built a LinkedIn audience of 98,000 followers.

And just like that, it was gone.

No warning.

No email.

No “Hey Mark, we’re just checking something.”

Just a big restricted message when I tried to log in on Friday night.

For 72 hours, I had no access.

To my posts.

To my DMs.

To my identity online.

Then the messages started rolling in…

“Have you deleted LinkedIn?”

“Where’s your profile gone?”

“I’ve just tried to tag you in a post”

That’s when it hit me:

98,000 followers

46,000 newsletter subscribers

7+ years of consistent posting

Zero control

Gone in a blink.

No matter how big your audience…

No matter how consistent you’ve been…

If it lives on someone else’s platform, you don’t own it.

This isn’t a pity post.

It’s a wake-up call.

Because if LinkedIn can shut down my account without warning…

they can do it to yours.

So here’s what I’ve learned:

– Build an email list that no algorithm can touch

– Create a website that positions your expertise

– Repurpose content across multiple platforms

– Build a brand so strong that clients find you, even when the lights go out

What happened to me could’ve been catastrophic.

Instead, it’s the best business lesson I’ve had in years.

You’re not just building an audience.

You’re building your future client pipeline.

And if you’re doing it on rented land, the clock’s ticking.

The above post was made by a gentleman named Mark Bryce on LinkedIn. I became interested in the post because it connects to my thoughts about this issue of the magazine and how the lack of faithful people with the discipline to build Africa is one of the major problems we face on the continent.

We have a bunch of shameless leaders who build nothing, yet expect love, respect, and honor from their people. They spend their tenures flying around the world with designer suits and shoes, carrying large begging bowls up and down, and then complain when they are stacked in buses like school children, while their counterparts from other countries ride in motorcades. And when their people, who elected them, speak out about their unfaithfulness and corruption, they get arrested and even sentenced for treason. SHAMEFUL.

The other day, I was listening to a video where the former Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, was speaking about how much the European Union sponsors the African Union. He shamelessly said that the EU pays for more than 70 percent of the African Union budget. I listened to that and then realized why Africa is not rising and why Europe doesn’t budge when you accuse them of interfering in Africa’s agendas. Why would they budge when they fund it?

It’s quite simple. He who pays the piper dictates the tune he will play.

We cannot say Africa is the richest continent in the world in natural resources, while we borrow money for every single thing we build on the continent. We have a bunch of jokers gather every other day in Addis, talking big grammar but building nothing in their home countries.

I shared the post from Mark Bryce because it touched on something very deep that we need to pay close attention to, as Africans. Thousands of African youths are joining the creative industry daily, thousands more are creating their startups using the various online platforms available, thousands are attending online educational programs, while others are building their entire business lives on the systems that were created by others. But what happens if all gets shut down without notice, just like Mark’s LinkedIn profile was shut down without notice? What will happen to all those millions of Africans who have anchored their entire lives on a system that is neither built by their homegrown businesses, nor their governments, nor even controlled by them?

Are you telling me that the Africa of 1.6 billion people, that is, if you include Africans across the globe, cannot come together to build social media platforms for their people?

The point remains that, if you don’t own the narrative or the system that powers your country, then it’s not your country. It belongs to the one who built and owns the systemic infrastructure that powers your nation, and they can turn it off when you decide not to agree to what they want. It’s not rocket science.

The other day, I listened to PM Netanyahu of Israel saying that the Israeli military has systems that can hack into any system in the world. I will assume he means every system of the world, irrespective of whether they are the so-called developed or the so-called underdeveloped. What does that tell you? If you don’t build it, you don’t control it. And if you don’t control it, just like the experience of the guy whose post I shared at the beginning of this article, your entire system can be shut down, and you won’t even receive any apologies for it.

What happened to African Stream?

Just the other day, our friend, Tet Kofi in the UK, tagged our Facebook page on a post.

The post was made by the CEO of Africa Stream, it says:

“This is, sadly, a farewell to you, our loyal followers and supporters. Under relentless attack, we’ve made the painful decision to shut down African Stream—a platform that many of you’ve come to trust and love. This decision was not made lightly.

The smear by then–US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on September 13, 2024, labelling African Stream “Kremlin propagandists”—triggered a wave of censorship. Within days, YouTube, Meta, Google, and TikTok removed our accounts, and we were demonetised on X. These actions shattered our ability to survive financially. Personal accounts were restricted. What followed was a daily uphill battle. Now, we’re left with only one path: closure.”

“Refusing to play by their rules led to NBC saying we spread ‘disinformation’ without providing a single example of what ‘disinformation’ we shared. Voice of America condemned us for reporting a fact: since the George W. Bush administration, every US president has authorised drone strikes on Somalia. As we responded to every smear piece, we just grew bigger and stronger until, finally, those in positions of power realised the smears weren’t working, and the rest is history.

We will cease posting as of July 1, 2025, except for a few remaining documentaries from Liberia and Mali.”

The above is what happens when Africa does not own platforms where Africans can be free to be Africans.

Where are the faithful African builders?

We have spent enough time talking about what colonial Europeans did to Africa. We have talked enough about what slavery did to Africans and the horrors it left in its wake. But thank goodness, the horrors of the slave trade also created millions of scientists, engineers, creators, fixers, thinkers, who are Africans and people of African descent, across the globe. Is it not time for you to come back and build Africa with your knowledge? Is it not time for you to stop the foolishness in your mind that makes you think just like the colonialists that Africa is only good for coming to buy land and build cottages so you can show your followers on TV and podcasts that you, too, have come to conquer the land of Africa?

Is it not time for Africans on the continent, Africans in the diaspora, and all people of African descent to work together to elevate Africa to a new status? Should we not learn by now that what we call White Supremacy is simply a system that was created to give voice to those who are faithful to the imperial agenda of Europe and the West? And that the day they stop being faithful to that agenda, the entire white supremacy system will collapse? If the systems that were created for evil worked, should the system created for good not work if we find faithful people to make it work? It is obvious that most of the leaders we have in Africa do not have any meaningful agenda for their people, except the brief they get from their foreign masters. Their works have proven this to be true. So, it’s about time we put them aside and focus on those who are willing to defend the African purpose. It’s time we get our act together and made something meaningful happen on our continent.