Day in day out, Africa faces new challenges in remaining focused on development projects that transform the lives of its people for the better, outside Western Europe lenses.
To date, the majority of trinkets and technology used by Africa to develop or solve its problems is "borrowed, bought from or donated" by Western countries and/or the US, which in many cases, work in favour of the manufacturers.
It is fact, not fiction, that the manufacturers have the patent, the passwords, the back room and indeed the capacity to spy on or manipulate every user. Is Africa therefore, safe?
A lot of destruction comes to African leaders from Western countries, who pretend to prescribe solutions to African problems, and yet have hidden agendas to gain easy access to vast untapped natural resources that Africa still possess.
US and its Western allies have also had an onslaught on Africa using their technological advancement, spying on every project and trying to manipulate outcomes, including political outcomes.
A lot of projects brought to Africa through Western-sponsored Civil Society organisations (CSOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals dubbed "champions of democracy' are actually smokescreens behind which the thrust to gain access to cheap natural resources is hidden.
Issues like gay rights, democracy, good governance and accountability, from a Western perspective, tend to distract Africans from the main agenda of development that benefits them more than Western Europeans.
What has made Africa's case very difficult is the use of modern social media technological handles developed in the US and Western countries.
While these applications excite us and have become our day-to-day wonders on our computers, phones and cars, etc, they have become our biggest undoing in that they are also used to spy on us.
Many Africans might not know that today Apple has been accused of providing back door information for US intelligence agencies to spy on thousands of iphones, and other gadgets, and yet most of us see Apple as a mere provider of the services we require.
Reuters recently said its sources had reported that Apple was a serious appendage of US intelligence networks. How much Africans love iPhones?
And, as we enjoy the iPhones, the US might have gained access to most of our data and they will always be ahead of us as Africa, because they have access to our information.
While Africa is trying hard to develop and do value addition, it has become a victim of software vulnerability, where the US in particular, is said to have secret programmes that give National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) back door access to Apple, Facebook, Microsoft data, etc.
The shocker is that for five years this project has given the US government direct access to e-mail, messages, browser history and more.
They have been harvesting a lot of data on Africa's development agenda and everything around it, and using that information, they have destabilised many of Africa's development projects.
They have been harvesting videos, photographs, e-mails and documents from internal servers of nine major tech companies, according the leaked 41-slide security presentation obtained by the Washington Post.
The most shocking of all this has been information from the Washington Post that they have been spying on the who's who of Silicon Valley, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. Africa surely cannot escape this, without putting up a big technological fight.
At very crucial moments, the US and its allies in the West might have even manipulated election results to come up with effective regime change.
Africa has the brains and must come up with new innovations that result in its own portal, applications and complicated technological trinkets that can be used measure for measure with eg, Apple, Google, AOL, Facebook etc. Until Africa gets there technologically, it will be a victim of spy networks.
Africa might as well turn to its good friends like Russia and China to develop its own portals and applications as a counter measure, that will put it on a safe side.
This technological onslaught on especially Africa takes away the independence of our people and makes the governments, the leaders and the ordinary people vulnerable to Western shenanigans.
African leaders, therefore, have a challenge to shrug off this influence and still remain on course to achieve national visions while at the same time promoting development against all odds.
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Without that, Africa will continue using its resources to develop the US and its allies at the expense of its people.
Africa's biggest escape is taking full control of its natural resources and doing extensive value addition to all its exports. The big escape is joining the technology highway and coming up with its own portals and applications.
Africa has the resources. It has the knowledge and it must just guard against being manipulated. It must develop its own through innovation hubs.
It, therefore, means Africa and the developing world should focus and pour more resources in technological innovations that the continent controls and therefore, has the passwords, access to the back room and power to manipulate, otherwise Africa will always be spied on and manipulated.
Africa's future will be hinged on its ability to work on technological advancements that gives the continent the urge to work on its projects without relying on foreign handles or portals.
