Africa Must Change | African Youth, Politics & Social Change

As a Pan-African, I cannot ignore the timing.

Libya announces new foreign oil exploration licences barely a week after the killing of Gaddafi’s son. That timing speaks loudly. Africa has seen this pattern before — instability, then contracts. Chaos, then concessions. Blood, then business.

Libya holds some of the largest oil reserves on the continent. For years, control over those resources has shaped foreign interest in the country. So when foreign companies are granted exploration rights immediately after a key political figure is eliminated, it raises serious questions about who truly benefits from Libya’s instability.

Was his death directly linked to oil deals? We cannot claim what has not been proven. But history teaches us to examine patterns, not coincidences.

From Congo to Nigeria to Libya, Africa’s natural wealth has too often attracted external influence at the expense of sovereignty and self-determination. When major resource decisions follow political violence, Pan-Africans are right to question the bigger picture.

Africa must control its own resources. Our oil, our minerals, our land — they should fuel African development first, not external profit.

The issue is not simply about one family or one government. It is about a continent still struggling to defend its economic independence in a global system that has rarely treated it fairly.

We must stay alert. We must ask hard questions. And above all, we must demand transparency and sovereignty in every resource deal signed on African soil.