Investigative journalist and author David Hundeyin has criticized what he described as the “reactionary mindset” of many Africans, saying the continent’s progress is hindered by a failure to address the root causes of its systemic challenges.
In a lengthy post shared on X (formerly Twitter), Hundeyin said he remained undeterred by criticism and personal attacks, emphasizing his commitment to speaking truth to power.
“They can pick on me all they want. That concerns who is fragile enough to be picked on. None of my business,” he wrote. “I will continue to say what I have to say — and that is that the real focus must be on eliminating the virus causing the disease, not alleviating its symptoms.”
He explained that revolutionary thinking involves transforming systems in a way that permanently removes the underlying “virus” responsible for societal problems, while reactionary thinking focuses only on surface-level issues.
According to him, most Africans fall into the latter category. “A reactionary, which is what most Africans are, has a 12kb memory that cannot link basic cause to effect,” Hundeyin wrote. “They unthinkingly parrot the same narratives they have been brainwashed with since they were children — that Africa’s problems are corruption, dictatorship, and bad governance — as though these are somehow inherently African phenomena.”
Citing Nigeria as an example, Hundeyin referenced his 2020 report on the Police Reform Act, which he said merely recycled old provisions from the existing Police Act and granted individual officers sweeping powers such as warrantless arrests, predictive policing, and detention based on suspicion.
He noted that while the United Kingdom funded several civil society groups involved in drafting the bill and provided direct support to controversial Nigerian police units, the same UK government did not allow such powers in its domestic laws.
“The obvious inference was that the problem of police misbehaviour in Nigeria is not merely a situational issue of Corporal John the sadistic, trigger-happy rapist, but a systemic issue that goes all the way up to the geopolitical relationship between Nigeria and the UK,” Hundeyin stated.
He lamented that rather than engaging with his analysis, many Nigerians dismissed his warnings. “Instead of seeing my point, the legion of Nigerian reactionaries rather dedicated a full week on this website to calling me an alarmist and a conspiracy theorist,” he said.
Hundeyin linked the public’s short-term reaction to the eventual #EndSARS protests of October 2020, arguing that many failed to understand the deeper connection between police brutality and neocolonial power structures.
“Five years later, police brutality has not improved in Nigeria,” he said, adding that some individuals have even built NGOs around treating the “symptoms” of systemic issues while ignoring their origins.
He concluded by criticizing the role of Western governments in Africa’s continuing crises, questioning why foreign donors fund humanitarian relief efforts but often restrict military or structural interventions that could address root problems.
“A 12 kilobyte brain cannot put these simple data points together and reach the world’s most obvious conclusion,” he remarked. “No, it’s a conspiracy theory.”