So, EU leaders are willing to offer African countries billions of Euros in exchange for help with the migrant crisis. According to media reports, the European Commission is setting up a €1.8 billion fund for Africa and the goal is to tackle economic and security problems that cause people to flee in the first place and persuade African countries to take back more failed asylum seekers.

When I first heard this, I shook my head in disbelief. These people just don’t get it. It’s going to take decades for Africa to solve all its economic and security woes and not many are optimistic that, that will ever even happen. Migrants want the European Dream, not the African Dream.

That is why they sell off their land and other valuables, trek across the Sahara for months, endure torture and all kinds of abuse trying to get to Europe. How then are you going to convince individuals who risked it all that it’s best for them to return home? I could be wrong but in my opinion, this smacks of racism. African migrants are just not wanted in Europe.

The billions these EU countries are willing to commit to repatriations could as well be used to resettle migrants across Europe. We understand their concerns about their resources being stretched but I don’t even think people whose trains and buses ride with more empty seats than passengers a lot of the time or whose supermarkets dump fruit not because it has gone bad but because it’s not the right colour or shape need to be worrying about resources.

And I say this well knowing that there are jobless and homeless Europeans too but to suggest that these problems are solely caused by African migrants is ridiculous. Perhaps it would help if Europeans got to know Africans a little bit better. For starters, not all Africans are illiterate. Some of those young men and women attempting to jump over your border fences actually have skills and only left because of lack of opportunities.

They’re also hardworking and to borrow the cliché, aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty so you don’t have to worry about them lazing around all day playing video games and then queuing up to collect benefits. A typical African child knows how to do their laundry, can mop an entire house and do a great deal of gardening by the time they’re eight. No vacuum cleaners, no washing machines and all those appliances you guys can’t live without. So yes, we are indeed hardworking. About your fears that migrants will pass on some strange incurable diseases, that too is a false narrative. Our continent has its share of disease but so does every other place on earth.

Billions of cash will not stop the influx of migrants especially at a time when corruption is rampant not just in Africa but Europe as well. This money will be squandered by a few and will do little to stop young people from attempting to get to Europe. EU authorities are better off using it to set up reception centres, schools, hospitals and such because more migrants are surely coming.