Maybe this should be called 'What's Old in West Africa'. Expats have been fired from African countries for years for getting mixed up with local people, yet nobody would dream of trying on anything so against an individual's rights in his or her home country.
In many places people in a position of authority abuse their power and yet either their companies do nothing about it or actively encourage it. In Nigeria, there was a well known Chief Pilot who probably had more pilots fired or caused them to resign than was ever caused by their fears or dissatisfaction with Nigeria. He was so interfering that he even had his own duplicate set of keys to everybody's rooms and regularly looked through their personal possessions and read their personal mail. He's still a manager with the company. A senior manager for one of the world's largest helicopter corporations caused a large number of pilot losses to that company when he was in UK and now that he's left he's still responsible for a number of people leaving or wanting to, but for the company he's a good man - a troubleshooter (though he's sorting out troubles of his own making). Another manager who was promoting pilots for sexual favours still holds his position in an African country.
In the 21st century companies are getting slightly better at recognising the rights of the individual, but many companies still believe that becasue they provide accommodation for someone overseas it gives them the right to control their personal lives as well. American oil companies in Africa are probably the worst for this. So many of them are run bysouthern evangelical fundamentalists they think they can forcibly control the lives of others to their own quasi-religious moral ideals.
Many countries in Africa may be difficult and dengerous places in which to work, but the difficulties companies have in recruiting and retaining pilots there, are as often due to their own attitudes and those of their local managers, as those of actually living and working there
