‘THIS BAD SHAPE’ OF NIGERIA CAN SAVE FRANCOPHONE WEST AFRICA
By Yomi Oyelami, Trek Africa Newspaper
The ‘Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa’ political bloc (commonly known as BRICS) is unarguably the world’s fastest-rising bloc in terms of political significance and foreign policy direction. The position of South Africa as a permanent member of that bloc provides a huge leverage, first for the country itself, and then Africa as a continent.
With this, South Africa is in a leader position of policy thrust, agenda setting, and diplomatic advocacy for Africa on the global scale. No African country is currently doing better in diplomacy like South Africa, she should be applauded!
Nigeria can be the African leader on the local scale. And it can start with the challenge that the military junta in Niger, Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso has posed to ECOWAS and African Union. Not absolving them of their forceful, illegitimate act, these young military officers were driven by passion and are mostly tired of France’s grip on their nation’s political and socioeconomic life.
The truth is France is losing its grip on her erstwhile African colonies. Adjacent to Francophone West Africa are Chad and most recently, Gabon who are also under the military junta. The question now is ‘who is next?’.
The West Africa of the 1960s when most of the countries got political independence is different from the West Africa of 2023. The PI – political independence –
generation who interacted with the world by correspondence is different from the AI – artificial intelligence – generation who interacts with the world by realtime technology. This current West African AI generation will continue to agitate. If their agitation doesn’t happen in the barracks, it will happen on the streets, if it doesn’t happen on the streets, it will happen by the tweets (or the social media posts). By all means, the agitations will continue. France’s grip on her Francophone West Africa
will probably be my subject in a future post.
A closer look at the agitations shows that though they are fuelled by full-blown desire for change, they may not always have a well-defined thrust for change. Are these young military officers not merely full of passion and bereft of mission? Are they ready for the task of governance? Are they ready for the task of pulling their countrymen and women out of the rut? What is their plan?
This is the blue waters where Nigeria should play. Now, It is okay for anyone to conjecture that Nigeria is not doing great in managing herself but she is not doing bad either. It is in this ‘bad shape’ of hers that she plays host and home to a large number of Nigeriens, Malians, Beninoises, Togolese, Guineans, Ivoriens, et al so much that you cannot even distinguish them from her own citizens. It is in this ‘bad shape’ of hers that if ECOWAS were to decide to invade Niger, she will be the one to marshal at least 60% of the men, means, and machines for the operation. It is in this ‘bad shape’ of hers that if the invasion of the Republic of Niger ever happens that hundreds of thousands of Nigeriens will walk through the 1000km-plus land borders into the 7 neighboring states and disperse into other parts of the country in the impending refugee crisis. So why is Nigeria in this ‘bad shape’ of hers not eminently qualified to lead meaningful consultations and peaceful negotiations in diplomacy for her Francophonie neighbors?
I submit that in her current position, Nigeria can provide useful and usable help to her Francophonie neighbors. Nigeria can engage a peaceful initiative for her neighbors who are being ravaged by the spate of military coups. It is time to ‘jaw-jaw’ and not ‘war-war’ as we say in local parlance.
For the sake of the francophone countries who are in the majority in West Africa, Nigeria should convene a France-West Africa Summit. Nigeria should put in machinery to host a France-West Africa Summit which will bring the foreign policy issues between France and her former colonies in West Africa to a diplomatic table. Nigeria should champion a pathway for Francophone West Africa to reach a development policy thrust in its relationship with France.
It’s in the best of interest of Nigeria that she pursues the France-West Africa Summit because she oftens bear the brunt of any crisis in West Africa. If she helps a neighbor find tranquility, it is tranquility for her as well!
And if there is an opportune time and chance to midwife this change and implement the France-West Africa Summit, it is Federal Republic of Nigeria under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and la Republique Francaise under the leadership of President Emmanuel Macron. There is a need for a new foreign policy which could gradually help Francophone West Africa grow up to improve the livelihood of its citizens themselves rather than being a perpetual dependant of France as it had been since the 1960s at Independence.
The France-West Africa Summit is a better use of Nigeria’s leader status. Africa will emerge stronger with Nigeria and South Africa leading from the front. We are #BlackNotDark!
#BlackNotDark with Yomi Oyelami
