Damenews 6 coups in three years, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger – all in West Africa lost to military intervention within that same time frame should be a concern for President Emmanuel Macron and his foreign affairs team at Republique francaise. The glue is just not holding any longer between La France and her former colonies in West Africa. Simple truth!
If there is an opportune time to sit at the diplomatic table and midwife sustainable change, it is now. It is time for a France-West Africa Summit.
A France-West Africa Summit will evolve a new foreign policy which could gradually help Francophone West Africa grow up to improve the livelihood of their citizenry themselves rather than being a perpetual dependant of France as it had been since the 1960s at Independence.
A closer look at the ongoing agitations shows that they are fuelled by full-blown desire for change but may not necessarily have the spine of a well-defined thrust for change. Despite that factor, one can almost be sure that the agitation will continue. If it 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).
It is time to ‘jaw-jaw’ and not ‘war-war’ as we say in local parlance. The France-West Africa Summit opens a vista of opportunity for Nigeria to help her francophonie neighbors find political stability and socioeconomic development. Nigeria can champion a pathway for Francophone West Africa to reach a development policy thrust in its relationship with France.
There is possibly no better chance than Federal Republic of Nigeria under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and la Republique Francaise under the leadership of President Emmanuel Macron to push this idea. The France-West Africa Summit is an idea whose time has come!
