BY ABDULRAZAQ HAMZAT
1. The coup in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic was led by mostly US trained military officers.
2. Russia, through its mercenary group, Wagner supports these military officers in their take over of their respective countries, despite being largely US trained officers.
3. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic are all France former colony and till date, France is allegedly exploiting them, both in term of mineral resources, colonial tax etc.
4. United States of America has been allegedly misguiding Europe on Russia Ukraine war, but most countries in Europe can’t confront US on the direction it is leading them.
5. France is the only country strong enough to make alternative proposals for Europe against US dictated position, a development that undermines US leadership.
6. France has been engaging China in search of alternative for Europe, but other members of the European Union are not able to openly align with France, despite sharing in their sentiment.
7. The military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic affect France’s economic interest, but US trained the officers and Russia supports the coup.
8. While US trained the military officers involved in the coups, it said it is against the coups. The question is, how come US trained officers are all involved in at least, 11 military coups in West Africa since 2008?
9. Literally, Russia supports US trained military officers to stage military coup in their countries. The affected countries are largely Francophone countries, yet France has been critical of US hold on Europe, particularly over Ukraine – Russia war, leading to its engagement of China on possible alternative for Europe.
10. Both US, France, Canada, Britain and many other western countries have military presence in Niger Republic, Mali and Burkina Faso, but none of them were able to assert any influence to prevent the coups.
11. What is the possibility that US is not indirectly getting at France over their challenge to US dominance in Europe?
12. Africa is against neo-colonialism, particularly that of France and it is clear that the people will most likely supper any action that seems to threaten foreign interest, particularly that of France in the Francophone countries.
13. While US claims to be against the coups in those countries, including Niger Republic, hurting France interest serves US interest
14. All the coup serves Russia’s interest and help it to consolidate its support base in Africa. This indirectly serves China’s interest aswell, giving them greater access to business share in those countries.
15. The position of Nigeria’s led ECOWAS to restore democracy in Niger Republic by force is therefore a complicated position, that needs to be properly looked at, as the situation is beyond what it seems.
16. The coups in many of the Francophone countries are carefully organized and planned, they are not isolated or exclusive. They are part of a grand plan, to key into the sentiment on the continent against neo-colonialism.
17. This is why all of the countries concerned are uniting against what they perceived as threat, because they are being teleguided from the same source, to make the situation look more like an African affairs.
18. Although, the coups are interest based and the coup plotters lack capacity to address the governance issues affecting their countries just like other military take over in time past, but they have phycological advantage of popular narrative in their favor, particularly the anti France sentiment.
19. The position of ECOWAS would therefore be seen in popular narrative in Africa as Pro-West and Pro-Imperialism, thereby undermining the organization even further and leaving the region more vulnerable to greater instability.
20. We are therefore calling for restraint and further dissection of the issues with the aim of looking at the situation from a more broader perspective before taking any action.
Abdulrazaq Hamzat is an Executive Director at Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro). PeacePro, a peacebuilding think tank based in Nigeria came up with this global analysis of the current military coup situation in West Africa, to guide media engagement and analysis, aswell policy direction and intervention.
