Unless you show political naivety, there is not a great power in the world that does not seek to make friends in order to influence its own development as much as that of its friendly countries. France, like all the other powers, is in the same boat on this chapter. That France is criticized for hiding behind its commitment in the Sahel to protect a certain number of its own economic or geostrategic interests is not false or contradictory.
Vladimir Putin's Russia has done the same and Xi Jinping's China, and many others, are not left out. No one can forbid Russia and China to seek to maintain the best possible relations with the countries of Africa, if that is to the benefit of the populations. What the pro-Russians are reproached for is the torrents of lies and hatred they pour out against France, without ever daring to say that the official Russian Army is not reproached for maintaining cooperation relations with the African armies. Namely that the mercenaries of the Wagner group are not soldiers of the Russian Army. These are militiamen who obey the laws of Vladimir Putin and his aide, the oligarch Yevgueni Viktorovitch Prigojine, and therefore the laws of a parallel economy.
Theoreticians in the pay of Vladimir Putin's Moscow, they bring with them all those who are disappointed against France, of course, but also those attracted by Russian temptation and who hope to take their revenge where they have failed politically or intellectually. And they are supported by politicians or intellectuals in search of popularity or who drag saucepans like cannonballs which they hope to take advantage of to get rid of them and bounce back. At the very risk of engaging their country in new dead-end paths. Because Russia, which is already trying itself to find solutions to its own problems – and there are many of them – is not going to save the countries of French-speaking Africa and more generally the countries of Africa as a whole. No more than France has managed to save it since their independence. It is up to Africans and to them alone to find by themselves the means to rebuild their countries and lead them towards a better tomorrow. And it is not by inviting hostility or hatred of France that this will happen. This is a serious error on which all leaders, both political and of African civil society, should correct themselves before it is too late.
The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo declared in his Interview of October 18, 2022 entitled: “Nana Akufo-Addo: “Russians or French, we must stop depending on the Whites” to Jeune Afrique: “It It is up to us Africans to think about what we can do for ourselves. We must stop having this syndrome of dependence which pushes us from the arms of a Frenchman to those of a Russian, in other words from a white man to another ”. Who says better ! Love him or hate him, President Nana Akufo-Addo is clear and precise in his political commitment and his speech is as consistent as possible on what Africans have to do to win. and earn their independence and dignity.
Instead of spending most of their time playing the puppets of France or Russia, young people who reduce the will of the people to their only demonstrations in the streets against France have more interest in reflecting for themselves on their actions. Thus they can decide what is good for their country, which ones to ask, in terms of cooperation, from France and Russia as well as from any other foreign power rather than allowing themselves to be manipulated by those who receive prebends on one side or the other. And, we must never stop remembering, they still have the freedom to demonstrate because they are against France. But the day when Russia will be installed in all the levers of power in their country, they will not even have the right to go out in the streets to pretend to express any discontent other than to cheer all day long those who will be at the power, willy-nilly. When one lived through the period of regimes under Russian influence, during the Cold War, you know what that means. And that, those whom Russia finances to intoxicate and manipulate them do not tell them yet.
France has nothing to do with the problems that Africans have to manage their own countries and that they do not want to take on, particularly in French-speaking Africa. And the countries of French-speaking Africa will begin to emancipate themselves from the moment when the pro-Putin who stir up their hatred against France will stop masturbating on France to face their responsibilities. Without procrastinating.
As the President of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, said again: "We must operate a form of mental decolonization". It is up to us Africans to get rid of this colonized mentality and behaviors that alienate our freedoms and our societal choices, regardless of the partner or the power opposite. And on this, almost all African leaders agree that it is useless to get out of a "dependency" with France to enroll in another "dependency" even worse with regimes that have no other model policy to propose to Africa than the Dictatorship. And God knows if Cape Verde is one of, if not the most democratic country in Africa, at least among the few democratic countries in Africa.
By Marcus Boni Teiga
