By Our Reporter
With barely one year and three months, after President Emmanuel Macron of France, had embarked on a three -nations African tour, which was said to have taken him to Republic of, a neighbouring country to Nigeria, Central African country of Cameroun and Guinea Bissau, all French-speaking countries, he appears to have lost out due to the November 26, 2025, military intervention in the West African country.
It would be recalled the French President had been kicked from 14 African countries, comprising of the Alliance for Sahel States of Burkina Faso, Niger Republic and Mali, including Senegal, Tchad and Madascar. The countries were said to have cancelled all colonial deals with France which was not good enough for France
Macron, may have taken advantage of the three-nations African tour to announce that it is to close the sad chapter of Colonialism in Africa and revive France -Africa relationship.
A country endowed with oil, had remained one of the mainstays of the French economy because of the close working relationship between the French President and Umaro Sissoco Embalo, the African country President.
The Former Bissau- Guinean Leader was said to have taken advantage of the French President’s help to about the coup attempt in his country in February 2024 to remove him from office and the creation of an anti-putsch force or Household Force to stop future Coup plots.
The French President may have gladdened the Burkina Faso’s Leader, Sissoco’s heat when he promised to provide him with military support to crush the terrorists operating in the country. He may have taken by his words as he opened the country’s economy for French Companies exploitation.
The headway made by the French President in his August 2024, visit to African may have encouraged him to embark on a five-day, four -nation tour of Africa from November 20, 205 -November 24, 2025, aimed at further strengthening French influence and defining partnerships amid competition from, the North American country of the United States, US, Russia and the Asian country of China. The French President visit to Africa was said to have taken him Mauritius, South Africa, Angola and Gabon.
While President Macron, was still on the tour of the four African -nations, on November 26, 2025, Gen, Horta Inta A, Hief of Army Staff, CoAS, was said to have mobilized soldiers to topple President Embalo, in a swift power grab that had followed a disputed election where the duo of President Embalo, seeking re-election bid and his main opposition Challenger in the country’s election, Fernando Dias, were said to have both claimed victory before the release of the official results of the Presidential and Legislative elections forcing the military to take over, which Gen. Denis N’Canha, head of the Presidential military office and one of the Coup Leaders had said was carried out after a plan had been uncovered to destabilize Guinea -Bissau by Terrorists.
The Army General had said that the plan had involved ‘’national drug cartel’’ and had included ‘’the introduction of weapons into the country to alter the Constitutional order’’. Gen. N’Tam, the country’s Chief of Army Staff, and another of the Guinea-Bissau Coup Leaders who could not hide his feelings had said the evidence on ground had given sufficient reason to justify the Army takeover to throwing the oil -rich country into cris.
The Army General who, Inta A, who was said to have spearheaded the Coup plot against former President Sssoco, was said to have been quickly sworn in as the country’s Transitional President for a one year period after the successful military Coup in the poor African country , sandwitched between Senegal and Guinea and known as a drug- trafficking hub where the military appears to have been very influential since independence from Portugal in 1974.
This may have sent a message to the French President Macron, and other western Leaders , including Trump of the US, that Guinea- Bissau, would no longer be a farm for exploitation of mineral resources like Crude oil and rare earth elements as he was said to have publicly declared his supports for Captain Ibrahim Traore of the Alliance for Sahel States, AES, of Burkina Faso, Generals Abdurahmane Tchiani of Niger Republic and Assimi Goita, Mali.
The Bissau- Guinean Transitional President may have taken the bold initiative to join the AES, avoid a Counter-Coup that may be sponsored by the European Union, EU, just as the former President Sissoco, was arrested and subsequently taken to a building behind the country’s military Headquarters, in Bissau, the Capital.
The Civil Society groups in Guinea Bissau did not see Army Generals Coup to topple President Sissoco, as a genuine military putsch, accusing the former President of having master-minded ‘’the simulated Coup against himself’’ with the help of the military, describing it as ruse to block election results from coming out as he knew that he had lost the Presidential election to the Opposition Candidate, Dias.
Perhaps, to avoid attracting international attention to the Guinea -Bissau, recent Coup that had toppled the former President Sissoco’s government may have informed why the Coup Leaders, had prepared the ground for the safe exit of the stranded African Union, AU and the Economic of West African States, ECOWAS, and other foreign election observer Teams from the country.
, It was not surprising why former President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, who incidentally was the Head of the West African Elders Forum Election Observation Mission, monitoring the African country’s November 26, 2025, Presidential and Legislative elections, alongside other foreign election observers before the soldier’s takeover of power were said to have been provided with a special flight to leave the country same day.
In spite of the action of the new Bissau- Guinean Leaders, he Nigerian Government and other African countries including the Authority of Heads of States and Government of ECOWAS, have unequivocally condemned the forceful removal of President Sissoco, from office, by the military Generals.
The ECOWAS, Leaders, noted that ‘’it poses a grave risk to democratic norms and regional peace’’. The Nigeria ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had issued a statement on Thursday, November 27, 2025, that ‘’it received the news of the Guinean Bissau military action ‘’with profound dismay and deep concern’’, insisting that the Coup was an unconstitutional change of government just as the EU, had said that ‘’Coup Leaders would never be recognized’’.
With the Guinea -Bissau military putsch, it brings to six, the number of countries in the African Continent, where the western Democratic Form of Government had been truncated. At present the African countries currently under military Rule are the three Sahel States of Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, Mali, including Guinea, Madagascar and Gabon, in August, 2023.
The then Transitional President Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema, had quickly transformed into a democratic Gabonese President after he had won more than 90% of the vote in the first post-Coup election, in April, 2025 to be in the good books of the President Macron of France and other western powers.
There are fears in both official and unofficial circles , that Democracy is gradually is gradually in Africa, particular, in the West African region because of ‘’Lack of Free and Fair elections as the party in power uses the machinery of State to perpetuate its rule, notwithstanding that the party cannot deliver on its electioneering Campaign promises as ministers, Lawmakers and top government officials are embroiled in Corruption and theft of the country’s mineral resources and rare earth elements with their foreign collaborators, by engaging the services of terrorists to protect the routes of evacuation of illegal mined gold, lithium, oil and uranium, among other minerals and rare earth elements.
