By Sueiman Umaru
Those who thinks that France will still come out from its present financial problem may have to do a rethink.
President Emmanuel Macrom of France may have played into the hands of the trio of Capt. ibrahim Traore, the 37-year- old interim Revolutionary President of Burkina Faso, Generals Abdulrahmane Tchiani of Niger and Assimi Goita of Mali who took the bold initiative to sack them from the Sahel region.
The hardline position ataken by the junta Leaders between 2022 and 2023, due to the arrogance of the French President to kick them out from the Sahel region comprising of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, endowed by rich mineral s and rare earth resources may have exposed France as a poor country using the African countries to shine.
Going by the reports making the rounds, the French Government, makes the North American country of the United Stated States, US, over$500 billion annually from the 80%, colonial tax from its revenue deposit in the French treasury and which in turn is given out to the counties as Aid, and loan with heavy interest.
The message was clear that between 1960 and now, the French Government had benefited, from 14 African countries including the Sahel states the sum of well over US $7 trillion based on the colonial agreement, which had mandated France to deduct 80% tax from their revenue deposited in French treasury annually, to sustain the economy.
Diplomatic analysists had said that the amount may have risen to such all-time high because of multiple factors ranging from trade agreements, foreign Aid to investments in these African countries by France. Whichever way, the sack of France by the Sahel countries by the junta leaders including the democratically elected governments of Senegal and Tchad, had given an insight that France is dependent on Africa to sustain its economy meaning that it could collapse at any given time because it has no solid foundation.
It was not surprising that when Burkina Faso and the two other Sahel countries of Niger and Mali took the bold initiative to cancel the colonial treaties that mandates France to deep hands into their treasury to deduct 80%, without any source of replacement, it further increased the French government debt
. Take for instance in the first quarter of 2025, alone, the country’s internal and external debt had jumped up to EURO 413.30 billion, throwing the country into serious economic crisis that had refused to go.
The financial and economic situations in France is so worrisome that the newly appointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who had had resigned after 26 days in days in office, calling on President Macron, ‘’to work on a plan for the economic stability of the country.
He was said to have enjoined President Macron to do everything within his powers to normalize frayed ties between the country and the former African colonies, particular, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, where it was mining its mineral resources, particular, gold from Burkina Faso, Mali and uranium, from Niger, freely and which it sells at the international market and exports to restore the economy on the path of growth.
The former French Prime Minister, who was said to have been reappointed by Macron, on October 10, 2025, had struggled to pass the country’s 2026, budget through the fractured Parliament amid a debt crisis.
The French Prime minister, who incidentally was the fifth to resign in less than three years in the present President Macron’s administration who had already laboured under national levels around double the European Union target, in September.
His major worries were that the economy had been downgraded by credit ratings agency, Fitch, which clearly shows that the government will collapse unless there is a major change in the country’s economic direction or a solution to its fiscal woes, forcing to resign.
His reappointment was a ploy by the French President to work on the Alliance for Sahel States, AES, countries to have a change of heart toward France and allow it to return to the region to resume minining of gold, uranium and other rare earth resources to strengthen its economy as government bonds or the interest rate demanded by investors , had risen above those of the Spanish, Portuguese and Greek bonds, which were once at the heart of the eurozone debt crisis, as it was put the highest level in 10 years. There are indications that President Macron, may be approaching the World Bank/IMF, meant to service the third world countries to bail out its battered economy
The Malian Government may have made matters worse for France that it could no longer be allowed to return to the region to do business as he had moved for the total decolonization of the country with France.
This is evident with the ban of the study of French Revolution in Malian tertiary Institutions and replaced with study of African history, particular, the history of Mali and its Heros.
The situation in France, may not be different from what s happening in the North American country of the United States where Donald Trump is now looking for countries that would partner with it to accept its migrants. On Friday, President had sent a delegation to the Sahel state of Burkina Faso, believed to be a breeding ground for terrorists exported to other African countries including Nigeria.
The question on the lips of most people was, what has suddenly changed in Capt. Traore home country that Trump, who is currently supporting Eastern European country of Ukraine in the ongoing war with Russia, and the backbone of the Burkina Faso Leader, the he had made overtures to him that accept US, migrants as the Washington had suspended issuing VISAs in the Sahel country as citizens or government officials wishing to travel to the US, had to travel to Togo to get the US VISA..
Interim President Traore, who had taken the bold decision, to reject the US proposal to take the country’s migrants from third countries may have sent a signal to the Western powers that African nation can no longer be taken for granted but determined to protect its independence as a sovereign nation.
Donald Trump’s administration over the last couple of months had turned to the African countries as a destination to deport migrants as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration in the country.
Capt. Traore, who had stood up to Western Imperialism, was said to have made the American President, who is fighting proxy battles in different parts of the world to understand that Burkina Faso is ‘’a place of dignity, a destination and not a place to keep migrants’’.
While Capt Traore. has turned his back on the former colonizer, France and the US migrants, the World Bank/IMF, controlled by the Western powers, on its part, had at different times sent delegations to Burkina Faso, to woo, the country’s Leader to accept its loan in exchange for the country’s gold resource to finance its industrial development drive.
But the Army Captain had promptly shocked the World Bank/IMF, officials, as he rejected their loan offers, in despite the removal of all the string attached to such loans. According to him ‘’Africa doesn’t need the World Bank/IMF loan, EU, or the US to finance and grow their economies.
That could not be said of Nigeria, the most populous country in the West African subregion, which is currently owing the World Bank, more than US $18.2 billion and still borrowing from other multilateral financial institutions and the Asian country of China Development Bank.
