By Suleiman Umaru
After years of manipulating the Leadership of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Authority of Heads of State and Government by past and present Leadership of France which was said to have resulted in the exit of the Sahel region countries of Burkina Faso, Niger Republic and Mali to form the Alliance for Sahel States, AES, the Leadership of the regional economic bloc woos the Junta Leaders to return to work as a united front against terrorists.
The AES, which has Capt. Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso, described as arrow head of the newly established regional economic bloc, Generals Abdulrahmane Tchiani, Niger and Assimi Goita of Mali, may have exited from the ECOWAS, due to the Organisation’s lack of concern to the insecurity situation over the Sahel states which had grown larger than size that its views carries weight in the comity of nations than that of the ECOWAS or the African Union, AU.
Talking tough as Chairman of the ECOWAS,in 2024, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria may have given the AES Leaders the ammunition to fully dump the ECOWAS with no plan of returning back to the regional economic block when he stated that ‘’the Leadership of the ECOWAS would not tolerate any action targeted at hampering the smooth operation of democracy in in the se Sahel countries’’ but that as how far he could. This may have emboldened the Sahel countries junta Leaders to use what they have to strengthen the body.
The Leadership of ECOWAS, which many believes is acting out a script of President Emmanuel Macron, whose country, France is currently feeling the pinch of the military take over in the Sahel countries had imposed Economic and Financial sanctions on the countries to weaken their economies and force the junta Leaders on their knees to return to democracy appears to have failed.
President Macron, who could not take the hardline position taken of the Junta Leaders of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, who have denounced the colonial deals with France which was said to have resulted in the closure of their country military bases and stoppage of the remittance of the 80% of yearly Fiscal budget to the French treasury as well as taking the bold initiative to kick out the French miners may have pushed President Macron to the wall and desperate to fight back.
The growing restlessness in the Sahel region may have forced the European Union Commission to have released €100 million to the G5, which comprises of Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Tchad to help tackle the problem of insecurity in the Sahel countries. Suffice it to say that the fund which could not effectively provide the much-needed support to Sahel joint Task Force on security personnel to do their job may have facilitated the collapse of security outfit in 2023.
The inability of the G5 Task Force to tackle insecurity in the Sahel region may have encouraged the Sahel countries military Leaders who had withdrawn the EECOWAS to look at the direction of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China, who were said to have given them the much- desired security cover to tackle the terrorist Organizations terrorizing their countries and call the bluff of France.
President Jlius Mada Bio, of Sierra Leone, incumbent Chairman of ECOAS, may have had at the back of his mind that he could use force to bully the Sahel countries Junta Leaders to return back to the regional economic block when he asked ‘’the Burkinabe interim President and his Counterparts in Niger and Mali to step down but got it wrong.
Bio, who had Transformed as a military officer to be elected as the President of Sierra Leone, and who is determined to bring back the trio of Traore, Tchiani and Goita, to ECOWAS, had recently visited Ouagadouagou, Capital of Burkina Faso for talks with Capt. Traore.
President Bio, who was said to have been received at the Ouagadougou international airport by Capt. Traore was said to have held Bilateral meeting with Traore on how ‘’to explore avenues for strengthening cooperation between the ECOWAS and the AES, members countries’’.
Discussions between the ECOWAS Chairman and the AES Leader, were said to have also focused ‘’on regional security challenges and ways to deepen the Bilateral relationship between Sierra-Leone and Burkina Faso, particular. President Bio visit to Burkina Faso may have provided him an insight ‘’to the country’s security situation and other issues affecting the Sahel region’’.
Until President Bio, took the bold the initiative to visit Capt. Traore, described aa dangerous radical by Donald Trump, the North American country of the United States, US, President, John Dramani, of Ghana, was said to have made several moves to reconcile the AES, Leaders with the ECOWAS, through various channels.
Emmanuel Okuzeto Abakwa, the Ghanaian Foreign minister had confirmed that President Dramani had begun a shadow diplomacy to bring back the Sahael countries to the ECOWAS. He may have prepared the mind of President Bio led ECOWAS that the Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, which had withdrawn from the Organisation since 2024, ‘’are open ‘’to come back to the West African subregion as a bloc but not as individual countries’’.
The AES Leaders may have given its conditions for coming back to the ECOWAS fold that ‘’the regional economic bloc must be responsible and ready to modernize’’ instead of being ‘’a club of Presidents’’. Not only that the AES Leaders would want the ECOWAS Leadership to be more responsible in tackling the insecurity in the Sahel region.
The Ghanaian Foreign minister may have sounded a note of warning to the ECOWAS Leadership to watch it as the regional economic bloc can still disintegrate if they fail to tackle headlong ‘’the insecurity situation in the Sahel region’’ which security analysts had said have gone ‘’out of control’’.
He was said to have alluded’’ to the high level of corruption, misrule, mismanagement of mineral resources and lack of investment across the region that is not working in the interest of the masses’’ stating that these challenges must be tackled to reassure the AES Leaders that much has changed in the ECOWAS for good. The Ghanaian minister had admitted that the withdrawal of the Sahel countries from the ECOWAS over the last three years was a set back to the economic bloc.
Many believes that the Leadership of ECOWAS, could make a U-turn to plead with the AES, Leaders to return to the ECOWAS, family because the influence of the former colonizers on the regional body had waned as its economy is on the brink of collapse and saddled with over €3.34 trn debt.
The collapse of the French economy, according to financial analysts was a fallout of the former colonizer being chased out from the Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, where it was mining free mineral resources and further took advantage of it to export the mined gold and uranium as it collected all the profits to finance the country’s development while the Sahel region countries wallow in poverty.
Given that the era of free mineral resources and money was over for France to sustain the people’s high standard of living may have forced the workers from all sectors of the country’s economy to embark on a nation- wide protests over what they consider as’’ hardship steering on their faces’’, which had been the lot of the people of the Sahel countries over the years with little or no complaints.
The protests which were said to have dragged on for days was said to have paralyzed economic activities in Paris, the country’s Capital, Lyon, Nantes and other major cities ostensibly to force Sebastien Lecornu, the country’s newly appointed Prime Minister by Macron’’ to have a rethink on the planned budget cuts and act on wages, pensions and public service’s’’ to assuage the suffering of the people before initiating new Fiscal policies for the country.
The protesters were said to have carried placards with different inscriptions but the most prominent of all was the one clearly calling on President Macron’’ to step down’’ for taking France to a level of becoming a third word country while Africa is on the upward rise.
There are fears in international circles that what is currently happening in France may spillover to the United Kingdom, UK, which economy is also wobbling as the era of free exploitation of the African countries mineral resources is gradually coming to an end.
Sergia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister, appears to have come to the conclusion that France and the US, had lost out in the Sahel region that she has given blank cheque to Burkina nationals holding a diplomatic or service passports but without VISAS but are interested for short stays of not less than 90 days in Italy to fee free to do so.
The deal, the Value News was informed does not grant the Burkina Faso nationals ‘’free movement with other member states of Schengen area’’. The Burkina Faso Government was said to have extended the same treatment to Italian nationals’ holding diplomatic or service passports to fee free to travel to the Sahel country for short stays of 90 days.
The decision that was said to have been taken the governments of Italy and Burkina Faso, according to diplomats, ‘’reflects the strong cooperative relations between the EU, member country and Burkina Faso to the shame of France.
