By Suleiman Umaru and Lateef Adegbite
The Alliance for Sahel States, AES, comprising of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic, junta Leaders decision in 2024, to cancel the colonial deals which includes payment of colonial tax to France, the former colonizer, appears to have deepened the European, now looking for an African to sink with it into deeper economic crisis.
The colonial tax payment by the member countries of the Organisation Internale de La Francophonie, OIF, described as a step towards decolonization of the former territories was said to have continued through agreements made at Independence, with France.
Until France granted paper, Independence in 1960, to the its former territories in the West and Central African subregion, which includes the three Sahel States where it freely mines and export gold and uranium, nobody knew that the country had no deposits of gold, or other mineral resources, and rare earth elements, let alone, uranium, used in building its nuclear power reactors and production of nuclear weapons that had made it a global power.
The withdrawal of the Sahel States from the OIF, in 2024, and the entrance of Presidents Vladimir Putin, of the east European country of Russia, and XI Jinping of the Asian country of China to fill the vacuum created by France may have exposed it.
President Macron, whose home country’s economy is in facing crisis, may have known that it has no chances of finding its way back to the Sahel region that he was said to have coopted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of Nigeria, the giant of Africa, in the well-conceived plan to return to the Sahel region.
A s a prelude to getting the Nigerian President involved in the French President renewed plan to enter the Sahel, he was said to have called the Nigerian President to mobilize and send troops to the neighbouring Republic of Benin to crush the AES, Junta Leaders, sponsored Coup to avoid losing the country them. He was said to have provided the logistical support for the operation.
The desperate French Leader may have also seen it as an opportunity to engage the services of the Nigerian AirForce, C130, well advance and technologically equipped aircraft allegedly used in go-mapping of any country’s airspace to Burkina Faso to do so but got it wrong.
It would be recalled that Capt. Ibrahim Traore, interim President of Burkina Faso, and Gen. Abdulrahmane TChiani of Niger Repblic, where France gets much of its uranium, for its power and production of nuclear weapons, had been on the alert since 2024, when Gen. Assimi Goita, of Mali, disclosed that going by the way the French President is going, sponsoring Coups and terror groups in the region , ostensibly to remove the Burkinabe Leader , described as the arrowhead of the revolution in the Shel States, he might use Nigeria’s President Tinubu to invade the region.
Initially, the French President had suspended all Air France flight operations in Burkina Faso in 2022, to force Capt. Traore, to soft-pedal in his hardline position against the French mining companies in the Sahel country.
Air France Authorities may have realized that the Army Captain was not ready to bulge, let alone roll out the red carpet for them as the Burkinabe Leader had demanded that France remove Burkina Faso from it’’ red Zone’’ list before any flights can resume.
He was said to have also demanded that that the aES, Travellers, be allowed to use one International Passport that had been created by the Confederation. It was a key demand that President Macron, was not ready to accept from a formal vassal state.
Trouble may have started on a larger scale for the former colonizer when its plan to enter Burkina Faso with the support of Nigeria, failed as the nation’s C130 aircraft that was said to have had mission to geo-map Burkina Faso and provide the necessary intelligence and supplies to the terrorists operating in the Sahel country in order to know when to strike.
President Macron, may have been exposed in the plot to destabilize Burkina Faso using the Nigerian advanced and technologically equipped war transport aircraft, 130, piloted by two Crew members with nine military personnel on Board as it landed at the Bobodiulasso airfield but was promptly brought down with the support of Russian installed facility to bring down such unauthorized aircrafts in their airspace.
The Nigerian AirForce Authorities had made the international Community to believe in order to turn the heat against the Leadership of Burkina Faso, for illegally bringing down the Nigerian C130 aircraft when it stated ‘’the aircraft was on its way to Portugal for maintenance but made a precautionary land in the Bobodiulasso airfield due to technical faults.
Many believes that that the Nigerian government may have dragged Portugal into the scheme to save its face on the ground that President Macron will talk to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, of Portugal, that a Nigerian C130 aircraft, with nine military personnel on board was heading to the country. The French President may not have tied up its own part of the deal as it was said to have failed woefully.
The Portuguese Authorities may have made a mockery of the French President’s plot to use Nigeria AirForce aircraft to enter an enemy country of France airspace in the Sahel region when they quickly issued a statement on Tuesday, December 9, 2025,that ‘’there was no such request or notifications from the Nigerian government approved in their diplomatic or military correspondence’’. The statement had added that ‘’there is no record of any planned visit or official communication ‘’ indicating that a Nigerian Air Force contingent was heading to Portugal, describing any’’ such information as inaccurate’’.
This may have strengthened the resolve of Capt. Traore and the other AES leaders based in Niger Republic and Mali, to still detain the Nigerian C130 aircraft and still keep in Custody the 11, Nigerian military personnel on board the aircraft, despite giving the initial order for both the aircraft and the sister country military personnel to be released.
Given the French President role in the ongoing Ukraine war, have informed why President Putin, of Russia who has thrown his weight behind the Sahel States to protect the countries from France, that he has warned the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, against interfering in the Sahel States , noting that Russian, has deepened military ties with Burkina Faso, Niger Republic and Mali, meaning that any attack on the Sahel countries was an attack on Russia and would be quickly responded.
Putin was said to have told those that cares to listen that Moscow is not out to expand its influence to the Sahel region just as he was said to have warned Nigeria, which C130 aircraft and 100 military personnel are in Burkina Faso custody, to thread with caution to facilitate the release of the aircraft and the Nigerian military personnel to resolve the conflict between the two West African countries.
The Russian President may have sent a strong worded message to the duo of Presidents Macron and Tinubu, to watch it as he will not sit by and watch Burkina Faso, being messed up by any country, insisting that Burkina Faso strategic partner with Moscow is of significant importance and any hostile actions would been taken seriously. He was emphatic that any attack on the Sahe country will be considered an attack on the Russian Federation. ‘’We will respond decisively to protect our allies: Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.
True to his words, he was said to have deployed 400 Russian soldiers to Burkina Fasso, to strengthen the country’s defense amid rising tensions and fears of Nigerian possible military invasion. To avoid turning the West African subregion into another theatre of war after the 12-day Israeli-Iran war that was said to have claimed millions of lives and damage to basic infrastructural facilities in both countries and the ongoing Ukraine-Russian war, may have given him the audacity to warn Nigeria, against any military move against Burkina Faso as the region faces escalating insecurity and geopolitical pressure.
This is where the Nigerian government has to watch it to avoid being used by President Macron of France to go into war with the Shel States to reclaim its lost gold and uranium mines in the region to revive its decaying economy.
