In this picture you will find EVERYTHING that is wrong with Africa!

In this picture you will find EVERYTHING that is wrong with Africa!

These are ECOWAS Defence Chiefs meeting in Accra, Ghana (the birthland of Kwame Nkrumah, of all places), not to plan how to integrate their forces to protect the region from marauding terrorists, or to counter the moves by world powers to turn the region into the next arena of violent geopolitical drama. They are not there to actualize Kwame Nkrumah's idea of an African High Command.

No, these military people are not interested in any of that. Also of no interest to them is how best to facilitate the easy movements of their citizens across the artificial colonial borders European cartographers erected to sunder societies and keep people apart.

Okay, that is a political decision for political leaders to make, but the professional soldiers should make it their business to tell their political bosses that their jobs would be easier if the politicians can release their people from the bondage of being penned in colonial garrisons euphemistically call countries in Africa.

Are we to believe that these military men do not see anything wrong in having foreigners establish MILITARY BASES in West Africa like the French and the Americans do?

What exactly do these Defence Chiefs understand by their oaths to defend the integrity, independence, and sovereignty of their countries? What does sovereignty mean to these people? What do they understand by INDEPENDENCE? Were they taught any lessons in history as part of their training, or did they sleep throughout their lectures that they don't know the history of how our people were captured and sold into slavery, and later colonized by those who pretended to be friends?

It must be galling to every conscious African to witness the day when African soldiers will be organizing and planning to defend the interests of France in Africa. Given its wretched interventions in Africa since it claims to have de-colonize (we talk of the 40+ coups it has organized; we talk of the obnoxious Pacte Coloniale; we talk of its continued brutal exploitation of the resources f its colonies (mind you, we didn’t say ex); we talk of its testing atomic weapons in the Sahara; etc, etc.

See here: After decolonization, France established formal defence agreements with many francophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa.[26] These arrangements allowed France to establish itself as a guarantor of stability and hegemony in the region. France adopted an interventionist policy in Africa, resulting in 122 military interventions that averaged once a year from 1960 to the mid-1990s[3][11] and included countries such as Benin (Operation Verdier in 1991), Central African Republic (Operation Barracuda in 1979 and Operation Almandin in 1996), Chad (Opération Bison in 1968–72, Opération Tacaud in 1978, Operation Manta in 1983 and Opération Épervier in 1986), Comoros (Operation Oside in 1989 and Operation Azalee in 1995), Democratic Republic of Congo (Operation Léopard in 1978 and Operation Baumier in 1991 when it was Zaire, and Operation Artemis in 2003), Djibouti (Operation Godoria in 1991), Gabon (1964 and Operation Requin in 1990), Ivory Coast (Opération Licorne in 2002), Mauritania (Opération Lamantin in 1977), Republic of Congo (Opération Pélican in 1997), Rwanda (Operation Noroît in 1990–93, Operation Amaryllis in 1994 and Opération Turquoise in 1994), Togo (1986), Senegal (prevent a coup d'état in 1962)[44] and Sierra Leone (Operation Simbleau in 1992).[26][18] France often intervened to protect French nationals, to put down rebellions or prevent coups, to restore order or to support particular African leaders.[26][44][53][54]" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Françafrique#:~:text=France%20adopted%20an%20interventionist%20policy,1996)%2C%20Chad%20(Opération%20Bison

Oh, we can also talk of France sabotaging the attempt to introduce a common currency in ECOWAS, so much so that France brazenly stole the chosen name of the currency, ECO, and ordered its minions in the region to adopt it!

Unfortunately, these West African military men are meeting to plan on how to carry out the colonial/imperial wishes of France and the United States to bring back to power a puppet the French installed to guarantee their continued looting of the wealth of the Nigerienne people.

How sad!

The failure of post-independent African leaders to re-educate the people, especially the military, and the police forces they inherited from the colonialists was the gravest error that they committed.

It was probably only Kwame Nkrumah who made the effort to introduce patriotism and ideology into these services. The story of how the “apostles of democracy” from the Western world organized to topple his democratically elected government is too well known to need recounting here.

Today, the children of those who thwarted our attempt to build a modern and progressive Africa are rubbing it in our faces, telling us how incapable we are of governing ourselves!

It is not only by the sheer number of citizens that trooped out to welcome the coup in Niger that we know that Nigerienne is, overwhelmingly, in support of the termination of Bazoumi’s kleptomaniac rule, polls conducted by The Economist showed that the coupists speak for the people of Niger.

“Nearly 80% of Nigeriens support the actions of the coup leaders, while 73% of respondents think they should stay in power for a longer period of time, the Economist reported, citing data from a survey conducted by Premise Data.

According to the poll, 78% of respondents support the actions of the rebels, while 73% believe they should remain in power for a longer period of time or until new elections are held.

At the same time, 54% said they did not support the intervention of regional or international organizations in the situation. Half of those in favor of intervention "would like Russia to carry it out." Another 16% favored intervention by the US, 14% by the African Union, and only 4% by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The poll was conducted among highly educated male citizens, 62% of whom were residents of the capital.” - https://tass.com/world/1658013

These West African military chiefs have to tell the people what national sovereignty they seek to protect by bringing back to power a man who signed off his country to French and American interests. They also have to tell us why they conflate the interests of single individuals with the interests of the NATION.

August 20, 2023

©️ Fẹ́mi Akọ́mọ‌láfẹ́
Farmer, Writer, Published Author, and Social Commentator

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