Nana Frema Busia: 'Hurricane' ECOWAS Vrs Niger Dilemma
Pardon, let us cut through the chase, the essential question is :Why would ECOWAS render itself a vehicle for abusive use and colonialists subterfuge when France and USA with superior military power and massive economic interests in Niger already have military presence on the ground if they want a massive African massacre to reinstate their vital uranium interests?
Africa's Independence
Is not Real and True
Not even a Truce
Dependency is the Trail
With full proofs and deep Roots
Francophone Africa
Has been in a Trance
An Embattled dependent in Transition ?
Due France incorrigible Intransigence
Dependency is a dark Tale
That can be visibly Traced
Now Hurricane ECOWAS
In a mode of internacine War
With its unveiled Self
Is To Help France
To Africa Trounce
Instead of France Denounce?
ECOWAS, ever the ready Serf
For some USA dollars , French francs and or British Pounds
ECOWAS will Pounce?
No Doubt
The War Bout
Will have Africa at its knees Bow
As they shoot endless Bows directed at no culprits Except Ourselves?
SO We Ask: Why is ECOWAS being led by an infamous racket of mis- leaders off their ruckers who are angling with blinkers on, marching to a colonial requiem mass in a graveyard of enslavement that never stopped?
It seems that whereas France has her francophone -African compact that ensures overt dictatorship and resource plunder; the British so entrenched the psyche of inferiority that ECOWAS misleaders willingly hand over resources in acquiescence for "power sharing" and corruption kick backs and allow military basis etc which they think gives them protection, So that their bad governance does not Unravel
When the now downgraded "tropical ECOWAS storm " decided to capsize Niger in order to essentially restore the dictatorial colonial order of France, were they blindsided? Oh no, they were acting in abject betrayal of Africa as they have always done in their entrenched self interest for their own power' sake.
This is why Huge Threatening clouds gather, as Africa is to ready herself to fight her self into a killing field of self - destructive stupor rather than stand up in collective defiance to finally resolve strangulating neo - colonial economic bongage which is the fundamental ongoing issue in Africa in general?
So Let US Ask :Why has ECOWAS "strongmen" brandishing war and the AU not issued an ultimatum to France to release Niger and all of francophone Africa from its financial and resource colonial Pact as part of a negotiated political and diplomatic settlement for coup juntas to hand over power?
Why is Niger the sole target for counter -coup intervention? Due to her coveted Uranium, Niger is to continue to be an open sesame for Western interests. The threatened Niger war, is certainly about URANIUM and other resources which can no longer be a urinal for France and her power allies to offend the conscience.
See how the military junta has done due justice by moving the price of Uranium from a bargain basement dysmal price of 86 pence per kilo which France was paying to world market price of €200. This is exemplary of the resource racketeering that is fundamental to the ongoing coup detats in francophone Africa
Can we inquire why ECOWAS with blinkers on did not threaten or initiate military interventions in Mali, Bukina Faso, or advocate AU war intervention in Chad etc. Is it because those pre-existing military coups are deemed justifiable REVOLT, saying , Enough with senseless endless colonial subjugation?
***Oh my goodness, Is the recent Gabon coup dètat with Ali Bongo's pathetic plea for noise making, a palace -coup orchestrated by France in richochet self defense to continue to protect its interests while Niger coup is to be overthrown by an ECOWAS counter coup?. Oh la la coup detat by proxy, African leadership against African interests is back in the news.? Apparently nothing new!
Is the Gabon coup justifiable and the the Niger Coup Not ?
If there is a concept of justifiable coup detat, then would Niger coup junta fighting ultimately for economic freedom from France not be a matter of epic heroism worthy of commendation rather than condemnation? Just wondering?
Did we not hail freedom fighters in the Independence Struggle? and is economic freedom not integral to and without which Independence is truly meaningless?
I almost forgot, as a matter of fact some of these ECOWAS misleaders who are in a panicky self -protectionist mode have operative National Constitutions with entrenched clauses that protect coup makers from prosecution for treason as they prepare for war against Niger military junta. Can we ask why they have not removed specks from their democratic eyes?
While blaming Ukraine war for their woes, Hypocritical and bloodthirsty ECOWAS heads of States and governments ironically gunning for War in Niger are also afraid of their own corruption shadows, misgovernance, and harsh coup -enabling conditions in their respective countries as they sit in their glasshouses to throw would- be far reaching ammunition with dire international geo- political consequences. Have they fully assessed the human and developmental security Costs?
They know or ought to know that the pathos of intractable Economic injustice has given impetus and credence to the self classd freedom fighting Francophone African military juntas to Act against destabilised economies and resource drainage due to their dependent Independence in overt strangulating and certainly illogical contractual pacts with Imperialist France.
Anglophone West Africa dutifully and shamefully comply covertly to the tune of their colonial masters in the dance of economic savagery that impoverish their citizens even with no pacts because they are corrupt, selfish, greedy and without sacrificial empathy for the nations they lead
It is indeed ECOWAS citizens who should be up in arms against economic malaise and misgovenance by their knee - jerk leaders kotowing to their own selfish and western interests without or perhaps inspite of a nuanced understanding of the renewed winds of change blowing furiously against Neo -colonial oppression to which they are summary beneficiaries .
The Ruderless ECOWAS heads of States and government misleaders looking War in the face and faking righteous anger as they claim to seek peace in the name of a mythical democracy and rule of law which they do not practice Led by Tinubu of Nigeria who is in desperate need of legitimacy from a compromised election and Ouatara of Ivory Coast in an "illicit" 3rd term otherwise known as constitutional coup detat have no moral standing
With Ghana, trumpeting herself as a Gateway to Africa with an International airport named after Gen.Kotoka who led the overthrow of the late iconic Nkrumah, ECOWAS leaders are looking like a curiously dubious bunch subjugating a huge mass of ECOWAS citizens as condemned perennial beggars in a poverty dichotomy dependent on fatigued foreign Aid, cyclical and addictive IMF Loans with deadly "hair- cuts" etc. while debilitating huge debt burdens are without commensurate developmental evidence in spite of vantage multi natural resource endowments exploited for the benefit of enriched western countries.
It is this overall scenario of Economic injustice that has re-birthed the Francophone military juntas against their destabilised economies and resource drainage since their dependent Independence !
ECOWAS leaders if unyielding to the significant voices urging diplomacy and caution must know that their Niger misadventure will be no panacea or deterrence to coups without resolving the fundamental issue of neo-colonial economic sabotage and injustice and their own greedy and selfish undemocratic misrule while cavoting with colonial masters and expatriate firms to perpetuate long arm interests in signing idiotic agreements comparable to rape and armed robberies while they live in their Presidential folly paradise of plenty, And, the masses live in unmasked angst of unyielding mediocrity and indignities while pivotal resources service the west at a pittance.
If this unmitigated exploitation is what rule of law and democracy looks like for Africa as defined by neo - colonial and western Imperialists with their threatening military bases all over Africa with complicìty by African leaders to ensure compliance of a continent in chains, Who needs this defaced version of democracy ?
Who owns and manages the oil fields that drip exploitative riches, the Timber and gold that tumbles our forests into embers of sorrows and leaves us wastelands. Who owns our diamonds that causes us teardrops ? ECOWAS heads of States and governments happily and harply shortchange their nations for 5 to 10% crumbs and royalties that ensure our governments loyalties to their masters while similar agreements elsewhere have better metrics.
**** The problem is African leadership morass, corruption and ineptitude as they sell the continent cheap for hospice care that keeps Africa hostage in an economic cave.***
So then, as ECOWAS heads ponder going to stage a counter coup in Niger under the guise and misguidance of rule of law and reinstatement of democracy, What rule of law is being practised by France in her strangulating colonial compact of horrendous economic injustice?
Should ECOWAS not be more concerned about impoverished masses and perennial resource mismanagement and poverty syndrome tatoed on the foreheads of the vast African laughing stock we call independent Africa?
We are certainly not naievely unwary of military adventurists who bolt onto the scene with idealistic outrage, often commit atrocities for which they negotiate amnesties prior to leaving the scene or revamp into fake civilian rulership. They play to the gallery of expectations at outset, clothed with a self proclaimed loyalty mantle, but they are not equipped to rule and soon become corrupt and inept and betray the civilians who hail their so called redemption or liberation with hope of a fresh start. This is also the dilemma of the known ghosts of military dictatorships
However, right now the military juntas are a cause cèlebre, they are self classd "neo -freedom fighters "and must they be dislodged or rather reasoned with to gradually hand over after sanity is made to prevail with France ?
***Is This not an opportune moment to intervene with the entire West that bulldoze her way through Africa's resource rich continent with such a tour de force that they cause our economic walls to cave in so that we are unable to stand united as we fall???? Where are the EU and UN in all of this?
Why has the AU living in its compromised "Chinese castle" (what a disgrace to African pride) , not issued an ultimatum to France to release francophone Africa from its insufferable financial and resource drainage that saps its essence in imperialist supremacy and oppression .
ECOWAS must note that war vultures have already gathered. Even when the borders and air spaces are closed , arms have poured in from the sahel and elsewhere, deals behind the scenes have already been cut, Niger is not the only prize, it is all of Africa that will pay a needless price in human sacrifice, in political instability in food and climate insecurity , deepen her wounds of third world stigma , a continent that need to stand up and be counted on the world stage by rapid developmental engagement in research and usage of technology etc must quit the misleadership crass and selfishness and corruption mania that holds us bound by the bootstraps of Presidential and heads of states and goverments treachery in the weighing and balancing of the treasuries
They must certainly reference Ukraine if they think they are going in for a quick snipper action fix when their own economies are in disarray; they should look at Ukraine closely,they should look at the complexity of a Nato / USA, China Russia, Wagner and insurrectionists proxy war and the arms proliferation nightmare that surely is, and, will intensify. They must look themselves closely in the mirror of Truth and self censure before going trigger happy in Niger.
Indeed is it not time for most of ECOWAS current leadership to vacate the scene, as joint custodians of developmental ineptitude?
Will the impoverished masses of ECOWAS continue to be too timid to spontaneously riot for the justice due them? Will this supposed Niger coup deterrence not backfire and stoke more profound Freedom fires to be lit? Remember Sri Lanka?
Even if ECOWAS were to have temporary success in disengaging the military in Niger as a distraction to their failures at home, will this diversionary tactic stop the tide of conscientious objection ?
Can anyone stop an eruption of spontaneous justice when citizens Rise Up at the appropriate time and gather fearless courage? what then? what will ECOWAS governments do? Declare war on and Slaughter their citizens So that Economic dependence shall have ultimate fruition..?
ECOWAS that is ever so slow in collaborating on resource and developmental synergies must instead of flexing muscles to bolster western interests on the ground, retool to fight for her soul in developmental dignity.
Henceforth, Should criteria for an African Presidency ought not include preparedness to die.? to stand up to neo_ colonialists for what is right even if imperialist forces will kill you or engineer your overthrow?. Will they not reach a saturation point ?
ECOWAS and the AU must ACT to Free Francophone Africa from her tirade of strangulating indefensible contractual strictures with the understanding that the independence Halleluiah chorus was hollow and expedient and without concrete foundation . Do we hold our breath in futility?
Shall we say, shall we put it this way. Au revoir France? AU Revoir Imperial subjugation by the West? WHEN? Viva Economic Freedom ?
Email : busiafordemocracy@yahoo.com
By Nana Afua Frema Busia
Author has 58 publications here on modernghana.com
Disclaimer: "The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhana official position. ModernGhana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here."