Niger & the Acid Test of African Leaders

Okay. Let's talk about Niger. The coup in Niger refers to itself as the revolutionary government of Niger, and I think that's probably fair. They appear to represent a sort of revolution against French domination, against neocolonial control by the French and by the West. And in this, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali are all in agreement.

And they do have support in this position from Algeria. Now, obviously, this should not be understood as, achieving actual independence because to some extent they are swapping the French for the Russians, which will also mean the Chinese and sort of insinuating themselves into the mix would be The UAE and Saudi Arabia. But I don't think that anyone, can honestly argue that this does not constitute an improvement in the situation in those countries, an improvement from, French and Western colonial domination. The Russians and the Chinese, have a much better reputation than the French or than the West collectively, in Africa, and for good reason. Their approach to trade and investment is not as predatory or parasitic nor as arrogant or domineering as the West.

Now ICOWAS appears to be, seriously preparing for military intervention in Niger on behalf of the French. And leaders of the African Union, reportedly have endorsed this intervention. So what I can say about this is that this group of countries, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali, are quickly becoming an acid test for African leaders, which will expose who among them is and who is not anti imperialist, who is and who is not in favor of African independence. Because military intervention in Niger would be a naked act of subservience for the sake of preserving the neo colonialist domination of France. It would be tantamount to, slaves being mobilized to put down a slave rebellion.

Any of the leaders, in Africa who cosigned this intervention, in my opinion, will be committing career political suicide because the spirit of the time is pro independence. It's pro multipolarity, and it's pro, empowerment of the global South. Now France doesn't want to suffer the bad optics of having white French soldiers, invade Niger, but they don't care about the bad optics of Africans killing Africans for their sake. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that the future of African independence will be written in the Sahel. Now I don't believe that most of the people who live in the countries of Ikawas support military intervention in Niger, and I don't believe that they are in favor of preserving the neocolonialist order.

We've already seen protests in Nigeria, for example, against these moves. So here I would like to say that it would make sense to me, in my opinion, for Nigerians, for example, to try to recruit support against the intervention, from the private sector in Nigeria, from wealthy, Nigerian business people. People like, Aliko Dangote, who exports millions of dollars worth of cement to Niger every year, and is a man who wields considerable, political influence in Nigeria. We really have to start treating, private sector power as the political power that it is, and these influential people and these influential companies need to be lobbied. They need to be persuaded to use their, unparalleled political influence in conformity with the will of the people.

Thousands of voices in a protest march are ultimately not going to be as resounding as the voice of an industrialist or a CEO. What mass protests cannot achieve, they can achieve with a phone call. Now from what I'm seeing, any invasion, potential invasion by Iqawas of Niger is gonna take a considerable amount of time to prepare. So theoretically, there should be enough time, to prevent it from happening. Because if it does happen, it's going to be very ugly.

It's going to be, very long. It's gonna be very bloody, and it's gonna be very complicated. And it will inevitably, predictably, spill over across the region. Look. The West doing whatever they want and getting whatever they want is by no means inevitable, and this can be stopped before it happens.