Niger Crisis: ECOWAS Should Also Provide Remedy For Economic And Political Coup By France, Says Quao

Former Permanent Representative to the African Union Mission in Washington DC, Dr. Arikana Chihombori Quao, has said that while ECOWAS discusses military intervention in Niger, the body should also provide remedies for the economic and political coups inflicted by France in the subregion. 

Following ECOWAS deployment of a standby force, military chiefs will meet in Ghana Thursday and Friday to consider a possible military intervention in Niger.

In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, Quao said that the coups happening in Niger, Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso are more of an “ideological realignment” of their economic and political values. She has emphasised that ECOWAS refocus on providing solutions for the plight inflicted by France because “those are coups against the African citizens in those countries.”

She said, “There are other coups that we are not talking about that we should be talking about. By France forcing Niger to send all its natural resources to France, that’s a coup. By France having its own military in Niger and forcing Nigeriens that they can only be trained by France, that is a coup. By forcing Niger to deposit 50% of its reserve with France, that is a coup.”

She stated that military intervention in Niger should not be an option, and there are better ways to handle the situation.

Quao viewed the coups in Niger, Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso differently from past coups because previous coups were orchestrated mainly by western powers, majority by France, but the current ones are led by the African people.

She termed the last 4 coups as more of an “ideological realignment” than a coup saying, “I would like to call what’s happening in these 4 countries an ideological realignment of their economic, political and social values.

“It is unbelievable that till this day you can have a country like Niger to be the second poorest country in the world and yet all their resources are going to France.

“It is a warning to the Western powers that the African revolution has begun, and those who are going to align themselves with the people, are those who are going to survive the revolution that’s taking place in Africa.”

She said that the west should seriously consider this “revolution” and rethink its foreign policies towards Africa. 

In the same interview, Former Nigerian Presidential Candidate and Global Affairs Analyst, Dr. Victor Okhai, cited the industrial revolution as a source of the western powers exploiting African countries to fuel their economy at the expense of Africans and also emphasised that Africans begin to demand for what truly belongs to them on their own terms.

He said, “What this does present for Africa now is an opportunity to begin to renegotiate its trade policies, its economic policies with these western powers.” 

Frances Ibiefo

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