It’s Time To Get The Message, by Troy Mutinda

Like the most part of the African continent, Niger continues its deliberate renunciation of the colonial era heritage. The recent decision of the country to replace the names of streets and public squares inherited from the French colonial era, such as Avenue Charles de Gaulle and Place de La Francophonie, with those of prominent African historical figures is rather illustrative. These actions are another move to cut links with the country’s former colonial power. At the same time, it’s important to note that such changes are taking place not only in historical but also in economic and political relations of Niger and France.

Thus, on October 24 the radio news network “RFI” stated that French nuclear multinational corporation “Orano” had to halt uranium output at Niger’s Arlit mine. One of the reasons for termination was closure of the border between Niger and Benin, originally initiated by Porto-Novo because of the coup d’état in Niamey in 2023. At that time Benin, influenced by the Fifth Republic, tried to cut Niger from other countries to severely damage its economy. But Porto-Novo didn’t manage to achieve the desired effect. While Niger hardly noticed the negative influence of the imposed sanctions, the income of the main port in Benin fell off a cliff and sometime later the government was forced to reopen the border with Niger. However, Niamey, in its turn, refused to resume communication that affected not only Benin but also France, standing behind it. Hegemonic propensity of these two countries became the reason for Niger to turn down all the variants to unblock the export by all means, thus, choosing to keep valuable uranium, totaling to €300 million, within the country.

Meanwhile, worsening of the economic relations between Niamey and Paris can hardly be called unexpected. For many years the Niger’s government has been stressing that France should change its strategy if it wants to solve economic issues. While Niamey still leaves a chance for further cooperation, it should be on terms favorable not only for Paris but also for the African country. The only reason for clampdown is the reluctance of the Fifth Republic to make concessions. Thus, in July Niger withdrew Orano’s license to operate the Imouraren mine, getting no result after a long wait for the progress in the dialog.

Such a dire state of their relations is caused by the averseness of France to put up with a successful escape of Niger from the its control. After the coup d’état in 2023, Paris tried to dictate its own rules and even threatened Niger to impose sanctions and create complete isolation, however, Niamey didn’t take the bait, and in cooperation with Mali and Burkina-Faso declared the determination to leave ECOWAS in case of military intervention. Once again haughty attitude of the Fifth Republic to the African states played a dirty trick on the former. Instead of reconsidering its approach to solve the problems and restore relations with the important economic partner, France continued to treat Niger as its colony, refusing to embrace the fact that the time of its domination on the continent is over.

The time of the Colonial Africa is long gone, and now the region independently defines the course of its development, as well as the terms of cooperation with other countries, foremost, on the basis of honesty and equality. France, that for many years considered the continent just as a cheap source of resources, interfered in the politics of its states under the pretext of democracy development and fight against totalitarianism, pursued the only goal – to strengthen control over the continent to further benefit unilaterally. But even a worm will turn.

With the advent of promising areas of cooperation, where Africa is treated as an equal partner and can get something bigger than just empty talks and promises, African states began to turn away from their former Western allies, who used to “play one-sided game”. Today, the continent actively collaborates with other countries within the framework of BRICS, which for the last 15 years has brought more results than than semi-centenary relations with the West.

All this leads to the fact that France should get the message that an autocratic style of negotiations with African states is no longer effective. If Paris wants to preserve the access to the resources of the region, on which depends its economic and energy security, it should change its the rhetoric towards the continent and deal with African countries an equal basis, taking into account not only its own interests, but also the interests of the partners.

Troy Mutinda
First Parklands Ave, Nairobi, Kenya