As Russia’s standoff with the West rages over Ukraine, it is easier to admire Putin because he is challenging the US global dominance. Many of us have negative views of America due to its role in countries such as Libya, Iraq, Somalia and Syria. French-speaking countries in Africa also welcome and see the Russians as liberators because France has recorded infamy for consciously pillaging African resources and holding grips on the economies of its African colonies even at the expense of good governance and human rights. But the truth is that Russia is not better than the US. Russian soldiers still occupy Moldova. Putin invaded Georgia in 2008 and recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the enclaves recognised internationally as parts of Georgia. He annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and continues to destabilise the country by backing and now recognising the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent countries.
Russia, the rump successor of the USSR, played a vital role in the death of African nationalism. They imported socialism into Africa which needlessly led to coups and foreign-backed conflicts which were in parts to furtively counter the Soviets.
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As Putin repositions Russia as a resurgent superpower with a blueprint to replace a new version of the World Order, African countries embracing Russia need to tread carefully. Welcoming Russia with an open hand without conditions attached is a bad omen. Russia is looking to reclaim the influences it lost when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, and the West is likely to deploy every pressure to scuttle Russia’s ambitions, which may include sabotage, military coups, and adding fuel to the raging conflicts in Africa. The US and France also have a dark history in Africa. They were believed to be behind a series of coups and sabotages in Africa from 1960 in desperate attempts to counter the influences of the Soviet Union even at the expense of African countries.
France, which is facing revolts from its former colonies such as Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic with the Moscow-backed Wagner Group flexing its muscles and tightening its grip on African in return for security, is unlikely to let Russia control Africa by proxy. The blast at a gold mine in Burkina Faso is an ominous sign. It could be seen as a presage to further cement the views that French-speaking countries cannot do without France.
African countries should wake up and realise that no foreign power can help them more than they help themselves. Let’s strengthen our democracies, good governance, and human rights records. Africa can fare much better with its decades-long non-aligned status. But Russia is no different from the US.
Bashir Aliyu Limanci wrote from Bauchi and can be reached through [email protected]
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