TO GERONTOCRATIC African leaders, Captain Ibrahim Traore (37) may not be old enough to command their respect. He may be less than two score years old, but his youthful stewardship is more beneficial to the Burkinabe people and the Sahel, than most of the senile African presidents to their nations.
Captain Traore might have been born in Bondokuy, attended the University of Ouagadougou, enrolled for a military career, etc; but since a political leader is better known by his vision, which informs his political praxes, the Traore vision for Burkina Faso and the Sahel is more important than his past or age.
In the absence of an explicitly stated vision, generational dynamics, pronouncements, policies, governance praxes, diplomatic clout and alliances, etc., of a political leader highlight his vision. The foregoing metrics could be used to extrapolate the Traore Vision for the second liberation of Burkinabe Faso, the Sahel and Africa.
Before the triumvirate coupists began their fight with the French, the Sahel used to be a French African enclave, lacking the cosmopolitan glitter of Paris, the industrial trappings of Bordeaux, or the leisure resorts of Nantes. Its French-induced development crises, reinforced by a prolonged instability in the Maghreb, and a toxic neoliberal presence, transformed the Sahel into a Dante’s Inferno, which facilitated the emergence of the Sahelian generals in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
To talk about the second liberation of a people, nation, or continent presupposes an earlier liberation. But was Africa ever liberated for Captain Traore, or any leader, to spearhead its second liberation?
In the last century, African patriots fought for African independence, which turned out to be unreal, because Europe wasn’t ready to economically disengage from Africa. After decolonisation, there was no patriotic African leader who closed his nation’s gates to imperialism, and charted a non-Western and American course, without being toppled from power or gunned down. It was that sham and inane independence, which couldn’t elevate African nations to any height, which facilitates the urgent need for the second liberation of Africa from neo-imperialists.
ALSO READ: Delta State Politics: A New Chapter? Abadom Lawrence Amechi
Each generation of oppressed Africans produces powerful collaborators against African interests, wilful beneficiaries of the oppression, and patriotic individuals fighting the oppression, advancing the cause of freedom, involved in a hidden, or open confrontation to chain the people or liberate them.
The 60s’ generation in the Congo produced a patriotic Patrice Lumumba, and a degenerate Mobutu Sese Seko. The former strove to make Congo a truly independent African nation, a “crime” punished with assassination, his corpse dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid. Whilst the latter, a Western and American lackey packaged and delivered Congo to imperialism, dashing crumbs to the internal collaborators he headed.
In the 80s, a Burkinabe generation produced a Thomas Sankara, a revolutionary African set to reclaim, and deepen Burkinabe sovereignty, gunned down by a Blaise Campaore, the traitorous African, the Mobutu Sese Seko of Burkina Faso, the enslaver of his people.
And in the third decade of the 21st century, another Burkinabe generation has produced the liberator of their nation, and the Sahel: the 37-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traore, who seized power almost three years ago, to change the Burkinabe and African narratives.
ALSO READ: Osagie Obayuwana: Unbowed Champion Of The Masses And Social Justice; By Owei Lakemfa
Phobic to Africa’s freedom, intensely hostile and unforgiving to African patriots, neo colonialists and neo imperialists cultivate the Mobutus and Campaores to make African nations their perpetual economic, military and political backyards.
The Traore Vision sprang from the appreciation of the Gaulish-Frankish-imperialist complex, which couldn’t allow France to reconcile itself to an independent Africa. The vision is to sever Burkinabe Faso from French and all forms of neo-imperialism, build a truly sovereign African nation, deploying Burkinabe resources to grow a prosperous modern economy, responsive to the needs of all Burkinabe people, not a section or class therein.
Traore has adeptly grasped the organic link of the freedom of African peoples, nations and regions to continental liberation, freedom and unity. Any liberated African nation could be the gateway to regional and African liberation. A liberated Burkina Faso, Mali or Niger could pave the way for the freedom of the Sahel, and eventually West Africa and beyond. And to the extent an African people, nation, or region is chained, to that extent will continental freedom be chained.
ALSO READ: Vietnamese Poisoned Over 50 Years, As Mexico, Nigeria Seek Joint Survival; By Owei Lakemfa
Before the triumvirate coupists began their fight with the French, the Sahel used to be a French African enclave, lacking the cosmopolitan glitter of Paris, the industrial trappings of Bordeaux, or the leisure resorts of Nantes. Its French-induced development crises, reinforced by a prolonged instability in the Maghreb, and a toxic neoliberal presence, transformed the Sahel into a Dante’s Inferno, which facilitated the emergence of the Sahelian generals in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Before the giant leap to the Sahel, Captain Traore began from what he calls the homeland, which couldn’t have the symbolic trappings of freedom with French military therein. The French were asked to wind their military presence and pack out of Burkina Faso.
The standoff between ECOWAS and the military Sahelian states led to their eventual exit from the regional bloc, and the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States (the AES), which is highly critical of the French in Africa. All the three Alliance states have terminated military pacts with France, and expelled them.
Captain Traore is the gift of the Sahel to Africa. As Fidel Castro defied Yankee imperialism for decades, and escaped the innumerable attempts on his life, Captain Traore should better be an African Castro, who would live to push the emancipation of his nation, region and Africa to a glorious end.
By ejecting the French from the Sahel; welcoming the Russians; forming the AES; and making the local economies responsive to the people through agricultural, public housing and infrastructural transformation, Captain Traore has committed a grave political “crime”. The West would never forget and forgive, because it could have ripple effects in the region and the continent.
ALSO READ: Non-Governance And Nigeria’s Disappearing Civic Space; By Jibrin Ibrahim
It was the same fear of the ripple effects of the Castro-led 1959 Cuban revolution, which made ‘Castro’s crimes’ unforgivable to Yankee imperialism. So grave were ‘Castro’s crimes’ to have earned him by 2000, about 634 assassination attempts. The ‘crimes’ of Captain Traore seem to dwarf Castro’s, because in less than three years in power there were about 80 attempts to topple his regime.
Despite the dangers he faces, Captain Ibrahim Traore is passionately upsetting the neo-imperialistic apple carte in Burkina Faso, and with the two AES military presidents, in the Sahel. The Traore vision has moulded him into an embodiment of African patriotism, the reincarnation of past youthful African leaders (Patrice Lumumba, 35; Gen Murtala Muhammed, 37, Col Sankara, 37, etc).
ALSO READ: Moral And Legal Betrayal: How 5 Governors Prioritized Their Comfort Over Public Servants’ Pensions
Captain Traore has been thrown onto the stage when historical-political currents are critical of military dictatorships. But to the chagrin of neo-imperialism, as the red scare to portray Castro in unfavourable light crashed, the military background of Captain Traore has not slowed down his widening global appreciation, and popularity as an irresistible change agent in a globally exploited terror-ridden enclave.
Captain Traore is the gift of the Sahel to Africa. As Fidel Castro defied Yankee imperialism for decades, and escaped the innumerable attempts on his life, Captain Traore should better be an African Castro, who would live to push the emancipation of his nation, region and Africa to a glorious end.
Jahun, a commentator on public affairs writes from Dutse the Jigawa State Capital. He can be reached on 07039038088.
