By Owei Lakemfa
French President Emmanuel Macron loves acting on the world stage. In the on-going drama about the West and some West African leaders threatening to use force against the military regime that came to power in Niger Republic on July 26, 2023, he chose to play the outlaw.
Exactly a month after they came to power, the new authorities in Niger declared French Ambassador Sylvain Itte persona non grata saying he “no longer enjoys the privileges and immunities attached to his status as a member of the diplomatic staff of the embassy”. He was given 48 hours to leave the country. The deadline expired on August 28. The Nigeriens also withdrew the diplomatic cards and cancelled the visas of his family.
But Macron sent a counter-order, directing Ambassador Itte to defy the
order and refuse to leave the country.
The 64-year-old Itte who was
born in Bamako, Mali, as an experienced ambassador having served as ambassador
in Uruguay for three years from 2016, Angola for four years until 2020 before
being sent to Niger Republic in October, 2022, knew once expelled he had to
leave the country.
He doubtlessly would be
conversant with Article 9 of the 1961 Vienna Treaty on Diplomatic Relations
which states that: “The receiving state may at any time and without having to
explain its decision, notify the sending state that the head of the mission or
any member of the diplomatic staff of the mission is persona non grata or that
any other member of the staff of the mission is not acceptable. In any such
case, the sending state shall, as appropriate, either recall the person
concerned or terminate his functions with the mission.”
So he knows he cannot play the
outlaw, but that role is what his principal, President Macron, asked him to
play. Consequently, the poor ambassador sat put in the embassy which became a
type of prison as neither he nor his fellow diplomats could leave and return to
the embassy. While the French diplomats were holed up, Nigeriens who were in
support of their country’s government converged daily with a public address
system in front of the embassy, singing, dancing and chanting: “Down with
France!” In Macron’s unique mind, this was an indication that Itte and the
embassy staff are “being held hostage”. This is wrong because an hostage is a
person seized by an abductor; in this case, nobody seized the French.
Macron had also rejected the
expulsion of I,500 French soldiers from Niger on the same laughable basis that
France does not accept the new rulers in that country and that only ousted
President Mohamed Bazoum whom he described as the “sole legitimate authority”
in Niger Republic, could order the French out. As a claimed democrat who
believes in democracy, how can Macron claim a single individual is the “sole
legitimate authority” in a country?
In response, the Nigerien
Government said its diplomatic victory over France is “a new step towards
sovereignty” and insisted that the pull-out of the French military “must be set
out in a negotiated framework and by mutual agreement”. This, of course, is the
correct way countries should relate rather than one country assuming to be the
master of another and thinking it can continuously dictate terms.
Macron might have thought he
could hold out in Niger as there was an expected military intervention by the
Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. However, that invasion did
not materialise as the African people were clearly against the blood of fellow
Africans being shed. In any case, what gives France the impression that it has
a right to determine the leadership of an African country?
France might also have thought
the incensed Nigerien populace would storm its embassy or military base and
thus give it an excuse to invade the country in the guise of protecting or
saving French lives. But the Nigeriens were wiser, they rather elected to wear
out the ambassador and his team.
Finally, one month after refusing to leave the embassy, the ambassador
and six others, with their tails between their legs, left, defeated, arriving
Paris on Wednesday, September 27. It reminded me of the French Army in Dien
Bien Phu, Vietnam which after 57 days of being besieged threw in the towel on
May 7, 1954.
The French having finally
succumbed, tried to put up a bold face when Itte arrived. He was received by
Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna who purported “to thank him and his teams
for his work in the service of our country under difficult conditions”.
Reacting to the French
ambassador’s forced departure, a Nigerien who spoke the minds of the majority
of the people said: “Today is a very proud day for me, and especially for the
Nigerien people, hearing of the French ambassador’s departure who stubbornly
stayed in Niger to show that the new government was not a real authority. But
today, he saw that Niger was not a little country.”
Macron who announced the recall
of Ambassador Itte in his Sunday TV interview also announced that French troops
would be withdrawn from the African country in “the months and weeks to come”,
with a full pull-out “by the end of the year”.
He cheekily added that the Nigerien
government “no longer wanted to fight against terrorism”. This once again, is a
manifestation of the presumptuous character of President Macron: that only the
French can fight terrorism; so asking the French forces to leave means the
African country has accepted terrorism and is no longer interested in fighting
the scourge.
France with a beautiful cultural
history is known to be quite fastidious and tricky in foreign relations,
refusing to stop its exploitation of other peoples. This it has done for centuries.
So although it seems diplomatically defeated in its stand-off with Niger, it
cannot be trusted to truly depart.
France cannot live a healthy
life without nakedly exploiting other peoples, so it is likely to fight back.
This is why I am not surprised by Tuesday’s attempted coup in Burkina Faso
against its anti- French government.
By the way, we shouldn’t forget that it is not only France that has military presence in Niger Republic. The United States, US, maintains some 1,100 military personnel there. Although it has not been as noisy as France, but it remains in that country despite Nigerien demands that the soldiers be pulled out.
It is only in the light of
the announced decision of France to pull out its unwelcome troops, that the US
says it will “evaluate” its future in the small African country. But like
France, Nigeriens and Africans should not assume that they would pull out
quietly and stop meddling in African affairs.
*Lakemfa is a commentator on public issues
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