Ibrahim Traore and the military juntas of Mali and Niger are the perfect examples of leaders who stand for what they believe in no matter the consequences and, they are a lesson to other African leaders who willingly become puppets of the West because of the pressure, that if a leader stands for what he believes long enough, the West will have no choice but to work with him. Do you know why? It’s because they need Africa. When Ibrahim Traore first took power, the country faced serious condemnations and sanctions from the West and Europe. A lot of European countries including Germany suspended their partnership with Burkina Faso until, according to them, Ibrahim Traore handed back power to civilian rule and conducted an election. However, despite the sanctions and the hardships that came with it, Traore stood his ground and persevered, and guess what? That perseverance has paid off. Not only did the US Parliament recognize that Ibrahim Traore and the other military junta are “in their own words, sophisticated”, meaning they are intelligent and can’t be easily swayed, the Minister of Germany for Economic Cooperation and Development, Svenja Schulze, recently paid a diplomatic visit to Burkina Faso, making her the first European country to visit the country after Europe decided to suspend cooperation with Burkina Faso after Traore became President.

The reason why this is important and significant is that after Traore took power, he did not grovel at the feet of Europe so that they would resume financial aid to the country, and neither did he seek any partnership with them like most African leaders would do. He also did not fall under the pressure of the financial sanctions imposed on his country. Instead, he looked for other alternatives, and now Europe is beginning to realize that it is slowly losing ground in the Sahel at a time when every country is fighting to get a piece of the region because the world understands that Africa is the future. This is why Germany decided to take that first step to seek collaboration and resume partnership with Burkina Faso. During her visit, the German Minister met with key government officials including Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister as well as civil society representatives and other stakeholders. However, the most important part of her visit to Burkina Faso was what she said in an interview when asked about Germany’s cooperation with Burkina Faso’s military government.

The German Foreign Minister stated that Germany would prefer to work with democracies around the world but the government of Germany has come to the realization that most people live in an autocratic system and there is nothing they can do about it so they have to deal with it. Isn’t this interesting to hear? Coming from the mouth of the same people who condemned Burkina Faso as if coming into power through a coup and not an election is the worst crime ever, is certainly interesting. But the question is “How come Germany and the rest of Europe and the West forget this fact that not every country is a democracy and the fact that they feel Democracy is the best form of government doesn’t mean other countries have to practice it? The point is it’s time for the West and Europe to realize that every country is free to choose whatever form of government they want to practice and that era of pressuring others to practice their kind of government should end.

Now, the German Minister went on to say that Germany wants to fight climate change and ensure that people can comfortably stay in their homes without seeing the need for migration and in order to do this, there is a need for cooperation and acceptance of any kind of

government. She further added that there is no black-and-white when it comes to collaboration and partnership and then she added another significant statement that revealed another reason why Germany decided to move ahead with resuming its partnership with Burkina Faso. The German Minister made it known that Germany understood that if it was not in the region then there would be others to take their space and the others she was referring to were none other than Russia. She specifically stated that Germany could not afford to leave the region for the Russians and that development cooperation and partnership with Burkina Faso was needed. This kind of sounds desperate but it simply highlights the point that Africa doesn’t need the West or Europe but the West and Europe needs Africa.

Africa shouldn’t be the one begging for collaboration and partnership with Western countries, regardless of their so-called economic and military might. Whenever there is an Africa-US summit or Africa-Europe or any kind of Africa and another country summit, African leaders do not need to pack their bags and travel to the country organizing the summit because those summits only serve to show how weak African leaders are and for the country organizing the summit to show its power. It’s time for African leaders to be assertive and once African leaders can understand that they do not need to act beggarly and victim-wise to get what they want, things will begin to change.

In response to what the German Minister said about Russia’s collaboration with Burkina Faso, the Burkinabe Foreign Minister told the German Minister without mincing words that cooperation with Russia is a question of demand and supply. He said that Russia is a partner that respects the decision of Burkina Faso and its offers meet the needs of the Burkinabe government and its people. So, before any talk of partnership, Germany has to understand that Russia is already a partner in Burkina Faso so any partnership with Germany will have to fit into that framework. This is magnificent. The leadership of Burkina Faso has truly been transformed. You see, Germany, like other European and Western countries, does not want any African country to collaborate with Russia to reduce what they call Russian influence in Africa and that’s why the German Minister paid a visit to Burkina Faso. That’s also why she said that Germany doesn’t want Russia to occupy their space if they continue to suspend cooperation with countries in the Sahel.

The German Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, also confirmed this when he said in February that it’s time for Germany to change its approach, and seek closer cooperation with African states, even if they do not share the same values, or meet democratic standards. He then added that ““If we refuse to cooperate with certain African states because they do not fully meet our standards, our values, then Russia will step in. Usually, (this is) not for the good of the country or the stability of the region. What will we have gained then? Not much, to be honest. Certainly, we know that Germany is not truly concerned about the good or stability of any African country but what they will gain from African countries, but the point is Germany now understands that the only way for them to compete with Russia and China is for them to shift away from the previous paternalistic and superior attitude and way of cooperating with Africa to accept African solutions just the way China and Russia have been partnering with Africa. This is truly magnificent but what is even more magnificent is the response given to the Russian Minister by the Burkinabe Foreign Minister.

Recall that before Traore came to power and kicked out the French soldiers as well as canceled all colonial ties with its former colonial master, France dictated what country Burkina Faso would seek partnership from. So, if Burkina Faso wanted a partnership with any country, it needed approval from France before it could do so. Imagine that. However, with the arrival of Captain Traore at the helm of the government, things began to change. Traore made it known that he was and is still leading Burkina Faso in a path of sovereignty and nothing would deter him from that path and this sovereign path means that Burkina Faso gets to choose whoever it wants to partner with. No country such as Germany has the right to dictate who Burkina Faso would partner with. This is why Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister told the German Minister in clear terms that she should remove it from her mind that Burkina Faso would stop collaborating with Russia because Germany wants to resume cooperation with them. He told her without mincing words that if Germany wants a partnership with Burkina Faso, then they should factor it into their framework that Russia is already a partner of Burkina Faso and will remain so.

Now, what does this tell you, instead of Burkina Faso begging for partnership and accepting whatever terms and conditions given by a foreign country, the tables have turned and it’s now the one setting the terms of the agreement regardless of the fact that Germany’s partnership comes with a whopping sum of 28 billion euros in Burkina Faso. The promise of that huge sum was not able to sway the military government of Burkina Faso to change its stance. Now we can understand why Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister stated that the leadership of Captain Traore is not made up of politicians but men on a mission to transform Burkina Faso. This is true leadership and every African country should strive to attain this.

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