Tinubu in Paris: Shaping 21st  century Africa-Europe relationship

DAMILARE EBENIZA

Damilare Ebeniza studied Political Science and International Relations in Nigeria, Benin Republic, and France, with a research focus on Nigerian history, economy, and foreign politics. He has experience as a conference interpreter and external relations management across Chad, Niger, Mali, and Guinea Conakry, for governmental, regional and international organisations in West Africa. He is an analyst for West African Democracy Radio in Dakar, Senegal and actively contributes to critical dialogues shaping the region’s socio-political landscape. Proficient in French, English, and four additional non-Nigerian African languages, he embodies a commitment to cross-cultural understanding and effective communication. He can be reached via comment@businessamlive.com 

In reaction to the announcement of the Anglo-German agreement on the delimitation of spheres of influence between Britain and Germany, France, reading this correctly as a British attempt to limit her access to the region then called Western Sudan, (today’s West Africa), opened a public subscription list for fêtes or party, to host a Russian squadron led by Admiral Avellan in October 1893.  The British Ambassador to Paris at that time, Dufferin, warned that “the diplomacy of Europe is now face to face with a new situation, that, as far as we are concerned, we shall find the representatives of France and Russia allied against us in the respect of all the current controversies of the day in which the interest of one or another of those two Powers are concerned and that both are likely to prove more susceptible, more exacting and peremptory than formerly.’’ As far as France’s African diplomacy is concerned, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s state visit to Paris is comparable in importance, and much more significant in scope.

The lavish fêtes like the one in honour of Admiral Avellan in 1893 have been a unique feature of French diplomacy. Great nations, the world over, strengthen new relationships not only to chart a new path forward, but as leverage on the old ones. The relationship between France and Nigeria is not different.  By hosting the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, France is sustaining her efforts to reshape the now cold relationship with her former African colonies and to develop a new diplomatic framework for France-Africa relationship with Nigeria as a key player. The appointment of the now former French Ambassador to Nigeria as the Head of the African Division of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an indication of the important role of Nigeria in France’s diplomacy in Africa. 

Sitting behind a German lawmaker in the Presidential Palace during a European Union visit to Niger in November 2022, it was hard for me to imagine the events of the last 24 months. Hard yes, but not impossible. The change in public opinion towards France was such that France needed a new economic and diplomatic model for Africa. France knew at the highest level that change was needed. President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Africa in 2018 with leading African artistic and cultural personalities was an attempt to shape a new narrative about France in Africa.  Measured by what happened since that visit to Fela Shrine in 2018, it is safe to say that the effort was much more successful in Nigeria than elsewhere. Our President’s visit should therefore be seen as France learning and adapting her almost two centuries old relationship with Africa.

How it all began. 

“It is not with Sudanese- Nigerians- and Dahomeans that you will ever be able to replace our brothers of the lost provinces,” remarked the French Deputy Paul Déroulède during the Colonial Budget debate of 1892. To this, the leftist Deputy Clemenceau would remind those asking for government funding for French imperial projects in Africa that Germany “still holds Alsace-Lorraine as a colony’’.  Etienne, one of the key architects of France’s Colonial Policy replied that “you will find on the west coast of Africa an expanse of land as large as Germany herself.” To understand the conditions in which France’s interest in Africa developed, it is important to remember that the losses of manpower and territories and the burden of indemnity payment meant that the French Republic that emerged following the disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 was one whose idea of herself as a European power was in question. France’s mission in Africa therefore was also a mission to reclaim La République’s place in Europe.

One of the earliest visits of a French official to this land was that of Antoine Mattei, The Representative of La Compagnie française de l’Afrique Equatoriale. He negotiated and signed trade treaties with the independent states of Bonny and Calabar in a region that was then prophetically called the Oil Rivers. The oil then, of course, was red not black.

A century and a half later, the sense of identity in this part of the world has changed dramatically. As societies of human beings separated by history, language, race, and ocean, Nigeria and France have managed to maintain and deepen their relations to a people-to-people level. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s state visit to France is both important diplomatically and economically to Nigeria as well as it is to France. It is important to note here that a few months ago, Algeria, a key ally of France, turned down a state visit to France with some not so diplomatic language. The visit of the largest country in Africa is, at this moment, important to France. 

The shift in France’s Africa policy towards anglophone countries, particularly Nigeria, is not because the French relationship with her former colonies failed. It is rather because it succeeded beyond expectations. The rise of PASTEF to political dominance in Senegal closely mirrors President Macron’s En marche rise to power in France. In electing President Emmanuel Macron, France turned her back on the old political order. Senegal, in electing President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, turned her back on the old guard of Senegalese politics.

The French people have a monarchical relation to political power. President Nicholas Sarkozy explained this better: “La France aime les grandes ambitions et les grandes leaders. La France est royaliste parce qu’elle est régicide. Elle aime les grands rois et les grands leaders parce que c’est plus valorisant de tuer au sens théorique un grand leader qu’un petit.” In English, “France likes great ambitions and great leaders. France is royalist because she likes to kill kings.  She likes great kings and great leaders because it is more rewarding in theory to kill a great leader than a small one.’’

On the African continent today, whether one uses the duration in power or the actual exercise of power itself as a metric, most of the strongest presidents are in former French Colonies. To quote President Nicholas Sarkozy again, “France is the one European country with the highest taxes, the highest social welfare benefits and still with the highest feeling of social injustice.’’ The French deep mistrust of absolute authority results in a form of absolutism that can only be restrained by quasi absolute authority. It is impossible to be exposed to French culture and education without developing a deep mistrust of power. The French colonial ‘mission civilisatrice’ success could only produce one ultimate result: the total and resolute rejection of French authority and dominance. This is not the same as the rejection of France herself. The key complaint is that France is not living up to her ideals; that French is hypocritical. As strange as this may sound, it is as French as it gets.

What role is there for Nigeria to play in this dialogue on how to live up to shared ideals between France and our Neighbours?

Nigeria needs to accelerate her economic growth to match her population growth. It is projected that by 2050, that is in 25 years from now, the Lagos- Abidjan corridor will have the highest concentration of human beings on earth. Creating an economy that can cater for that large population in the next 25 years will require some serious investment. A large portion of that investment will come from outside the continent. Here is where Europe’s economic growth trajectory meets African development ambitions.

About a month ago, President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech on ‘Europe’s Role in a Multipolar Future’ at a gathering called Berlin Global Dialogue. In no uncertain terms, he stated that the economic model that powered Europe economic growth over the last 30 years was based on cheap Russian gas as a source of energy and cheap Chinese labour and a large market. With the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe needs a new growth model. And in a world where security concerns are at the forefront of diplomacy, the cheapest, most secured, and just economic growth model for Europe passes through massive investments on the African continent.

The African continent has the world’s youngest population and one of the richly supplied soils in the world.  With the right investments, the coming decades could see both Africa and Europe develop a partnership that overcomes the suspicions of the past. Nigeria is the key to unlocking that partnership. Positioning the Nigerian financial sector for such investment is one important objective of the visit. The potential for growth here is such that with the proper reforms, at the end of this decade, we would have a different country. For this to happen however, our political leaders would have to move away from battling for how to share the money not yet made to growing our economy.

What people in Africa need is real change that affects their standard of life. Learning from our past is important, yes, but that should not limit our ability to move forward. Vietnam and the United States of America fought a 20-year war from 1955 to 1975. Today, the USA is Vietnam’s largest export market. The essence of diplomacy lies in a nation’s ability to learn from its past without letting that past define the future. The Tinubu Administration therefore is focused on preparing Nigeria, indeed the entire region, for a world that is coming and not this one that is passing.

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