Tinubu’s Endless Pilgrimage: an analysis of his Foreign Policy Missteps

“Colonialism never disappeared; it has just changed its forms, the Russian foreign minister says.

The exploitation of former colonies by metropoles never ceased. It only changed its form, but the goal remained the same – to “pump out” the resources of Asian, African, and Latin American countries in order to maintain the dominance of the West and a high standard of living for its population," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview to a Russian newspaper.

The minister added that developing countries try to find their place in the system of international division of labor, which represents a form of modern neocolonialism.” - @sputnik_africa

Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson for President Tinubu, announced on Tuesday:

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will embark on a state visit to France this week at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron. The visit aims to strengthen bilateral ties and explore avenues for economic cooperation between Nigeria and France. As a respected leader in Africa, President Tinubu’s presence underscores Nigeria’s commitment to global diplomacy and partnership.”

We don’t know if Mr Onanuga expected us to feel giddy with excitement as his boss embarked on yet another foreign trip.

It is equally unclear why President Tinubu preferred to gallivant around the world instead of staying at home and tackling the acute problem of the people he was elected to serve.

Since he assumed office in May 2023, Mr. Onanuga’s boss has embarked on a whirlwind of foreign trips - he has visited at least a dozen countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, India, South Africa, and now France.

The current trip marks the president’s fourth trip to France since coming to power. In June 2023, he attended the Paris Summit for the New Global Financial Pact, focusing on economic growth and global financing strategies.

In September 2023, he attended the UN General Assembly in New York, after which he traveled to France for a five-day visit. His last visit was in January 2024, when he undertook a private visit to France, as announced by his media adviser.

One intrepid Nigerian newspaper analyzed the cost of President Tinubu’s travel expenses - including chartered flights, accommodations for large delegations, and security. It came up with an estimated ₦12 billion within the first year.

The president’s handlers touted these as opportunities to attract foreign investment and strengthen bilateral ties, vociferating loudly that we should ignore the steep financial cost to the Nigerian taxpayer.

Our contention here is that, given Nigeria’s current economic travails, citizens' loud groaning, and regional instability in West Africa, a serious Nigerian leader should pursue a more pragmatic, people-focused, and interest-driven foreign policy, not one that prioritizes ceremonial engagements with former colonial powers like France, which, if the truth be told, is Nigeria’s foreign enemy numerous uno.

We all know that President Tinubu, like other leaders in Africa, lives in a different universe from their people. Still, it is unconscionable that President Tinubu and his handlers fail to see the wastage in his foreign gallivantings, especially to a country like France. This profoundly RACIST country has never hidden its disdain for the African continent and its people.

Moreover, the promised outcomes of these trips - such as foreign direct investment (FDI) - have largely failed to materialize. For example, despite Tinubu’s participation in global economic forums like the G20 Summit in India and the United Nations General Assembly, there has been little evidence of significant investments flowing into Nigeria.

Given France’s pivotal role in destabilizing Africa, especially the West African sub-region, Nigeria, as a key player in West Africa, should be wary of aligning itself too closely with that country, especially given its role as the current ECOWAS Chair.

Another question here is why President Tinubu, who has yet to visit or engage directly with the leaders of Niger, Burkina Faso, or Mali since the three countries broke away from the regional bloc, ECOWAS finds it excusable to visit the country that is at the root of the problem in West Africa.

What are Africans to think of leaders like Tinubu, who appear to feel more comfortable serving as colonial puppets on strings than engaging with their neighbors?

While no one can accuse Tinubu of being an intellectual or historical heavyweight, one would expect a Nigerian leader to know enough about the long history of Nigeria’s diplomatic tug-of-war with France.

One must question the wisdom of President Tinubu’s advisers. Why did they think that a trip to France would help Nigeria in any meaningful way? What is Nigeria to gain from France, a country that has always considered Nigeria a strategic enemy in Africa?

We speak with the authority of history.
More than any nation, France has been the most ruthless and vicious in undermining African unity and development. It has always schemed to thwart the continent’s quest for economic independence. France torpedoed the ECOWAS efforts to launch a sub-regional currency when, at the last moment, it persuaded its minions in Abidjan to launch a currency with the same name - ECO.

Would Tinubu and his handlers claim to be ignorant of France’s colonial legacy and ongoing neocolonial policies in the Sahel region, which have fueled instability, undermined African sovereignty, and perpetuated economic dependency?

Or would the Nigerian leader claim to be unaware of France’s military interventions in Africa and the country’s endless coups in Africa that serve French economic interests while undermining the interests of Africa?

France remain the only colonial power that failed to relinquish its stranglehold on its ostensible former colonies. Its controversial CFA franc system still binds 14 African countries to a colonial-era monetary structure, retarding the economic growth of these countries while fattening the French treasury.

Could the Nigerian leader also claim to be unaware that France has often been accused and implicated in exacerbating instability by covertly supporting jihadist groups and undermining sovereign governments in Africa? Or could the Nigerian leader be ignorant that these French schemings helped Boko Haram and the other Jihadists as they wreaked havoc in Nigeria?

Perhaps the most baffling of this trip is Tinubu’s abject lack of self-awareness. How are our brothers in the Sahel to view the leader of their giant neighbor visiting and toasting the leader of France, the country with which they are engaged in an epic, almost existential struggle?

Should President Tinubu claim not to know about France’s deep antagonism towards Nigeria since the beginning of time, let’s remind him that France was the strongest supporter of the secessionist Biafran forces during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970); it provided the rebels with both weapons and diplomatic backing.

Similarly, France’s backed Cameroon during the Bakassi Peninsula. And despite Nigeria’s legal victory at the International Court of Justice in 2002, France’s covert support for Cameroon complicated the resolution process, ultimately leading to the loss of Nigerian lives and territory.

France has historically considered Nigeria a strategic rival, if not an outright enemy.

More than any other country, France has consistently pursued the desire to weaken Nigeria’s influence in West Africa, carve the country up, and secure access to the oil in the Niger Delta.

Are Tinubu and his handlers so bereft of knowledge of history that they think nothing of trumpeting his visit to that accursed country of unrepentant racists and colonialists and expect us to feel giddy with joy?

Let us also remind President Tinubu and his rented mouths that France, more than any other country, has supported the most brutal and the most corrupt of African dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire and Jean-Bédel Bokassa in the Central African Republic.

No other foreign power has organized more coups in Africa than France - all to maintain its neocolonial stranglehold on African resources.

The most recent of France's dastardly perfidy in Africa is its involvement in the overthrow and the brutal killing of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, whose death has destabilized the subregion.

France is also the only country that has abused Africa as a nuclear dumping ground. Between 1960 and 1966, France conducted 17 nuclear tests in Algeria’s Sahara Desert, causing long-term environmental and health consequences for the region’s inhabitants.

Of course, no French leader has thought it necessary to apologize or offer compensation for their country's criminal behavior.

One of the French presidents, the dwarfish Sarkozy, even insulted us by saying we have no history!

Yet, we have an African leader trooping to Paris in his flowing gown to go and seek validation from the leader of a country with such a brutal track record.

Instead of seeking validation and affirmation from nations like France, Nigerian leaders should prioritize the following:

1. Regional Stability: Engage directly with ECOWAS member states to address the root causes of instability in West Africa.

As the Chair of ECOWAS, President Tinubu should have known that he has a critical responsibility to address the growing instability in West Africa, particularly the fallout from recent military coups, which, if left unchecked, could trigger more military adventurism.

The president and his handlers should also be gravely concerned about the geopolitical implications of the three Sahelian countries’ dalliance with foreign powers like Russia and China.

By choosing to prioritize visiting France over meaningful dialogue with ECOWAS's aggrieved member states, Tinubu is not only abdicating his responsibilities but also undermining Nigeria’s leadership in the region. This failure to act decisively risks further weakening ECOWAS and diminishing Nigeria’s influence in the subregion.

Let us not pretend that France is no longer the global power it once was. Look at the statistics here: (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)).

And why does Tinubu think that a country whose economy struggles with stagnation, high unemployment, and rising debt can assist him?

The truth is that it is France that needs Africa more than Africa needs it, and it is the French who should be coming to us with begging bowls in supplication. Maybe the Nigerian leader should have asked his counterpart in neighboring Niger what help France had given to his country despite providing the uranium that lit up France’s Electricity while his people continued to sleep in darkness.

For Tinubu to seek partnership with a declining power like France, especially given its antagonistic history towards Nigeria, is a strategic blunder. It is regrettable.

Tinubu’s finding time for ceremonial visits to France, when he has failed to travel to or meet with the leaders of the Sahel nations to seek a resolution to the regional instability, could only further diminish Nigeria’s leadership in what is traditionally considered its backyard.

Those of us old enough to remember the progressive Pan-African foreign policy thrust of Murtala Mohammed/Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime, led by the dashing Joe Garba, can only groan in pain as we watch Tinubu smiling with Macron like a sated Cheshire Cat that stole a meal.

1. Economic Reforms: Focus on domestic policies that attract investment organically, reducing the need for costly foreign trips. Serious Investors have all the information they need on where to pitch their tent. No amount of presidential trips will persuade people to invest in a nation that not only lacks the basics of facilities and infrastructure but is plagued by every description of security challenges.

In many articles, we have advanced the argument that leaders like Tinubu, who believe that their trips help their country’s quest for FDI, miss the fact that foreign investors have all the information they need to make their investment choices. They hardly need to be persuaded. What the Singaporeans, the Chinese, and the Malaysians did was invest in infrastructure and create an enabling environment. Investors flocked in on their own accord.

1. Strategic Alliances: Rather than go begging in Western capitals whose economies are in serious decline, Nigeria should forge partnerships with nations that align with its economic and security interests, such as China, India, Iran, Brazil, and South Korea.

France's interests, like those of the Collective West, are diametrically opposed to those of Nigeria and Africa. The West wants cheap raw materials from Africa, and it has never hidden its mentality of “Why pay for it when you can kill for it?” To pretend otherwise is naively dangerous, as Ghadafi discovered to his eternal grief.

“We came, we saw, he died!” That was how Obama’s Secretary of State Clinton callously put it.

President Tinubu’s misguided pilgrimage to France at this critical juncture is a symbolic and strategic misstep. By prioritizing ceremonial engagements over substantive regional leadership, he risks alienating his disillusioned populace and his restless neighbors in the Sahel.

Where is the wisdom in Tinubu in finding time for Macron and France when his own house is in disarray or when ECOWAS has splintered?

The time is ripe for African leaders to grow up, abandon their silly pursuit of “friends,” and embrace foreign policies that serve their nations’ true interests. China and India offer them good examples of how to pursue multi-vector foreign policy anchored on true independence and national sovereignty without wasting time indulging in sanctimonious hypocrites about friendships and other emotional rigmaroles.

Only then can Nigeria - and Africa as a whole - begin to reclaim its sovereignty and chart a path toward genuine development and independence.

France’s antagonistic history towards Nigeria and Africa, its unrelenting exploitative policies, and its declining global influence do not recommend it as a suitable partner for Nigeria.

Rather than pursuing symbolic alliances with former colonial powers with dubious values, Nigerian leaders should focus their attention on addressing domestic challenges, strengthening regional cooperation, and pursuing pragmatic, interest-driven foreign policies anchored on regional integration and solid Pan-Africanism.

One day, the story of what Western leaders have on African misrulers like Tinubu to turn them into pliant Zombies will be revealed!

©️ Fẹ́mi Akọ́mọ‌láfẹ́(Farmer, Writer, Published Author, Essayist, and Social Commentator.)

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