The democratic space in West Africa has not been a smooth one of recent. It has been defined by one coup after the other, most if not all of them emitting high voltage rhetoric against France. So, what is the connection? Are these coups the rupturing of the French Empire in its West African axis at last or France’s own skillful way of overcoming temporary turbulence by instrumentalizing the coup card?
This is the puzzle scholars at the Department of Political Science and International Studies at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria will be unpacking under the title “ECOWAS Crisis: French Neocolonialism and the Return of Coups in West Africa” on April 17th, 2024. It will be led by Prof Jibrin Ibrahim for whom this will be some kind of home coming. The Department was where he trained and taught some four decades back.
French trained, French speaking and French networked, particularly in Africa, Prof Ibrahim may be offering his listeners a knockout intervention on the subject. But we all do not require physical presence in Zaria to be part of the potentially combustible conversation because of the intoxicating power of the word ‘imperialism’ in Nigeria. Non-residents can join the event through a zoom link provided along with the invite as follows: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3aDJoUoSq9mvBwCy_Ru9msBreA9oepGtwQV7eT7R99t5s1%40thread.tacv2/1712866439518?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22e294d653-4a87-4e4b-a752-1efe59654aeb%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%223dc23044-6fb7-4095-a772-c458de9af214%22%7d
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