At 35, Captain Ibrahim Traore is the youngest Head of State in the world. He is the interim President and Supreme Military Leader of Burkina Faso. He took power in a military coup in September 2022 and is barely eleven months in office.
For a young man who joined the army in 2009 and has suddenly risen to become his country’s “Supreme Military Leader” speaks volumes of the kind of country he must come from. With less than 12,000 soldiers and a population such as that of Lagos, Burkina Faso is a weak military state.
And to imagine that almost 40% of the country is under the control of rampaging Islamist Jihadists further lends credence to the fact that Burkina Faso has poor defensive capabilities.
It is therefore amusing as well as insulting to all sane Africans who desire the growth of democracy in the continent to hear Ibrahim Traore threaten to attack any ECOWAS force that invades the Niger Republic to restore its deposed President Bazoum. Apart from being unable to defend his own country, it’s eminently clear that Burkina Faso’s military president must be a big-time joker.
The idea of some weak helpless African countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and, now Niger, trying to shift alliances to Russia is misplaced. Russia is so economically battered and militarily constrained that it can’t help any of these countries. At most, it will only exploit their mineral resources and expose them to a greater danger of extremist attacks by the marauders.
Of training and resources, Russia’s WAGNER Group cannot be a reliable military partner. It is a profit-minded fighting group. Simply put – Soldiers of Fortune! Such a group has nothing altruistic or even economically rewarding to offer any country. It simply fights for profit. The problem in Africa is with African leadership. We must stop blaming colonial masters and learn to hold our leaders more accountable.
My advice to President Tinubu and ECOWAS is not to be deterred by the threat of conflict escalation. This is the time to put a stop to the emerging trend of military incursions in politics. Africans must be united on this.
Read Also: Niger Brink and ECOWAS’ Resolve Against Coup Plotters
Failure to achieve this objective now would further embolden the likes of Ibrahim Traore, Assimi Goita of Mali, and Omar Tchiani of Niger to replicate themselves in other African countries.
CRIPT CREDIT: Facebook.com / Uzogara Tobechukwu
Disclaimer: “The views/contents expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of Uzogara Tobechukwu and do not necessarily reflect those of The World Satellite (TWS). TWS will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article.”
