Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa and Ethiopia under the auspices of the “G4” Nations last week in Brussels, Belgium, opened discussions on strategies to strengthen the platform for the resolution of the various issues confronting the African continent.
Leaders of the four nations who met on the sideline of the just ended 6th European Union-African Union Summit at Brussels, also discussed crisis areas in Africa with a view to coming up with practical and effective solutions.
President Buhari and his colleagues stressed the need to reinvigorate the G4 within the African Union (AU) as a platform for bringing African countries closer, coordinating actions and reactions for the whole continent in a more proactive manner and looking at how decisions in the AU could be better implemented. They agreed to convene a formal summit to chart a road map for the continent in the coming months.
The G4 Platform, an initiative of the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, was set up to brainstorm and proffer solutions as well as aggregate positions to ensure that the AU carries its work forward successfully, efficiently and quickly too.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a statement said President Buhari also held a bilateral meeting with the President of Czech Republic, Milos Zeman who renewed his country’s trust in the Nigerian leader and Nigeria as the most important country in ECOWAS as well as one of Africa’s greatest.
The Czech Republic leader expressed the readiness of his country to revitalise the Joint Commission mechanism between the two countries in order to enhance qualitative relationship and diplomacy.
He specifically expressed interest and desire for more robust collaboration and partnership in military cooperation and especially in equipment to assist Nigeria to enhance her security capabilities.
President Zeman invited Nigeria’s minister of health to attend a consultative meeting of highly respected countries in Prague in May 2022, and also extended an invitation to President Buhari to visit his country in the course of 2022, an invitation the Nigerian leader accepted in principle.
Meanwhile, Josep Borrell, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, has stated that France will not abandon Mali and Sahel in the thick of their battles against insurgency.
Borrell, who spoke at the 6th EU-AU summit in Brussels, explained that France was only just restructuring to meet the present political presence.
In a joint announcement from the Élysée Palace on Thursday, France and allied nations announced that they were withdrawing troops from Mali due to a breakdown in relations with the ruling junta after nine years of fighting a jihadist insurgency.
However, Borrell maintained that in a discussion he had with Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, the withdrawal did not mean total abandonment, but a ploy to restructure to meet the political position on the ground.
“African problem is European’s problem. France is withdrawing, but not abandoning Mali and Sahel, it is just restructuring to suit the new political situation.
We are African best friends. The biggest investors in the continent, and we’ll continue to support Mali and Sahel,” Borrell said.
After France had helped Mali to oust the jihadists group deteriorating relations with Mali’s new military leaders, who seized power in a 2020 coup, prompted France to reconsider its role in the country.
This ugly development made France and its African and European allies declare withdrawal from Mali.
Emmanuel Macron had in a press conference stated that victory against terror was not possible if it was not supported by the state itself. Besides, Macron completely rejected the idea that France had failed in its mission in the country.
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“French bases in Gossi, Menaka, and Gao would close but the withdrawal would be carried out in an “orderly” manner,” Macron said.
The withdrawal applies to both 2,400 French troops in Mali and a smaller European force of several hundred that was created in 2020 with the aim of lessening the burden on French forces.
The Mali deployment has been fraught with problems for France. Out of the 53 French soldiers killed serving in West Africa, 48 of them died in Mali.
The Sahel crisis entered its tenth year by 2021. And despite the transnational nature of the crisis, each country has experienced different patterns of violence and transformations in the midst of a protracted conflict.
Many African opinion leaders are questioning the benefits of the Africa-Euro relationship. Some leaders are even pointing accusing fingers at the former colonial masters as being behind the many insurgency cases in sub-Saharan Africa.
