by Eze Eluchie,
When the
first tremors occurred with the resounding resolve of the British electorate to
pull their country out of the European Union, some optimists had wrongly
calculated the Brexit votes was merely an aberration that would be internally
reversed by efforts of some desperados to have a second Referendum Vote or
prolonged delaying tactics that would make the commencement of the exit of
Britain from the EU so long drawn out that it would not even ever be initiated.
This wishful thinking has since been dispelled with the hardline posture of the
new British Prime Minister, May, towards extricating Britain from the EU – a
hardline posture that is garnering increasing support from across the
increasingly populist and powerful extremist right-wing political actors that
now dominate the European landscape.
A greater
tremor, that would have registered a 10.0 on the Richter political scale,
occurred with the election of a man who campaigned clearly on a pedestal to
have an America-centric approach to global affairs; with promises to constrict
some of the major life-lines that provide succour to millions of peoples in the
African continent (remittances from Africans in diaspora); and threats to shut
down global governance and arbitration mechanisms which has been of immense life-sustaining benefit to
Africa.
To the
emerging right-wing political changes in Europe and the emergence of a
President Donald Trump in the US, the rulers of Africa, who it must be realized
are mainly geriatrics who might be oblivious of the monumental impact the
changes at the international arena will mean for their countries, have maintained
unholy silence, nonchalance and an uncanny things-will-continue-as-usual
attitude. One clear fact, however, is this: things will certainly not continue
as usual!
Whilst
countries in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America are strategizing and
preparing themselves for the fallouts of nationalistic fervour, akin to extreme
racism, across Europe and an inwards-focused United States where everything
will be about ‘America First’ and hitherto presumed trite facts upon which the
global order had been based, free trade and liberalization, were to be
discountenanced, the rulers of African states continue to maintain an extremely
irrational ostrich-like disposition to fundamental changes in global affairs, wallowing
in the presumption that the loot they are able to stash away in Europe and the
Americas will continue to act as cushion, shielding them from the angst of the
millions of Europeans and Americans whose disenchantment with the current
global order has led to the rise in right-wing nationalism and the ongoing
change in global order.
Recent
meetings of the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) held in the course of the past few months since
the quakes started with Brexit, have taken place without any formal recognition
of the imminent collapse of the European Union and its implications for the
various protocols and agreements entered between the various intra African
organizations jointly or severally, with the EU. Rather than discuss unified continental
approaches to addressing changes in Europe and the Americas or even preparing
their populations for the oncoming quakes, it’s been business as usual at the
various Summits of the AU, ECOWAS, SADC and the EAC, with the focus being the
usual mundane communiqués which by now most close watchers of these
intra-African organizations can recite off hand.
Some of the
questions which should be agitating the minds of African states as the new dawn
manifests ought to include: what becomes of the European Union-African
Caribbean Pacific (EU-ACP) Economic
Partnership Agreements {the Cotonou Agreements) upon which the bulk of trade
between the African continent and Europe is undertaken; and what becomes of the
African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) a carrot routinely dangled across
the face of African countries, by the US, as a means of access to the lucrative
American market? Amongst other issues.
Ordinarily,
one would have expected African states to seize upon the unravelling of Europe
to strive to extricate their economies from the stranglehold of the Cotonou
Agreements which basically undermined the value commodities which represent the
main contributions of African countries to global commerce whilst foisting
slave-era practices on African states to compel purchase of exorbitant European
products. US President Donald Trump’s insistence on ensuring ‘America First’,
such as when he announced at his Florida ‘campaign-style’ rally that he
approved the construction of contentious pipeline projects under the sole
condition that the pipes to be used in the projects were manufactured in the
USA, should, wherever possible, spur an equal Afro-centric insistence in use of
domestically produced goods and services and reliance on indigenous personnel in
all international contractual agreements with the US.
If sufficient
proactive measures are not taken by African states to unshackle the continent
and its over-exploited peoples from the burdens and chains foisted by past
agreements with the EU which are weighed against Africa, Africa may merely be
consigning itself to another lengthy bout of victimhood, of being serially
raped, used and dumped under the guise of international trade agreements. Wake up
Africa! The dawn of a new beginning is set.
Picture: Ostrich with heads in the sand.
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