Prof. Kwesi Aning, Head of the Office for International Cooperation at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), has asserted that Burkina Faso’s President, Ibrahim Traoré, is disliked by the West because he is using his country’s resources to benefit its citizens.
Speaking on The Point of View on Channel One TV with Bernard Avle, the Security Analyst argued that Traoré, along with other Sahelian leaders, is reshaping the narrative around governance and development in West Africa.
He likened Traoré’s ideology to that of Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and other pan-Africanist leaders, noting that the current generation of Sahel leadership is reviving long-held aspirations for African self-determination.
“The only problem of Ibrahim Traoré and the Nigerien leader is that they are using their resources for their people. So, when I talk about two epochs in Africa’s history that have conflated to give Traoré, the pan-Africanist stance that he’s enjoying. It is because Nkrumah and other earlier leaders have all become the [saviours] of what could have been.
“Traoré suddenly encapsulates all these epochs driving together, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to raise critical questions and to bring a different and new understanding to what development and security means,” he noted.
Prof. Aning also criticised Western countries for their failure to curb violent extremism in the region despite decades of involvement.
“All these western countries who are making noise about terrorism and extremism, they have been in these three countries for decades, they couldn’t bring the issues under control.
“Overnight, when these guys took over, the terrorists have become much more powerful, with better equipment, more mobile, with great intelligence access, and where is it coming from?”
Burkina Faso’s ties with Russia not a problem – Prof. Aning
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