Obinna Fidelis, PhD

I've just come out of a conversation with a contact who is engaged in the Sahel, and the one piece of advise I have for the multiple Burkinabés from media, academia and civil society who are currently being contacted by the usual suspects to lend their vocal and intellectual support to the artificial anti-Traoré bandwagon that Paris and DC are putting together is this: Remember that there is nothing special about you. The same way they're reaching out to you and acting as if they respect you and your work, is the same way they've reached out to many of us across the sub-region. I promise you are not special to them at all. You're just useful. For now. The respect and reverence they are treating you with is the same affected "respect" they have bamboozled us with for 500 years, because they know that nothing gets a black man's pussy wet like receiving "respect" and "honour" from his European overlords. They did the same thing in Nigeria between 2011 and 2015. Every squirrel, antelope, Aisha, Dipo, and Japheth who offered even the mildest criticism of Goodluck Jonathan was immediately carried aloft and paraded around as a champion of this and that by the oyibos. It didn't take them long to figure out that "Jonathan Must Go" was their ticket to what seemed like everlasting favours, treats, and funding from oyibo, and they all started unanimously pushing to oust the president that took Nigeria to #1 economy in Africa and 3rd fastest growing on the planet. Many of these people didn't even dislike Goodluck Jonathan - they just saw that pretending as if Nigeria was being ruled by Pol Pot was their ticket out of poverty and obscurity. Some of them built this career grift in 24 months all the way from Twitter into Chevening scholarships, IVLPs, Mandela Washington Fellowships, speaking appearances in Taiwan, Canadian passports, etc etc. But those were only the lucky few. The vast majority of this demographic got discarded like a used pure water bag immediately the oyibos got their desired regime change. Since they got their regime change, Nigeria has fallen off a cliff from #1 to #4 in Africa, losing over 60% of GDP in just 10 years. I will repeat that for emphasis. While other countries in Africa grew at 2-5% annually over the past 10 years, Nigeria SHRANK by over 60%, and you can now find Nigerians desperately searching for a better life in Burkina Faso, Algeria, Mali, Libya, Tunisia, Liberia, and even Niger which used to hold the title of "poorest country in the world." Most of the loudmouths who helped make this a reality have fallen back into obscurity and poverty. Many of them are in their 40s and 50s now, and they're still busy chasing gigs and hunting for $1000 here, $2,500 there. A few of them did become puppet unicorns, but the vast majority are back to being absolutely nobody 10 years after they allowed foreign attention and dollars to override their natural caution and stampede them into the 2nd worst ever national mistake in Nigeria's history after the completely unnecessary civil war. Many of them walk around in a constant state of confusion now, unable to understand why their lives are much worse nowadays, and the oyibos who seemingly cared so much about whatever they had to say between 2011 and 2015 are no longer answering the phone or replying messages. If you allow these same oyibos to inflate your egos and use it to push your mouths into parroting their narrative for their own geopolitical goals, the exact same thing will happen to you. Before you allow the thirst for white people's validation and money to shape your responses to the questions they are currently deluding you with, just ask yourself this one question: All those years when Burkina Faso was the deadest country on the planet and Blaise Campaore's regime was shooting Burkinabés dead in the street, where were all these bleeding heart white people? Why didn't they care then? Why do they care about Ibrahim Traoré now? What is this REALLY about? 💡