Recent Development In ECOWAS: Africa’s Opportunity To Build New Bridges, Alliances, Says RFI DG

The Director General of Radio France International (RFI), Mr. Jean Marc, has stated that the latest development in ECOWAS presents an opportunity for Africa to build new bridges and alliances.

Marc, who spoke in response to the withdrawal of Francophonie countries Mali, Niger Republic, and Burkina Faso from ECOWAS, said it is all about Africa’s autonomy, equal partnership, and building new bridges.

“In my opinion, it is good news that France has lost control because we don’t have to control, not in 2024. It doesn’t make sense and won’t work. What is perfectly clear is that each African country wants and tries to develop by itself. Each African country wants to be autonomous from the UK, Russia, America. It is about building new bridges. It is about 50-50 sharing.

“The question lies with ECOWAS, not France, to decide what happens; if they are stronger economically united or separated. There are plenty of foreign interventions like Russia, that’s a fact; but it is up to African countries to choose who they align with.

“But this is also where the media can play a part in this form of alliances and peoples’ relations,” said Marc.

Stressing RFI’s independence from governmental control, Marc said the media works to provide as much in-depth coverage of the developments in ECOWAS, alongside several French journalists who critique the West’s activities in Africa.

On reporting terrorism, the director general said terrorism not only creates a black hole for information but is also a tricky subject of coverage when such entities seize legitimate power in a state.

Marc, responding to the grey areas and perspectives of terrorism, which depends on who is experiencing it, said, “History shows that what is called terrorism in the past becomes legal power a few years later. It has happened many times in history and will happen again. Nevertheless, terrorism is terrorism. In Nigeria, where an organisation like Boko Haram kills so many people and tortures them, it is terrorism.

“It is a very difficult and dangerous issue to report. Journalists are victims of it, and we have had two of our journalists killed in Mali too.”