French President Emmanuel Macron has welcomed President Bola Tinubu to the Élysée Palace on Thursday, the first state visit by a Nigerian leader in more than two decades. Paris is seeking to expand its influence on the continent to include English-speaking nations after former colonies Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso cut ties with France and veered towards Russia.
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday began a two-day visit to France, with both sides seeking increased economic cooperation and Paris looking to boost ties in English-speaking Africa following a series of setbacks with former allies on the continent.
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Macron has sought a “renewal” between Paris and Africa since his 2017 election, and after military coups and changing attitudes lessened France’s influence on the continent.
The trip is “an opportunity to deepen the already dynamic relationship between France and Nigeria,” Macron’s office said.
For Nigeria, which has been battling soaring inflation and food prices, the visit represents an opportunity to tap economic investment.
Nigeria was looking to build ties in “agriculture, security, education, health, youth engagement, innovation, and energy transition,” Tinubu’s office said in a statement, adding that the president had landed in Paris on Wednesday evening.
He and Macron will also address “shared values concerning finance, solid minerals, trade and investment, and communication,” it added.
Paris’s pivot towards English-speaking Africa signals Macron’s desire to reverse the country’s declining influence on the continent, with visits to Nigeria in 2018, South Africa in 2021, and Ethiopia in 2019.
France suffered a blow when a series of coups from 2020 hit its former colonies in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
Banding together, the military rulers who took power then broke off ties with former colonial ruler France and veered towards Russia.
The three Sahel countries are battling jihadist violence that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
(AFP)