Presidential monologue – Part 24

Good morning, Mr President. This issue I would have loved to talk about is the Democracy dinner hosted by you at the Villa which saw the presence of some of the pro-democracy activists who fought against military rule and birthed the prevailing civil rule in the country.

It is urgent due to the complaint of omission of eminent activists, dead or alive in your tribute by my younger comrade, Ms Yemisi Adelaja, daughter of Baba Omojola, a leading Nigerian left, and pro-democracy activist, a partisan of the Algerian liberation war, a Pan-Africanist and patriot of the highest degree with whom I associated with.

It became more compelling after reading Festus Adedayo’s piece entitled “Tinubu, Ibadan is angry!” published by The Cable, on June 16, 2024, where he equally gave accent to the omission.

However, as you journeyed south to witness Cyril Ramaphosa’s inauguration as South Africa’s President for a second term after remarkable peaceful elections where votes counted, I felt I should bring to your attention the neo-colonial inclinations of the Kenyan President, William Ruto, so that you can learn some lessons and avoid that path of egoistic betrayal of the African continent, more so given your faux pas over the coup in Niger that has seen the crack of ECOWAS.

At a private sector conference on African trade relations held in Nairobi earlier in May 2023, President William Ruto, President of Kenya, emphasised the need to have a platform for settlement in intra-African trade relations that has been hobbled by the use of the dollar. He would further accent this when he addressed the Djibouti parliament ex-cathedra in June 2023 by urging Africans to employ local currencies in trade within the continent.

He says; “Traders from Djibouti selling to Kenya and vice versa have to look for US dollars. How is US dollars part of the trade between Djibouti and Kenya? Why… Why members? Why is it necessary for us to buy things from Djibouti and pay in dollars? Why? There is no reason…?…And we are saying, Afrexim bank has given us a mechanism where traders in our continent can trade in their goods and services and the bank will settle payment in local currencies.”

He added a caveat, “We are not against the US dollar. We just want to trade more freely. Let us pay in US dollars what we are buying from the US. But what we are buying from Djibouti, let’s use local currency.”

For me, this was a patriotic outpouring. I was happy maybe this was the beginning of a leap for African unity and freedom from those I have labelled “Patrons of Poverty” in a book. Ruto has since metamorphosed and shown his true colours as a neo-colonial pawn.

His recent visit to the United States underscored his positionality. Pan-Africanism of a year ago amounted only to rhetoric. The optics of his appearance in the white house was one of a lapdog, grinning all through for the privilege of being in a building that was built with black slaves’ labour. At the end of it all, he signed a bondage: Kenya is a non-member ally of NATO. Dedan Kimathi of the Mau Mau fame would have turned in his grave for this huge betrayal of the sacrifice of Africans for our freedom. Ngugi wa Thiong’o captures the feeling of many pan-Africanists with his message to Ruto, which I crave your indulgence to reproduce here:

“Dear William Ruto,

“The images of your recent State visit to the USA were very disturbing to me and to every patriotic Kenyan.

“I saw you seated on a chair, grinning, while Biden stood behind you, his face beaming with satisfaction. Why not? He had just announced that you had signed off our beloved Kenya to make it a non-member ally of NATO. In other words you had agreed to become Nato’s errand boy in America’s struggle with Russia and China for access to resources of the continent.

“Ruto, do you know that NATO, murdered Muammar Gaddafi, so that Libyan oil-fields which Kaddafi had nationalized, would revert to the West? Kaddafi was once the chairman of the African Union of which Kenya was a founding member.

“But this other picture was no less disturbing. While you were inside the White House, Haitians were in the streets demonstrating, calling you a slave. Do you know the history of Haiti? Please read The Black Jacobins the book written by a once Jomo Kenyatta Pan African ally, C L R James.

“Haiti, now a Black people’s State, used to be a slave colony of France. But led by Toussaint Louverture, Haiti, the richest colony of its time, fought French slavery and in 1804 it seized its independence. In USA slavery was then in full bloom. America did not want its African slaves to emulate Haiti, and it has never forgiven Haiti for that, and thus begun the story of America’s destabilization of Haiti.

“Ruto do you see the irony of your actions? The USA, was originally a settler colony taking over the land that belonged to Native Americans. In 1776 The White settlers declared their independence from their English King. But the colonised Native Americans remained colonized. Kenya was equally a British settler colony. The white settlers wanted to have a similar kind of Independence. But the Mau Mau led by Dedan Kimathi stopped them.

“Years later, Algeria, Rhodesia and South Africa would follow the example of Kenya. Thus, the country you now lead, was the first to stop the historical trend of white settlers claiming themselves independent as in America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

“Ruto, you have chosen to betray that history of pride.

“Ruto, you have chosen to become an agent of the West? Ruto, you have chosen to sell your country cheap.

“Why, oh, Why?”

Mr. President, Africa needs freedom from the forces of imperialism that have held the continent down for over six hundred years, if Africa would enjoy, God’s abundant endowment. So beware. In case, you are wondering whether I have jettisoned the matter of heroes of democracy; I have not. I will come back to it next week.

Akhaine is Professor of Political Science at the Lagos State University.