Your Excellency,
Nations rise or fall not only by the strength of their armies or the wealth of their economies, but by the choices they make in moments of transition. West Africa today stands at such a crossroads. The region is reshaping itself as old alliances fade and new ones emerge, and the decisions taken now will echo for generations.
Across the Sahel and beyond, France’s once-dominant presence is collapsing. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have expelled French troops.¹ Senegal has reclaimed its French bases, while Côte d’Ivoire has renamed Abidjan’s French camp as its own.² One by one, the pillars of Paris’s influence are crumbling. In this shifting landscape, Ghana remains stable, democratic, and strategically placed — and therefore a natural target for renewed French engagement.
This concern is sharpened by recent events. Ghana has entered a USD 5.4 billion debt restructuring deal with its creditors-including France.³ At the very moment when Paris is losing its military foothold across West Africa, it finds a new channel of influence-financial leverage.
As Hon. James Gyakye Quayson, a Canadian who renounced his citizenship to qualify fully as a Ghanaian, rightly noted during his vetting as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs: “Investors do not invest simply for the love of a country; they invest because of something.”⁴ France’s engagement with Ghana is no act of altruism, but a pursuit of calculated interest.
History gives us cause for vigilance. During Nigeria’s civil war, France covertly backed the recognition of Biafra, weakening Nigeria while tightening its grip on francophone Africa.⁵ What stops similar methods from being tried here, whether through disinformation, covert funding, or economic dependency?
Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, France has also long used commerce as a tool of influence. Its support for Peugeot’s car manufacturing operations in Nigeria was not merely an act of investment, but a way to plant economic roots in West Africa’s largest market.⁶
Mr Minister, furthermore, France ensured that francophone West African countries were more open to Paris than to their English-speaking neighbours. This deliberate insulation frustrated regional integration and kept France at the centre of its economy and politics.⁷
Meanwhile, the Sahel crisis spreads. Extremists, arms, and mercenaries creep south. Reports already suggest links between the Bawku conflict and instability in Burkina Faso.⁸ Can Ghana stand unprepared?
Your Excellency, Mr President, the answer lies in a deliberate foreign policy of containment toward France. Containment is not hostility. It is vigilance. France’s history in West Africa shows that influence often begins with culture and commerce, then deepens into politics and security. Mr President, respectfully, if your authority will permit, we cannot allow Ghana to be drawn into that cycle again. Containment ensures Ghana is not the gateway for another round of French dominance in West Africa.
Containment should rest on four pillars:
Diplomatic containment. Engage France, yes, but balance it with Nigeria, the AU, and emerging powers.⁹
Economic containment. Resist aid dependency; build AfCFTA-driven trade and regional value chains.¹⁰
Security containment. Strengthen border surveillance, intelligence, and rapid-response forces — with trusted African partners first.
Cultural containment. Guard our schools, media, and public narratives so Ghanaian identity is never overshadowed.¹¹
France has long sparkled on the back of Africa’s wealth. Its glittering lights do not shine on their own; they are lit by Africa’s gold, cocoa, and uranium.¹² Yet while Paris dazzles with its glamorous lifestyle, the very hands that mine and harvest go hungry in Accra, Abidjan, Niamey, and beyond. Such is the imbalance we must guard against.
Your Excellency, the question is simple: as our neighbours push France out, will Ghana open the gate? Or will we stand as a shield — forward-looking, sovereign, unshaken?
As Nkrumah said: “We face neither East nor West; we face forward.”¹³ Let us then face forward with courage, not caution; with clarity, not compromise. Let Ghana rise as the storm gathers -not as France’s last refuge, but as Africa’s firm ground, and as Africa’s rock-solid Black Star.
To contain France is not to close the door. It is to keep the key.
Respectfully yours,
Seth Kwame Awuku
sethawuku.sa@gmail.com
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Footnotes
- Al Jazeera, “Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger Expel French Forces,” October 2023.
- Reuters, “Senegal to Reclaim French Bases; Côte d’Ivoire Renames French Camp,” June 2024.
- Ministry of Finance, Ghana, Press Release on Debt Restructuring Agreement (Accra, July 2024).
- Parliament of Ghana, Report of the Appointments Committee on Hon. James Gyakye Quayson (Accra, 2025).
- John de St. Jorre, The Nigerian Civil War (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1972).
- Philippe Hugon, “French Economic Interests in Africa,” Journal of Modern African Studies 35, no. 2 (1997): 229–254.
- Tony Chafer, Franco-African Relations: No Longer So Exceptional? (African Affairs, 2002).
- International Crisis Group, Violence in Ghana’s Northern Borderlands (Brussels, 2023).
- African Union, AU Communiqué on West Africa Regional Security Cooperation (Addis Ababa, 2024).
- AfCFTA Secretariat, Annual Report on Intra-African Trade (Accra, 2023).
- Douglas Yates, French Cultural Diplomacy in Africa: Soft Power or Neo-Colonialism? (Paris: IFRI, 2019).
- Daniel Volman, “France, Uranium, and Africa’s Strategic Resources,” Review of African Political Economy 41, no. 140 (2014): 545–560; International Cocoa Organisation, Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics (2024); World Gold Council, Gold Mining in Africa Report (2023).
- Kwame Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite (London: Heinemann, 1963).