The global economic market "should be open for all players" to trade, according to Dr. Mohammed Abubakar Mohammed, Senior Special Assistant on Solid Minerals Development to the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Government of Nigeria.
"When we are saying 'international market', we have multiple players. When it's now being [shrunk] with some kind of ban, some kind of sanctions on people, [...] that means you are being constrained into what you might not want to do, what might not favor you," Dr. Mohammed says.
Dr. Mohammed describes the effect of the sanctions imposed on Russia as "huge". He believes that the African continent should "have the liberty to negotiate" with whom it wants.
"The effect of this in Africa is that we will not have many friends as possible that we want to deal with, we want to trade with, and this is not good. We should have our freedom," he explains.
Sanctioning Russia's diamond supply could create a "bottleneck" by restricting the global market, instead of increasing it. The goal is "total control".
"Instead of the markets wide enough to accommodate, now they are removing people with this sanction of a thing. Now what do you expect? Instead of it to widen up, now it is closing up. They are creating what I call a "bottleneck". It's all about the politics of the region, what they want to dominate and how they want to be in total control," Dr. Mohammed elaborates.
To hear what else the expert had to say, check out the entire episode of the AfroVerdict podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.
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