By suspending visa processing for citizens of 75 countries—including 26 across Africa—the recent immigration policy shift from Washington has drawn a new map of global mobility. Speaking to Pan-African Frequency, Cameroonian political philosopher and founder of the Kheper think tank, Yamb Ntimba, reframes the exclusion as an opportunity, arguing that such pressures should catalyze a sovereign, collective response from Africa to invest in itself and leverage reliable partnerships that groups like BRICS offer.
“We have an opportunity with China, with Russia, with the BRICS today. Why don't we take all these opportunities and come and create our industries so that we could boost intra-trade[...] We have been working together with the Western world since so many centuries; I'm not so sure that the result is so interesting that we can applaud for it. So let's see the world in another way, and let's have other partners with whom we are able to create industries in Africa,” the expert indicated.
This philosophy is already materializing in the realm of diplomacy and trade. During the recent Future Minerals Forum held in Saudi Arabia, Matenokay Tingban, the minister of mines and energy of Liberia, and the Nigerian minister of solid minerals, Dele Alake, spoke with Sputnik Africa, and both officials highlighted that the approach is now characterized by sovereign negotiation in the face of a global scramble for critical minerals.
“On the issue of the global political landscape, we will not want ours [minerals] to be just politicized,” Tingban stated.
“We are open to business, doing business with anybody who shows a sense of responsibility to catalyze the Nigerian economy. And our business has to be on an equal exchange basis. It's no longer an unequal exchange basis, which was the model in the past. And we are changing that narrative. We are changing the paradigm. Now we are inviting investors to come and operate in Nigeria in a win-win situation. So Russia is welcome,” Alake noted.
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