The non-aligned movement returns to fight neo-colonialism

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” said Winston Churchill – Britain’s second world war leader. He was talking of how his country’s failure to re-arm after the first world war made a second conflict inevitable. But he could just as easily have been talking about colonialism – something, ironically, this great liberator of Europe believed should have continued in Africa and Asia after WWII was won.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which Nigeria helped establish was founded in those post war years precisely to protect against a repeat of the colonialist project. As country after country achieved its independence, many joined NAM, and the organisation became a powerful voice for freedom in the Cold War world: neither with the capitalist West or the communist East – but a “third pole”, strong and tall.

NAM was a power broker – the “swing votes” at the UN – courted by east and west. It was a force for the formerly oppressed, its sheer existence proof most of the world refused to come down on either side.

Yet, as Churchill opined, countries such as ours may have failed to learn from history. Without a counterforce against colonialism, there is always a chance for it to repeat, just in a different form for a different age.

Indeed, since the end of the Cold War, NAM went to sleep. Meetings became sporadic, and many believed the organisation without a purpose or future.

But it is clear today the battle against colonialism was not completed in those post-War years. What was not defeated was replaced by neo colonialism – the control of countries though independent in name through many means, but namely through the media, money, and debt. NAM’s purpose was far from done.

To be fair to Great Britain, the world’s foremost “old” colonizer, apologies have been given – most recently by King Charles III during a visit to Kenya. Today Britain seeks partnerships in the world based on mutual respect, for instance with Nigeria the beneficiary of the country’s new, generous post-Brexit preferential trade scheme which eliminates more than 3,000 tariffs on Nigerian exports to the UK including cocoa, plantain, flowers, and fertilizer. This scheme represents far in excess of what is offered to Nigeria by the EU and US.

But Britain’s leading former colonial competitor – France – is now eagerly being waited for such equivalent statements of sorrow. They mustn’t continue to this day as the world’s leading neo-colonial force.

In west and central Africa France is accused of by citizens of the so-called independent countries of hamstringing their nations decades after colonialism was supposed to have ended, through control of two currencies – the west and central African francs – used by 14 African countries. These nations, as is widely reported, must deposit at least 50% of their foreign assets in the French Treasury, clearly a way for France to maintain economic dominance over them. In the last twelve months, country after country in French-speaking Africa have demanded French military, diplomats, and business interests leave.

In other parts of the world, France is accused of refusing to allow any further independence in the French territory of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. After three independence referenda, with last of these in 2021, the general belief among many is that this was intentionally derailed by security pressure.

French neo-colonial interests even extend to countries never part of their former empire. In the last two years, the hands of France are feared to be the ones that derailed a peace process in the south Caucasus in favour of Armenia, a country where they seek arms sales. French diplomats have publicly rebuked Azerbaijan – Armenia’s neighbour – and emboldened the million-strong Armenian diaspora in France to pressure the French National Assembly to pass laws against Azerbaijan while vilifying the country in its media.

In an unlikely coincidence, Azerbaijan is the current chair of NAM. Or, perhaps, it is no coincidence at all. Azerbaijan has sought to win back a quarter of the territory of its country known as Nagorno-Karabakh illegally occupied by Armenian nationalists for three decades, in attempts that warranted a 44-day war in 2020 and then a 24-hour military operation in 2023.

France must support efforts for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia by working with the European Union-led negotiations to resolve outstanding issues between the two neighbouring states. To strengthen international law as many have observed, France should also restrain their senior politicians from needlessly dabbling in conflicts in the region in attempts to manipulate events to court French-Armenian votes at home.

Standing up against such attempts of geopolitical manipulation is exactly what NAM was created for. Under Azerbaijan’s leadership the group has widely recognised as revived, with international media as far afield as Australia confirming “there is life in the Non-Aligned Movement yet”.

In January 2024 Azerbaijan passes the chairmanship baton to Uganda – a country also under pressure from neo-colonialist powers who demand this deeply conservative country rescind a law on child protection so modern western social mores can be taught in their schools. The Ugandans reject this – and Nigeria should also reject neo-colonialist demands on this fellow, independent and sovereign African country.

NAM is back, and all its members starting with Nigeria have a duty to – and benefit from – ensuring that it flourishes. Without a constant international group to stand up against neo-colonialism both western and eastern, the world will be poorer, less safe, and more prone to conflict. Churchill was certainly right on that lesson from history for the modern day.

Shehu is a journalist and former presidential spokesman