By Mukhtar Imam

AS the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) rounded off, the world finds itself at an inflexion point. Great power competition is no longer an abstract concept — it is shaping trade flows, military alliances, financial systems, and the very language of global governance.

Yet, amid the cacophony of speeches and resolutions that filled the UN halls in New York, there is a message African leaders must not only hear but internalise.

It is a message that was not delivered at the UN but in Beijing: Vladimir Putin’s recent words — a sober warning to the West and a clarion call to the Global South — should serve as a mirror for Africa’s ruling class.

Putin’s statement, sharp and deliberate, was not merely a defence of Russian interests. It was a civilisational rebuke of a Western system that still seeks to dictate rather than engage, to dominate rather than respect.

His words resonate far beyond Moscow, Delhi, or Beijing — they should echo in Addis Ababa, Abuja, Nairobi, and Pretoria. Africa, home to 1.4 billion people and abundant resources, remains the last frontier of neocolonial manipulation. Unless African leaders draw the right lessons, they risk being mere spectators as the world moves toward a new multipolar order.

Ultimatums Don’t Work on Civilisations — Africa Included
The age of ultimatums — political, economic, or military — is over.

That is the heart of Putin’s argument, and it applies just as powerfully to Africa as it does to India and China. For centuries, Africa was treated as an open quarry, carved up at conferences like Berlin in 1884–85, stripped of its resources, and denied agency.

Today, the tools are more sophisticated — conditional loans, currency manipulation, sanctions, and “human rights” lectures that come with strings attached — but the effect is the same.

African nations are pressured to pick sides in conflicts that do not serve their interests, to open markets on terms they do not set, and to embrace governance models designed elsewhere.

The question that Putin implicitly poses to the Global South is simple: for how long will civilisations continue to be managed like colonies? Putin’s words are a clear message that the colonial mindset never died; it merely changed costume.

Gunboats and red coats have been replaced with sanctions, tariffs, conditional loans, and moral ultimatums. African nations are told which wars to condemn, which currencies to trade in, which allies to shun, and which economic models to adopt — often under the threat of losing aid, credit ratings, or access to global markets.

It is high time African leaders woke up to the realisation that Africa is not a charity case. It is a continent of 1.4 billion people, vast resources, and untapped potential. If India and China can stand firm against economic blackmail, why can’t Africa? If Russia can turn sanctions into self-reliance, why must African economies continue to beg for debt forgiveness instead of building their own resilience?

Ukraine is a mirror — Not a distraction

Some in Africa see the Ukraine war as a distant European quarrel, irrelevant to African realities. But this is a mistake. What is happening in Ukraine is not merely about borders in Eastern Europe — it is about the right of nations to resist being folded into someone else’s strategic design.

The West’s approach to Russia — isolate, sanction, contain — is the same playbook it uses on African states that resist its prescriptions. Whether it is the Central African Republic, Mali, Niger or Sudan working with non-Western partners for security, or Zimbabwe rejecting IMF dictates, the response is always punishment, never partnership. Africa must choose dignity over dependency.

As Putin noted, countries like India and China have refused to be bullied. They have built resilience: energy security, technological independence, and financial autonomy. Africa must do the same — not merely in rhetoric but in action.

This requires several steps. Economic Sovereignty: Establishing regional value chains, boosting intra-African trade under the AfCFTA, and moving away from commodity dependence that leaves economies vulnerable to external shocks.

Currency and financial independence: Strengthening African currencies, exploring continental settlement systems that bypass the dollar, and reducing exposure to debt denominated in foreign currencies.

Strategic non-alignment: Refusing to be conscripted into great-power conflicts. Africa must be free to engage with Moscow, Beijing, Washington, or Brussels based on interest, not intimidation.

Civilisational confidence: Reclaiming the narrative that Africa is not a problem to be solved but a partner to be respected. This means rejecting foreign prescriptions that undermine traditional systems of governance, culture, and identity.

Multipolarity is Africa’s opportunity

The West is not the only game in town anymore. Russia, China, India, Turkey, Brazil, and even Gulf states (BRICS) are willing to engage Africa on new terms — infrastructure-for-resources deals, technology transfers, security partnerships, and education exchanges. Multipolarity gives Africa leverage. But leverage only works if it is used. African leaders must negotiate like stewards of a great civilisation, not like supplicants in a donor conference.

A spiritual and historical reckoning

This moment is more than geopolitics — it is spiritual. For 500 years, Africa has lived under systems designed by others. Colonialism was not merely political domination; it was psychological warfare, teaching Africans to doubt their own capacity to govern and to see external validation as the highest form of legitimacy. Putin’s message — that civilisations do not take ultimatums — is an invitation for Africa to complete its own decolonisation, both materially and mentally.

African leaders must stop outsourcing the continent’s future to foreign capitals and start thinking like stewards of a civilisation with its own destiny. The memory of colonial exploitation is not just history — it is a warning. Those who forget it are doomed to repeat it.

The future will not wait

As the leaders of Africa gathered in New York for UNGA 80 and listened to their Western counterparts deliver lofty speeches about democracy, rules-based order, and global responsibility, Africa must listen politely — and then act in its own interest. These leaders must ask themselves whether they will keep playing the game of dependency or embrace the new world taking shape. The Global South is no longer whispering — it is speaking with confidence.

The West may threaten collapse, but Africa must learn to say, as Gerry Nolan puts it, “then collapse.” Africa must not be a pawn in someone else’s endgame. It must be an architect of the future — a future where no one issues ultimatums to civilisations, where no one dictates under threat, and where dignity, not coercion, is the currency of global relations. The message is clear: the age of empire is over. The question is whether Africa will act like it.

Imam, a Professor of International Relations and Diplomacy at Al Muhibbah University, Abuja can be reached on: mukhtarimam01@gmail.com