Russia Takes Burkina Faso Nuclear

What the strengthening of alliances between African leaders and Putin could mean for the continent and international relations with former colonial powers

Electricity. A commodity that most people reading this take for granted. If you grew up anywhere in West Africa as I did however, the luxury of that sense of comfort is categorically not the case.

In Nigeria the national power authority was called NEPA, the National Electric Power Authority. However we had another name for it; Never Expect Power Always. The sad thing was this wasn’t an exaggeration. If you had a full 24 hours of electricity you would start saying prayers and wondering what you did to deserve such favour. If you mentioned ‘ah we still have light how…’ people would shut you up, ‘please oh, don’t say anything ah ah, you want NEPA to hear you!?’ That is how guys were living.

I give you this preface because this experience is shared by most African nations, especially west Africa. So you can imagine my elation when I heard that Captain Traore of Burkina Faso struck a deal with Putin for Russia to build a nuclear power plant in the west African country. There are many reasons why I feel this matters to our continent and I will attempt to unpack it from someone who dreams of a day when electricity is no longer an issue in Alkebulan.