Tidiani TOGOLA
Founder and CEO Tuwindi
Baco Djicoroni ACI, Bamako

Bamako, May 16, 2022

To

HE Mr Emmanuel MACRON
President of the French Republic

Subject : Your re-election, a chance to start afresh with Mali and Africa

Mister President,

I would like to congratulate you on your re-election to the supreme office of the French Republic.

This new five-year term represents, in my view, an opportunity to reorient your country’s relations with its partners in Africa. Improved relations, new ties with French-speaking and English-speaking Africa, which you were already calling for in your speech delivered in 2017 at the University of Ouagadougou.

Five years later, you will agree that there is still a long way to go to break with the traumas of the past. You will allow me to save the tense and deleterious context which prevails today between France and a number of African countries, including my own, Mali.

These upheavals, I am convinced, have not altered your will to move forward, nor that, on the continent, of all those who aspire to uninhibited, frank, respectful, egalitarian and mutually beneficial relations between the France and African countries.

I’m part of. This is why, without pretention, I would like to make proposals, carrying the voice of many Malians of my generation who refuse to throw the handle after the ax.

It seems essential to me to resolve the diplomatic crisis and to re-establish a frank, sincere and above all equal dialogue in the interest of our two peoples.

In this regard, I propose to restore technical and economic cooperation between France and Mali. I welcome the maintenance of cultural cooperation and the desire to continue supporting the Malian people through civil society organizations.

My country, my people, needs partners with whom relations are mutually beneficial. This can only be done if the partnership makes it possible to express our divergent points of view in strict compliance with the codes of diplomacy and if it takes into account the aspirations of the various peoples and their diaspora.

Inclusive involvement of Malian civil society in the processes of development and promotion of democracy and the rule of law should be done in good intelligence and in a transparent manner.

Development aid should be transparent for the people of Mali and French taxpayers. It would be better served by an accountability mechanism to better assess its effectiveness.

The private sector should not be outdone in strengthening economic cooperation relations between your country and Africa in general and Mali in particular.

Re-establishing direct communication with our authorities, according to the codes of diplomacy, despite the antecedents would be a symbol of greatness.

I urge you to take the height necessary to listen and hear our truths, which may be at odds with yours, but which are often the result of frustrations and sometimes misunderstandings.

Lasting and productive relationships are based on truths and the ability to understand their origins, even if they are sometimes difficult to hear.

We must learn from our cooperation by accepting everyone to call themselves into question, in order to achieve our inevitable common destiny: achieve economic and social development, deal with terrorism and the upsurge in crime and human rights violations, better respond to environmental challenges, controlling demography, creating decent jobs for young people and supporting our States to gradually free themselves from aid and industrialise. The purpose is to ensure the well-being of our respective populations and their development.

I have little doubt that our relations will end up being normal, given the geopolitical and geostrategic stakes of the moment. I draw your attention to the fact that the authorities, whatever their mode of accession to power, are always temporary, unlike peoples who are permanent. Their well-being should therefore be our only compass.

Sometimes in times of crisis, the voices that carry are not the ones that make the most sense. It takes a lot of attention and wisdom to hear the sometimes deafening silence of the vast majority.

I urge you to restore cooperation with our country for the benefit of our peoples and to plead with regional and international institutions to do the same to alleviate the suffering of the Malian people.

Mr. President of the Republic, I reiterate my sincere congratulations and hope that these words from the Malian citizen of Africa that I am, who believe in openness and in the positive force of a respectful and mutually beneficial partnership between States and their peoples, will resonate with you.

Please accept, Mr President of the Republic, the assurances of my best regards.

Tidiani TOGOLA