THE REFORM OF THE FRANC CFA: THE CHALLENGE OF THE FUTURE IVOIRIAN PARLIAMENT.
The bill on the monetary cooperation agreement between France and the West African Monetary Union (WAMU) was ratified by the National Assembly on December 10, 2020 and adopted by the Senate on January 28, 2021 on behalf of the African peoples of the ‘UMOA, without their opinion as if the “French Empire” was reborn and affirmed the continuity of its full sovereignty over its former colonies.
“The order in which the ratifications of the new monetary agreement are carried out is in itself suspect. Why is France the first country to ratify this agreement, when logically it should have waited until the countries directly concerned had done so first? “Declared PCF deputy Jean-Paul Lecoq to the French National Assembly.
Jean-Paul Lecoq’s legitimate suspicion raises several questions: what has changed and what remains unchanged? what is at stake?
First, what has changed?
Three evolutions structure the new agreement
1. The first is the name change. It is about moving from the CFA Franc to the Eco, name usurped in ECOWAS having initiated a single currency called the Eco for the fifteen countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) composed from UMOA countries and outside UMOA including Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Cape Verde etc.
2. The second is the end of the centralization of 50% of foreign exchange reserves with the French treasury;
3. The third is the withdrawal of France from the governing bodies of the UMOA but which can, in the event of a crisis, appoint a representative to the BCEAO monetary policy committee.
Then what is left unchanged?
1. The fixed parity with the Euro;
2. The guarantee of unlimited convertibility. In the event of a shock to the external accounts of the UMOA, France provides the necessary sums in euros.
3. French tutoring in the event of a crisis.
Finally, what’s at stake?
For Jean Yves LEDRIAN who presented the bill, the fixed parity, the guarantee of unlimited convertibility and the French tutoring in the event of a crisis, are justified by the control of external shocks, the rate of inflation, the attractiveness of investments .
In the direction of the French parliamentarians who voted and the future Ivorian parliamentarians, it is important to remember that the attraction of Africa by China is not conditioned by a fixed parity of the CFA with the Yuan or the Chinese tutoring but by investment opportunities in Africa while respecting sovereignties. This fine discourse of attractiveness did not prevent the former French colonies in North Africa from having their own currency without fixed parity or tutoring, but nevertheless, from being more resistant to external shocks and more attractive.
In reality, monetary agreements make it possible to ensure a certain continuity of the colonial order: deprive Africans of their savings and therefore of the power to produce what they import with the consequence of making them consumers of finished products and producers of raw materials at low prices.
Through the triple mechanism of the operating account, management of WAMU gold reserves and unlimited convertibility, France facilitates the drainage of public and private savings from the CFA zone to the French treasury and French banks. A part of the resources thus drained returns in the form of debt and foreign direct investment, to the detriment of African treasuries and investors.
Moreover, unlimited convertibility only concerns economic operators in the Euro zone who convert their assets into Euro to transfer them under the best conditions to Europe.
As for the WAMU states, they are forced to take the path that leads to the IMF when they are in need of foreign exchange, while the yellow gold which can allow them to build up strategic reserves and guarantee the stability of the framework. macroeconomic, continues to be looted by armed mercenaries transformed into illegal gold miners for the benefit of the Bank of France as well as brown gold (cocoa) which continues to be bought at low price by the sponsors of the order colonial and their allies.
While states take the path of the IMF, the children of impoverished peasants take the path of emigration, forbidden to travel to Europe while their wealth is welcomed with open arms.
By deciding to transfer the foreign currency reserves of the WAMU countries to the BCEAO without saying anything about the other agreements on the management of the gold stock and unlimited convertibility, this probably means the transfer of reserves from the French treasury to the banks France through new guarantee agreements not yet published.
Through this operation, France draws a triple advantage:
• strengthen French banks;• allow the French treasury to no longer pay interest to countries but to borrow at rates lower than the rate charged by the operating account mechanism;
• defeat the ECOWAS Eco project.
As for Africa, a door is opening to engage in substantive debates. The legislative elections in Côte d’Ivoire and the future parliament are forums for putting new monetary agreements or the ECOWAS Eco on the table.
It is easier to understand why the French drums for human rights do not vibrate when Laurent GBAGBO, free and innocent, is still forced into exile to prevent him from disturbing the colonial order during the election period.
And we understand even better why the supporters of the colonial order under the leadership of SARKOZY, waged war against the regime of Laurent GBAGBO and that these same drums avoid giving sound in the face of the Wè genocide (population of the loop de cacao) during this war and to the victims of illegal miners during the reign of the regime installed by French tanks.
The Eco, Version Messieurs MACRON and OUATTARA, is therefore a Trojan horse against the Eco of ECOWAS, a channel for draining the wealth of the WAMU towards France and a rope against the sovereignty of the States of the UMOA.
“Nothing will change, and the umbilical cord that links the CFA Franc will endure through the pegging to the Euro, the freedom of transactions and the unlimited convertibility between the two currencies, this triple link allowing any multinational that trades in the FCFA monetary zone to see its investments secured, to convert its profits into CFA francs into euros, then to repatriate this capital to the euro zone ”declares Jean-Paul Lecoq deputy PCF.
Africa needs a new dynamic of development, because it is the only continent that has all the raw materials necessary to produce what it imports. While it can be understood that the lack of expertise at the start of independence justified the maintenance of colonial order, it is less understandable today with rampant emigration and endemic brain drain.
On its soil and through its diaspora, this continent has the expertise to produce what it imports and therefore a monetary agreement between African states is more useful than with the Eurozone. It just needs its savings in gold and in currency and a single and / or common currency to guarantee a stable framework for savings, circulation of savings, production and exchange on a continent-wide scale. . African countries therefore have an interest in signing monetary agreements among themselves rather than perpetuating the colonial order.
The Eco project initiated by ECOWAS is part of this dynamic but nevertheless constitutes a threat to the colonial order. It is fair to say that all those nostalgic for the colonial order and those who take advantage of it, align themselves to curb this dynamic. But, it is also fair game that the fighters for a new world economic order get in battle order to bring the ECOWAS project to fruition. The French Communist Party set the tone in the Senate through the voice of Pierre Laurent and in the National Assembly through that of Jean-Paul Lecoq. It is therefore up to the African Pan-Africanists to continue the battle for an economic sovereignty of the continent. This requires the conquest of the sovereignty of the states of the WAMU. Such is the stake of the legislative elections in Côte d’Ivoire, central pillar of the CFA Franc.
The opposition must therefore overcome the demons of sectarianism and division to measure the real issues and walk together on the road to sovereignty with the triumphant return of the symbol of this fight: Laurent GBAGBO.
“The African will make Africa. She will find within her men and women capable of unleashing their virtue as collective heroes to straighten out the twisted fate of mother Africa and sew up her beautiful torn loincloth “J. KI-ZERBO in the general history of Africa.
Ahoua Don Mello
