By Abdulkarim Abdulmalik
For much of the post–Cold War period, Africa was cast in Western imagination as a continent of permanent emergency; defined by conflict, dependency, and the need for external correction.
Today, that narrative is quietly losing its grip. Political polarisation in the United States, the rise of exclusionary populism in Europe, prolonged culture wars, and deepening economic anxiety have turned Western societies inward. Institutions once presented as universal models now struggle for legitimacy at home.
It is in this context that a provocative sentiment has gained popularity in parts of the Global South. Thus, Africa should simply sit back and watch the West unravel. The phrasing may be flippant, but the underlying mood is serious. Many Africans are no longer emotionally invested in Western self-drama, or convinced that Western turmoil should define Africa’s priorities.
However, this moment calls for strategy, not schadenfreude. Rather than basking in the euphoria of epicaricacy, deriving pleasure from the misfortune of the West, African nations should see the development as a challenge for strategic thinking and exploit for the good of the continent.
The West is clearly facing a period of internal strain. Democratic norms are contested, public trust in institutions is eroding, and foreign policy is increasingly driven by domestic anxieties rather than long-term global vision.
Moral authority that was once asserted confidently on Africa through lectures on governance, transparency, and rights has been weakened; courtesy of inconsistency and selective application.
To this end, Africa should resist the illusion and temptation to treat Western instability as automatic gain. History offers little support for that assumption. Global power vacuums rarely benefit weaker actors. More often, they invite competition, coercion, and new forms of dependency disguised as opportunity.
Africa remains deeply embedded in global systems shaped largely by Western economies: trade, finance, currencies, technology, and security frameworks. When Western economies slow or political crises escalate, Africa feels the impact through inflation, debt stress, reduced investment, and heightened uncertainty. The continent, therefore, cannot afford the illusions of insulation.
The Shift From Alignment to Calculation
What has genuinely changed is Africa’s psychological posture. Automatic alignment with Western ideological positions is fading. Across the continent, governments and citizens are becoming more transactional, engaging multiple global actors—China, the Gulf States, India, Turkey, Russia—while redefining relations with Europe and the United States.
This shift is not driven by ideology but by calculation. African societies are asking practical questions: What does partnership deliver? At what cost? And who truly benefits?
It is against this backdrop that Africa is increasingly indifferent to Western culture wars and partisan battles. These debates, withstanding the depth, are not Africa’s conflicts. Africa’s concerns are more immediate: development, stability, dignity, and self-determination.
Strategic Distance Is Not Moral Emptiness
Observing Western turmoil does not require Africa to abandon ethical commitments. The continent’s moral traditions emphasise justice, human dignity, restraint, and communal responsibility. These values are not borrowed from the West, or do they depend on Western coherence.
At the same time, strategic distance must not slide into moral indifference. Silence can be prudent, but it can also become complicity if abused. The challenge for African leadership is discernment: knowing when to speak, when to negotiate quietly, and when to disengage from conflicts that offer no meaningful benefits.
Nigeria and the Discipline of Restraint
Nigeria illustrates both the opportunity and the risk of this moment. As Africa’s most populous nation and a major regional actor, Nigeria is directly affected by Western instability—through oil markets, currency volatility, security cooperation, migration regimes, and diaspora remittances.
Nigeria also gains from restraint. It has little to gain from importing Western ideological battles or attaching itself reflexively to external moral camps. Its diplomatic leverage grows when engagement is guided by national interest rather than performative alignment.
Crucially, Nigeria’s influence abroad depends on coherence at home. No degree of Western decline compensates for unresolved insecurity, fragile institutions, mass youth unemployment, or strained interfaith relations. In a multipolar world, credibility flows from internal order, not rhetorical bravado.
Africa’s Real Work Begins at Home
The real test before Africa is not how well it observes Western disorder, but how effectively it uses this period to reform itself.
This is a time for seriousness:
Institutional strengthening, not rhetorical triumphalism
Economic diversification, not recycled dependency
Youth investment, not demographic complacency
Social and interfaith cohesion, not imported polarisation
A distracted West creates strategic space; but empty space invites contestation. If Africa does not fill that space deliberately, others will fill it on Africa’s behalf.
Beyond the Spectator Mentality
This is a profound global transition. Africa should neither celebrate Western dysfunction nor panic about it. Instead, Africa must observe carefully, learn rigorously, and reposition deliberately.
The future will not belong to those who gloat the loudest, but to those who prepare the most seriously. If the West is turning inward, Africa must turn forward: building institutions, confidence, and resilience that do not depend on Western stability for survival.
That, rather than spectatorship, is the real opportunity of this moment.
- Abdulmalik wrote from Abuja
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