There is no gainsaying the point that General Muhammadu Buhari’s ascension
to the presidency on May 29 this year brought some delight and dignity to
the perception of Nigeria in the international community. I have said this
much previously in this column and concluded that Buhari’s honeymoon with
the West ought to be quickly maximized for national benefits. I had
counselled on the need to make hay while the sun shines otherwise the
euphoria of the new rapprochement would melt away resulting in eventual
disappointment.
Now I have cause to warn again at the risk of sounding alarmist and tagged
a wailing wailer (apologies to presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, who
coined that phrase to describe the political opposition) that the
President’s foreign forays are yielding less and less returns. For
example, in spite of recent gains by the military, boko haram remains
intractable as the Chibok girls remain in captivity suggesting that
Nigeria is not getting the kind of cooperation promised by friends abroad.
It is true that diplomatic engagements sometimes require time and patience
to yield results but the evident fact is that Nigeria is nibbling at the
huge international goodwill gained at the turn of a successful political
transition from a ruling party to the opposition. I premise this
submission on the embarrassing lack of policy direction bedevilling the
Buhari administration four clear months into its life span.
But before I expatiate further, let me commend the president for the
diplomatic initiative of hosting Heads of States of West Africa over the
political crisis in Burkina Faso. By showing leadership and in a swift
manner too, the president brought Nigeria pride and reinforced that
long-held foreign policy inclination of making Africa a centre-piece of
the country’s external engagements. His recent diplomatic shuttles to
Cameroun, Niger and Chad are no doubt relevant especially towards
addressing the cross-border menace of boko haram terrorism and enhancing
regional security. The president’s intervention in rallying ECOWAS leaders
to seek solutions to the constitutional breach in Burkina Faso where
presidential guards overthrew the government is therefore a worthy
consolidation of his sub-regional engagements in the last three months or
so.
However, while there is yet the urgent need to articulate a clear foreign
policy framework for the administration. This is what is expected of every
government and the fact that this is lacking four months into the life of
the government is something that has worried even admirers of President
Buhari. No country commands sustained respect and serious attention
without a clear-cut foreign policy agenda with which it engages the rest
of the world. And it is a known dictum in international relations that a
country’s foreign policy agenda is a reflection of its domestic goals and
aspirations. Thus if the Buhari administration has yet to articulate a
clear domestic vision and mission then it cannot advance a foreign policy
agenda. Forget the antics of publicists who are forced to rationalize this
unfortunate situation on the assumption that things are shaping up in the
country in mere response to President Buhari’s body language. The
narrative is that improved electricity supply, resumption of production at
the hitherto moribund petroleum refineries, and the sudden reawakening of
anti-corruption agencies among other tangibles and intangibles of the
administration so far are attributable to the aura of the president. But
the truth is that no country can grow its economy in a sustained and
systematic manner based on the body language of its leader. It is even
absurd to assume that diplomacy and foreign relations can be undertaken on
such opaque mystique.
It is therefore no surprise that the President still bandies about a wish
list as trump card in his foreign visits. Recall that British Foreign
Secretary, Philip Hammond had extolled the successful transition that
brought President Buhari to office and invited him to bring a wish list
before Western powers to help bring Nigeria up to higher plains. The
Nigerian leader promptly accepted the invitation and has since made
several trips to the West in pursuance of this wish list- which remains as
twisted as the lack of a coherent foreign policy. He visited Germany in
June on the invitation of Chancellor Angela Merkel to participate on the
sidelines of the G7 Summit where he held bilateral consultations. He was
guest of President Barack Obama of the United States of America on a state
visit that was hyped to high heavens. He recently just returned from
France on the invitation of President Francois Hollande to further
prosecute the actualization of his wish list. Presidential publicist,
Mallam Garba Shehu had said the three-day visit to France focused on
security around the Lake Chad basin area especially with respect to Boko
Haram. He also spoke vaguely about the pursuit of foreign investments and
strengthening Nigeria-France bilateral relationship. Notably, Mr. Shehu
said further that his principal would prevail on his host to get his
colleagues in the G7 to actualize the wish list with respect to assisting
Nigeria with intelligence and military hardware to battle boko haram, help
in the reconstruction of the ravaged North-east part of the country, and
the battle against corruption. This is pretty much the wish list of
President Buhari. But a wish list is not enough. It is expected that a
leader canvassing support from foreign friends must tell in clear and
measurable terms how he intends to tinker with the economy; explain
indigenous initiatives to tackle insecurity; advance intentions to
strengthen the political and electoral process; as well as commit in words
and deeds to entrench respect for human rights, promote justice and fair
play in a multi-ethnic system like Nigeria’s. Much doubt exist that
President Buhari is doing these or truly committed to doing them.
It is noteworthy that the President’s delegation in nearly all of his
overseas trips tells much of a lack of clear objectives sought to be
achieved. Granted that Permanent Secretaries in charge of relevant
ministries made up for the lack of ministers that should ordinarily
accompany the president on foreign visits, the inclusion of certain
individuals on the official delegation was further evidence of a lack of
clear focus. For instance, the inclusion of Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, the Edo
State governor on the president’s state visit to the US in July was of
anything but a nuisance value added. What Nigerians can remember about
Oshiomhole’s role in the trip was his controversial claim that a State
Department official had told the Nigerian delegation that a minister in
the Goodluck Jonathan administration stole $6billion of public fund. When
challenged by the US to provide proof of his embarrassing claim, he balked
thereby taking away a good slice of the seriousness with which Uncle Sam
had held the Buhari team. Nigerians also recall the controversial comment
of President Buhari himself during one of his outing during the visit. He
has complained of how the Leahy law of the United States was impeding the
military onslaught against boko haram. The president’s position which
attracted a rather vitriolic response from Senator Patrick Leahy, the
initiator of the legislation in question, was later clarified by a
presidential statement. But some damage had already been done to reduce
whatever gains the US visit could have achieved in terms of confidence
building on boko haram.
As you read this, President Buhari is back in the US to participate at the
70th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) during which
period he would be engaging several bilateral and multilateral
opportunities to promote Nigeria’s interests. This includes talks with UN
Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Prime Minister David Cameron of
Britain, Chancellor Merkel of Germany, President Vladmir Putin of Russia,
Prime Minister Narenda Modi of India and President Xi Jinping of China,
former U.S President, Bill Clinton, Mr. Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown who is the
UN Special Envoy on Global Education and one of the main drivers of the
Safe Schools Initiative, among others. Also on the president’s schedule
are meetings of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, a
High-Level Roundtable on South-South Cooperation organised by President Xi
Jinping of China and the UN, and another on an updated global health
strategy for women and children. Clearly, the UNGA meeting opportunities
provide yet another auspicious platform to pursue the actualization of
President’s Buhari’s wish list. But this opportunity is constrained ab
initio by a lack of clear foreign policy objectives. It is further
impaired by some marginal decline in the domestic fortunes of the country
with special emphasis on the economy which has suffered sustained
uncertainty and lack of direction since this government assumed office.
This point was succinctly amplified by Prof. Akin Oyebode, a distinguished
academic of international law and jurisprudence in a recent television
interview when he stated that “we cannot talk of a foreign policy of the
President Buhari administration when there is yet no clear domestic
policy.” Until the president fulfils this basic requirement, his wish list
remains what it is- a wish list waiting for the genie in the bottle.
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