Nigeria is in an interesting season. Apart from the cloud of defections that dogs the political space, intrigues and the combative mood of our political actors which have compromised the goal of good governance, infectious poverty and the general insecurity that has pervaded the nation, one notes the penchant of our politicians to invade the external sector of the country in their desperation for votes to make profound statements on Nigerian foreign policy.
Of course, before the unprovoked intervention of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan at an inauspicious occasion of commissioning a flyover and the inappropriateness of the venue for making profound statements on Nigeria’s external relations, commentators and analysts had expended a great amount of ink on aspects of the nation’s foreign policy. The frequent travelling of President Muhammadu Buhari was a kind of convergent point that they had descended upon with most of the commentators condemning the foreign trips for waste of resources and de-marketing of the country on the strength of the high number of the presidential foreign trips, especially with the tendency of the president to be making statements concerning the state of the nation that he inherited from President Jonathan administration.
Although a stout defense was made by the aides of the president in favour of the trips, many of the analysts were not impressed as their commentaries against the political diplomacy continued unabated. However, with the intervention of ex-President Jonathan on the diminution of Nigeria’s influence in Africa and the world at large based on the account of the passing statements made by t he Ghanaian President which have been disputed by the Ghanaian High Commissioner in Nigeria (slips that most presidents often make and of which President Donald Trump is notorious for), the attention has now been shifted to the external image of the country where fellow African Presidents have been making some derogatory remarks about Nigeria as their pastime.
To be more specific, Jonathan at the commissioning of a flyover built by the Fayose administration in Ado Ekiti on 25th of May, 2018, berated the Buhari government for working for a negative external image for the country, essentially due to its perceived poor handling of both domestic and foreign policy issues that affect the country. He cited the President of Ghana who has derided Nigeria for allowing cattle to roam the streets and for the poor management of her national currency as a basis for his remarks. In his own judgment, the country is losing grips in Africa as she has become the butts of joke in the international system. Some comments are necessary at this point before going further with the substance of his recent intervention.
While conceding to the former president the right to comment freely on any aspect of the nation’s existence and choosing his preferred platforms to do so, one still feels that a little more reflection on his part would have revealed that the commissioning ceremony that held in Ado Ekiti was not too ideal for the remarks he made on the delicate turf of foreign relations and the undue emphasis placed on the passing statements made by the Ghanaian president about Nigeria’s loss of image in the international system was misplaced. The remarks on which he based his criticisms appeared too light and insignificant for the far reaching conclusions that he has drawn on the matter of the country’s external image. Except there were other occurrences that he was privy to as a former president that warranted his outbursts, his reliance on the controversial statements made by the president of Ghana to carpet the Buhari government on external image management was a bit shaky and not sufficient to carry the weight being given to them. The external image of Nigeria under President Buhari if considered on the aggregate, does not seem to be too terrible to make one conclude that he is not adding any value.
However, if one reckons with the impending electoral battle between the PDP that Jonathan belongs and the APC, the party of the president and the texture and overall orientation of Nigeria politics, it would be obvious that the former president may have been swayed by electoral politics in drawing his conclusions, not the overall push of Nigeria in global affairs.
More importantly, a little more reflection on his part would equally have shown that there has always been a bumpy relationship between Nigeria and Ghana over the years, incubated by the initial rivalry bordering on the contest for African leadership. As such, the remarks made by the Ghanaian President against the country should have been taken with a pinch of salt as the residual issue of contest for leadership in Africa may still be hanging in the air. And with rebuttal that has emanated from the Ghanaian embassy disowning the statements, there is need for caution on the part of the country’s politicians. What may appear to them as ordinary in inter-state relations could actually be deeper than they can ever imagine.
Meanwhile, reacting on behalf of the Buhari government, Garba Sheu, a media aide to President Buhari has countered the observations made by former President Jonathan, by arguing that the noticeable decline in the level of Nigeria’s global influence actually began under the Jonathan government due to its poor reflexes and actions on the foreign policy turf of Nigeria. Continuing, the presidential spokesman said, If Jonathan must be sincere with himself, he ought to have reckoned with the huge blow his government dealt to Nigeria’s foreign policy that made the global system to give its support to candidate Buhari in 2015 that led to the ouster of the former President from power.
To be continued
