Senator Patrick Leahy etched his name in the world of diplomacy through the instrumentality of the American Senate – an institution he has belonged to since 1975 with the promulgation of the Leahy act named after him. The Leahy vetting is the process by which the United States government vets assistance to foreign security forces to ensure that the recipients have not committed gross human rights abuses. Military aid is automatically withdrawn if there are established and proven cases of human rights violations.
President Muhammadu Buhari was allegedly backed to power by the West. David Axelrod, a former political strategist to Obama who played a decisive role in the latter’s electoral victory of 2008 was a media consultant to Buhari. A school of thought even opined that Obama dilly-dallied on aiding Nigeria fight against boko haram in order to ensure Jonathan’s defeat was a sealed deal. Buhari’s first official trip to the United States which cost Nigerian tax payers over two billion naira was blown out of proportion by the press as if our salvation lay in Washington. Buhari got a resounding shock when Obama told him point blank that the Leahy’s law applied in Uncle Sam’s diplomatic dealings with ‘The Giant of Africa’ and for that reason had her hands tied and would not be able to sell arms to her to flush out the boko haram insurgents that have terrorized the North-East for six years now.
The Nigerian Army had been ‘guilty’ of rape and human rights infractions and for this reason arms would be barred from being sold to another ‘terrorist’ organization. Amnesty International, an imperialist organization had earlier condemned the Nigerian army for all sorts of ‘crimes’ while overlooking the havoc wreaked by the heartless beasts masquerading themselves under the canopy of boko haram who raped women, sold children into slavery, abducted young school girls and cut short their promising futures, massacred people and hoisted their flags making a mockery of Nigeria’s territorial sovereignty. Boko Haram was even classified as the world’s most murderous terrorist organization in 2014. One wonders what kind of human rights organization would not be concerned as to the well-being of the people of the North Eastern part of Nigeria and focus all attention on the armed forces that fight tooth and nail to keep the nation safe! This same armed forces is the greatest contributor to the peace keeping efforts of the continent. Why didn’t Amnesty International or Uncle Sam drum up the human rights violation card when our brave men and women risked their lives in United Nations backed peace keeping missions? The hypocrisy is sickening!
Buhari vented his frustration when he said “Regrettably, the blanket application of the Leahy law by the United States on the grounds of unproven allegations of human rights violation leveled against on forces has denied us access to appropriate strategic weapons to prosecute the war against the insurgents.” Senator Leahy had the nerve to fire back blasting the former General for whining about Uncle Sam and ‘urging’ him to take responsibility in the fight against the insurgents and cleaning up the army. He then went further to accuse the army of summary execution of prisoners, indiscriminate attacks against civilians, torture and forced disappearances.
We cannot rule out Buhari’s open denouncing of the gay rights agenda which has been incorporated in Uncle Sam’s foreign policy since 2011 as a possible reason for the pussy-footing. America is well known for her double standards on human rights. She sells arms to Egypt despite the latter’s repression of bloggers and journalists. The democratically elected Islamic Brotherhood was ousted in a coup which Washington failed to decisively condemn. In June this year, America unfroze $575 million worth of military aid frozen after Morsi’s ouster with the beneficiary being the terminator of democracy – Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi. Obama gave a paltry $5 million to the joint forces of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger to tackle boko haram while releasing $3.7 billion to Israel in 2015 alone in military aid. This is a country that has engaged in nauseating human rights violations against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. An international inquiry into Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip was launched after the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner alleged that Israel had been involved in war crimes. The 46-member Human Rights Council supported the Palestinian drafted resolution to begin the investigations by 29 votes. America voted against this move while Britain and most of Europe were more diplomatic by abstaining.
Russia and China offered substantial help in the dying days of the Jonathan regime which helped the armed forces push back the insurgents and reclaim most of the conquered territories. Our foreign policy of non-alignment should make us ditch Uncle Sam more especially as our shale crude oil is no longer attractive to them. They don’t care if the whole country is decimated as long as they get crude oil to get elsewhere. The cruel world of diplomacy is governed by permanent interests. It is high time Buhari faces this hard reality.
Jonathan complained that some boko haram members were in his cabinet. This should be investigated as the solution to this malady lies inwards. The boko haram insurgents enjoy some level of support from some of the Northern Muslim Elite as defeating them goes beyond merely exercising military might. It is high time we adopt more non-violent counter terrorism measures to effectively tackle this ravaging scourge. Some prominent names like the former Borno state governor, Ali Modu Sheriff have been named as alleged sponsors. We should adopt a more pragmatic non-military approach to dealing with this crisis. America lost the Vietnam War because they didn’t bargain for the guerilla warfare tactics of Von Giap who had used the tactics to rout out the French in 1954. We should learn from history.
Rosa Brooks, an ex-Obama aide made a rather hilarious statement by opining that gay marriage will help fight boko haram and ISIS. While this is quite preposterous, it may serve as a pointer of the new arm twisting tactics of Uncle Sam. It is high time we stopped running cap in hand to the west as we have been told in loud and clear terms that when the chips are down, we are on our own.
In 1961, some Nigerian students protested against the Anglo-Nigerian defence pact which was a classic study of neo-colonialism. Sturdy protests should be mounted at our leaders outsourcing their thinking caps to Washington to solve our security challenges. The onus is on us to break the omelet to reflect the true spirit of liberty.
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