SINCE President Muhammadu Buhari returned from the United States (US) trip, the question on the lips of many Nigerians is: after the visit, what next? Besides, they are eager to know the policy direction of the new government. The question above would naturally attract different answers depending on who is providing the answers.
But, regardless of whatever opinion other Nigerians may have on the trip and the agenda next, the most important thing is that the president should sit down and start implementing his change programmes to Nigerians.
While some Nigerians are busy dancing themselves lame over expectations from the Buhari visit to the US, those who know American Foreign policy thrust very well are not so enthusiastic about the supposed gains the visit will give Nigerians. Most of what President Barack Obama said the US will do to Nigeria is just good on paper. It is the implementation that may be problematic, especially with Abuja’s refusal to toe the line of gay marriage rights.
I really do not understand why Obama is pushing gay rights to African countries? I find it funny that Obama should subsume gay rights under human rights. His speeches in Kenya, his father’s ancestral country and Ethiopia, where he visited this week, are punctuated with allusions to human rights including those of men that love (marry) each other. Thank God that President Uhuru Kenyatta made him understand the futility of such exercise. I think by now that Obama should be abreast of the workings of African culture, especially as relates to family and the marriage institution. Africans do not believe in same-sex marriage.
If Obama really wants to help African people, there are many areas of intervention he can choose from and gay right is not one of them. Obama’s charge to Kenya and other African countries to eschew tribalism, curb corruption and fight terrorism is welcome.
Instead of gay rights, our problem in Africa is how to overcome poverty, disease, war and terrorism as well as corruption and bad government. This is where America can come in and assist us tremendously. We will be so glad to welcome assistance in these areas. America should assist us develop strong democratic institutions and anti-graft agencies, workable democracy across the continent. America can help us in agriculture, power and plenty industries that will employ our teeming jobless youths.
I agree with Obama on his belief in the rule of law and the emphasis that no one is above the law, including Presidents and his call for unity among Africans and the need for Africans to end the cancer of corruption and sit-tightism. Corruption could be in other countries but it seems the one in Africa is the highest. It is unfortunate that political office holders in Africa see power as a route to quick and stupendous wealth. Very few of them see it as an avenue to serve the public.
The other time he came to Ghana, he said that what Africa needs was not strong men but strong democratic institutions. That statement is as relevant today as it was when it was first uttered. Yet, our democracies keep growing strong men and weaker democratic institutions hence corruption is rife in Africa.
I really do not know where Buhari’s foreign policy or others are heading. The ministers that will define the policy direction of the government and drive them are not yet appointed because the president is looking for clean men and women. Men and women of integrity he is looking for in Nigeria are not in short supply.
You can pick them in one week. He should never give the world the impression that most Nigerians are not good people hence it is taking him more time to find credible men and women that will quicken his governance pace. He does not need the 100 days of honey moon period being sold to the public by former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, before performing his promised wonders. He should hit the ground running. We are in a 21st century world where events that affect our lives happen so fast and need quick responses. Time is not on our side to catch up with the West or even the East.
As citizens of the global village, we shall be eclectic in our foreign policy. Our foreign policy should be hinged on what the country stands to gain. While it is still good to be in the good books of America and Britain and some others in Europe, we should tilt towards the far-East, especially China, the new global power house. China is the new happening place to go now if we are to industrialize. They have the technical know-how and cheap labour as well. We should send our young ones to school in China, especially in the area of science and technology. We shall embrace Indian schools for medicine and other sciences as well if we are to develop. The Singaporean model of development is worth emulating.
While Buhari wants to tackle corruption, especially political corruption, he should tackle structural imbalances that are themselves corruptive as well. He should not dismiss the recommendations of the recently held National Conference as regards the restructuring of Nigeria and other issues. Nigeria should muster enough strength to confront its past.
Boko Haram insurgency, separatist agitations, Niger Delta militancy and recently Radio Biafra are all manifestations of our buried past which keep resurrecting to haunt us from time to time. Nigeria cannot wish Biafra away simply by extinguishing Ndigbo from the national power equation. The more the Igbo or any other tribe is treated as unwelcome, the more the country’s growth is being slowed down irredeemably.
Nigeria will grow and achieve its manifest destiny when every component is made to feel that they have a stake in it. The day Nigerians start seeing themselves as members of one family and one tribe (Nigeria) will mark the beginning of its greatness and realization of its destiny.
SUN
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