vanguardngr.com
As President -Elect Muhammadu Buhari assumes the mantle of leadership, the Foreign Policy agenda of his administration will be a key focus. In this interview former permanent secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and immediate past Chairman of UBA plc, Ambassador Joe Keshi, talks about the expectations of Nigerians and the international community.
How would you assess the Foreign Policy practice of the Jonathan administration and what do you think should be focus of the Buhari era?
The global acceptance of the outcome of the elections in Nigeria, has set the tone for the incoming administration to promote a confident and assertive foreign policy. President Goodluck Jonathan’s concession of defeat shows the world that Nigeria’s democracy is maturing. This gives General Buhari required impetus to pursue a confident and assertive foreign policy.
It gives him a respectable platform to play a leadership role in Africa and global stage. He must utilise this effectively to speak up for Nigeria and Africa. He must demand that Nigeria should be respected especially by our traditional friends whose current attitude is to lecture us at will and degrade us as a nation.
•Buhari: Decked out
It is often said that the “Foreign policy of a country is a reflection of its domestic environment. The foreign policy of a country is usually constant and well laid out and it remains the same unless there is a fundamental and dramatic change in the world. The cardinal principles are usually the same .
To that extent, our foreign policy under the Jonathan administration was constrained by issues such as the security challenges posed by Boko Haram, the issue of corruption. It was difficult to maintain a robust foreign policy when these issues dominated our domestic political arena. Look at the chaos in the Middle East for example. Nigerians do not see or appreciate the nexus and the influence of the crisis in the Middle East on the rise and behaviour of Boko Haram. In the final analysis, the success of the President’s foreign policy would depend to a large extent on his domestic policy. Where there is the need for adjustments and corrections in terms of policy, this should be done and he should move on to effect the change promised Nigerians.
What can you say about our relations with our neighbours?
What I want to see in future is a foreign policy that takes its focus on good neighbourliness with our neighbours especially as we have seen that the lack of close relations with some of our West African neighbours created difficulties for us in trying to resolve the Boko Haram issue. There was no initial positive response from neighbouring countries like Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Mali which delayed a consensus on how to deal with the issue. He should move to reposition the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union to make them effective in accomplishing their mandates on peace and security, through the United Nations.
If we had keyed our foreign policy on good neighbourliness to the extent that they recognised that the security of our neighbour is also our own security, we should have been able to resolve the international aspect of the Boko Haram crisis. It is very critical that we build on good neighbourliness and strengthen relations with our neighbours in ECOWAS.
He must effectively re-engage our neighbours and reinvigorate our policy of good neighbourliness. Nigerians need to understand that it is in our best interest to maintain strong and cordial relations with our neighbours. We must build strong bridges with them and where and when necessary, assist them. He must be a strong advocate and defender of democracy and the rule of law, not only in Nigeria but across the African continent. The situation in Burundi demands a strong statement from Nigeria , there after, we can work behind the scene to restore order in that country.
What of the global state?
On a larger global interest, what we have come to realise is that our so-called traditional friends are no longer interested in us. Britain has had little economic interest in Nigeria for a long time. America’s interest has solely been in the area of oil and gas. But we have to attract other countries to show interest in us because Nigeria and Africa are growing economically despite the fact that we have problems which we create on our own and the rest of the world takes it from there.
What should the next administration do?
Joe Keshi
The first thing that we have to do is to let these countries know that there are opportunities that can be utilised. This is why we have to pay attention to countries like China which has the capacity to invest massively in the development of infrastructures. We have made mistakes in the past in our relations with China, but we can rebuild it to enable us attract Chinese investment. To me, these are some of the critical areas.
What about our foreign policy assets?
We need to rebuild the institutions that are responsible for our foreign policy formulation and implementation, particularly in areas of capacity building through training. We still have very bright people in foreign service. Given the limitation of resources, we need to evolve creative ways of managing our foreign missions in such a way that we do not need to be in very mission centre where we have accreditation we can be more innovative in our approach in the sense that we could have envoys that are accredited to some of these countries but without actually having the envoys on ground.
What are the positive trends for Nigeria diplomatic practice in Buhari administration.?
Because of the circumstances that brought Gen. Buhari to power, in the sense that there seems to be a general acceptance of his victory at the polls, the Nigerian election seems to have been globally accepted even though there were cases of rigging. Nigeria’s democracy is seen as maturing. Nigeria is now occupying a central place in the eyes of international community in the sense that it can organise an election in which the party in power could be defeated. What this means is that it gives Nigeria confidence and moral voice in approaching its foreign policy.
Nigeria can proceed in its foreign policy practice by being assertive and confident. We can lend our voice to the issue of practice of democracy in Africa and in the world. We can pick a spot in the United Nations and speak on issues of global nature. We should not be afraid to take a strong position on global issues and stick to it. We can question past policies of western countries that have created so much chaos in the Middle East and Africa for which Nigeria has also suffered from the failure of such policies.
No comments:
Post a Comment