Buhari; Obama
As President Muhammadu Buhari meets United States’ President Barack Obama on Monday, BAYO AKINLOYE reports that there are high hopes of renewed international relations and acceptance
On Monday, July 20, President Muhammadu Buhari will sit down face-to-face with the United States’ President Barack Obama to discuss the ongoing war against Boko Haram and the US-Nigeria relations. He is also expected to hold high-level talks with other senior officials of the US government.
The President will be accompanied by the governors of Imo (Rochas Okorocha), Nasarawa (Tanko Al-Makura), Edo (Adam Oshiomhole), Borno (Ibrahim Shettima) and Oyo (Abiola Ajimobi) states as well as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (Godwin Emefiele) and Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Ministries of Defence (Aliyu Ismaila), Foreign Affairs (Bulus Lolo), and Industry, Trade and Investment (Abdulqadir Musa).
This is coming more than a month after the G-7 Summit in Germany that featured President Buhari and selected African leaders.
Buhari and his entourage will reportedly be housed in Blair House which serves as a site for “American diplomacy”. In addition to functioning as the US president’s guest house for visiting foreign leaders, the building is “a stage for a multitude of internationally focused events that help to advance America’s relationship with foreign nations.
In the past, the Obama administration had only made available hotel accommodation for Nigeria’s former president, Goodluck Jonathan. It is unclear if any Nigerian president or head of state had been accommodated in the Blair House before now. As Buhari touches down in Washington today, he’s expected to lodge there. To many, this is an indication of the high regard Obama has for Buhari.
Nigeria’s President will meet Obama amidst series of domestic crises, ranging from a resurgent fight against corruption, nationwide financial crunch, unrelenting Boko Haram attacks and internal strife within the ruling All Progressives Congress, of which the President is seen as the leader.
The Special Adviser to Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement on Wednesday said, “Topmost on the agenda of President Buhari’s talks with President Obama and United States government officials would be measures to strengthen and intensify bilateral and international cooperation against terrorism in Nigeria and West Africa.”
Commenting on the visit and the general acceptance the President currently enjoys, a research fellow at Africa Programme, Chatham House in the United Kingdom, Elizabeth Donnelly, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the goodwill could be attributed to Buhari’s personal integrity and the role Nigeria plays in Sub-Saharan Africa.
She said, “Foreign partners are as hopeful as Nigerians that the new President will take significant steps to achieving his stated aims on security, anti-corruption, efficiency in governance, supporting Nigeria’s poorest and so on. But with the change in leadership, the energy behind engagement has shifted as international partners see an opportunity to work with the new government at an early stage, as policy is being developed and new appointments being made.
“Internationally, policy-makers understand the importance of Nigeria’s success for the region and clearly there is a need for external support as Nigeria takes on both economic and security crises. Nigeria will continue to be courted by a range of international actors. The question is whether Nigeria will use these relationships more strategically to meet its goals, and whether it can foster the domestic environment necessary for it to do so.”
In his June 14 address at the opening session of the 25th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Johannesburg, South Africa, Buhari admitted that the images Nigerians and other Africans portray abroad “is not only an embarrassment to us as leaders, but dehumanises our persons. Indeed, they combine to paint a very unfavourable picture of our peoples and countries.”
The visit is also expected to soothe the strained relations between the two nations under ex-president Goodluck Jonathan.
In his almost eight-year tenure, Obama has not visited Nigeria, though he had visited some African nations which included Ghana. The US president is also expected to visit Ethiopia and Kenya on July 24. Some Nigerians feel that this is the usual way the US has been snubbing the most populous black nation on earth. The US president’s invitation to Buhari may mitigate criticism that the US president is not visiting Nigeria during his upcoming trip to Ethiopia and Kenya.
Many people had criticised the US president’s planned visit to Ethiopia, saying that the country’s government has engaged in a series of human rights abuses and conducted questionable elections in April this year. They argued that a more democratic African country like Nigeria which had held free and fair elections should have been included in Obama’s itinerary.
But in a recent interview with SUNDAY PUNCH a former US Consul General to Nigeria, Jeffery Hawkins, said, “I do not think Nigerians should take it (Obama’s not having visited Nigeria) personally. I think that in the short term, they should focus on the Washington visit. It is going to be a great celebration of the relationship between both countries; a wonderful opportunity for the two heads of state to meet and discuss the relationship.”
On May 29, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, attended Buhari’s inauguration and this month, the Deputy Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, was in Nigeria.
Buhari, on July 8, while meeting with Blinken, expressed the hope that his forthcoming meeting with Obama would be fruitful. According to the president, his talks with the US president will also give impetus to his administration’s efforts to overcome the challenge of terrorism. He said he was also looking forward to greater support from the US for the Multinational Joint Task Force being mobilised against Boko Haram.
With the emergence of Buhari, however, the country’s respectable reputation seems to have been restored.
Professor Casmir Anyanwu of the Department of International Relations, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, stated that the president was being seen as the messiah, who will deliver the country from the vice grip of a “crop of corrupt politicians.” Anyanwu added that Nigerians would rely on Buhari’s antecedents during his time as the country’s military head of state.
“More foreign investors are expected to come to Nigeria because of his stance against corruption. In the fight against insurgency, he has made a good point by seeking regional and international collaboration. Buhari’s name signifies anti-corruption. His example will have a trickling down effect on the nation and its image perception by the outside world. He’s honest and committed and world leaders recognise his integrity,” Anyanwu stated.
Meanwhile, on June 8, 2015, in Krün, Germany, at the G-7 Summit, Buhari was pictured in elegant gait and garb, flanked on his right by the US president and France’s President Francois Hollande; to his left were British Prime Minister David Cameron and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. At the meeting, Buhari was asked to come up with a wish list in view of the insurgency Nigeria is battling with.
Some of the items on the list will be discussed by Buhari and Obama.
President Buhari was sworn into office on May 29, 2015, following his victory in the March 28 election which many described as historic, based on the fact that for the first time, an opposition party’s (in this case, the All Progressives Congress) candidate came to power through an election globally adjudged to be free, fair and peaceful.
His metamorphosis –from a dictator to a democrat –during the presidential campaigns had been questioned several times by many people in the opposition. If any of such efforts was made to create a chink in his armour, later events proved contrary. Buhari’s recognition and acceptance (and by extension Nigeria’s) became more apparent when Obama from the White House in Washington DC., made a phone call to congratulate him.
Prior to the announcement of the March 28 presidential poll result, not a few Nigerians felt that the body language of the US and Britain was not favourably disposed to Nigeria and its then president, Goodluck Jonathan. For the most part of Jonathan’s tenure, they claimed that President Obama was allegedly ill-disposed to meet the Nigerian leader in person. During that period, the US and the UK had allegedly accused the Nigerian security forces and the Federal Government of being complicit in allegations of human rights violations in the execution of the war against Boko Haram.
Therefore, they were unwilling to sell needed weapons to the country.
Analysts also stated that the mention of Nigeria was accepted as a mouth odour. At a point, the Federal Government, under Jonathan’s watch, had sought the assistance of an international public relations firm, US-based Levick –allegedly paying millions of dollars –to launder its plummeting image. As the economic and security woes of the country relentlessly soared, Nigeria’s image became more battered. But, even more was the ex-president’s reputation which lost its lustre both home and abroad.
While saying Buhari’s visit to the US will likely offer a fillip to Nigeria’s image, Professor Olajonpo Akinyeye of the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, maintained that it is too early to gauge the mood of the international community. To Akinyeye, the president’s global recognition could be likened to the honeymoon between a bride and the groom.
“It is a fact that the world’s confidence in the country before now has reduced drastically largely due to the mindless insurgency going on in the North-East. Buhari’s change of tactics in confronting the terrorist group, Boko Haram –seeking international cooperation –is a welcome idea. International acceptance is good only when it translates to a safe and better Nigeria,” he said.
In an interview with our correspondent last week, a renowned international affairs expert and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, urged Buhari and his team to ensure that the current international acceptance is truly beneficial to Nigeria.
“I will say it is really a bride and not a mistress. National interests matter a lot and I am happy that at least the environment ensures that the president has access to work with all the world leaders. But as I have often said, it is not the fact that we are talking that interests me; it is what the content of the conversation is that matters. There is a difference between a bride and a mistress. A mistress is used and dumped; a bride is mutual interest of the bridegroom. Our own interests must be very well articulated and we must ensure that we do not confuse having a conversation with the content of the conversation,” Prof. Akinyemi said.
Buhari is expected back in Abuja on Thursday. How valuable the visit is will be seen in the coming weeks or months, even years of Buhari’s tenure.
Source: punch
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