Confirmation
has come that President Muhammmadu Buhari will be going to America this
month. This going to America should not only be different from that of
the African prince portrayed by Eddie Murphy, it should be different
from that which marked both the beginning of the Yar’Adua and Jonathan
presidencies. This going to America for an ailing nation of great
potential must be a concrete effort at forging partnerships in pursuit
of the great goal of the Great Escape from misery for the biggest
concentration of the people of Africa descent.
Going to America has always been a matter laced with Irony. As a young youth corps member reporting for the Newbreed
newsmagazine some 38 years ago, I wrote a story that pointed to Army
Intellectual, Olusegun Obasanjo, criticising African leaders journeying
to America. As head of state then, Obasanjo had evidently forgotten his
old quips, and was preparing for a journey to America.
I have never thought of going to America a
problem. The mindset of “America their America” offered by one of our
literary giants was not my own frame. What my concern always was and
remains the issue for this visit, is, how to go beyond ceremonials and
photo opps to handshakes that produce mutually beneficial outcomes. For
the US and Nigeria this has to include in today’s context a boosting of
capacity for security and economic advancement in Nigeria and trade
opportunities with new markets for American products where there is
comparative advantage that does not depress prospects for sustainable
development in a country of prospects.
With
security problems in Nigeria’s North-East threatening efforts to reduce
the scourge of poverty, disease, and a brutish state of nature, a huge
infrastructure deficit, financing gaps that have left even salaries
unpaid for months, partnerships with foreign powers need be obsessively
focused on relationships that can help bridge gaps and uplift the
Nigerian condition.
In this regard, I am persuaded that with
we, as Nigeria, should unveil a clear national strategy anchored on
latent comparative advantage based on select factor endowments in which
value chains in which we are quite competitive are developed into global
markets. With the Chinese understanding of the benefits of industrial
policy in building such values chains, we should not be shy to do
infrastructure deals around industrial parks with them. In the same way,
opportunities for partnerships with the South Koreans, Japanese and
with the Australians in mining and road infrastructure should not be
allowed to slip by. With the Americans, so much can be done with power,
services, technology and education. We need to expand our fast growing
education and health sectors. With so many Nigerians of the Diaspora
active in the US in these areas, the trip should be used to build
bridges. We just saw reports of a meeting of Nigerian physicians in the
US which took place in Orlando Florida. We should tag into that to be a
medical tourism hub.
What a visit such as this must do is
provide the opportunity for President Buhari to find that one quiet
moment to provide assurance of lasting goodwill if specific support with
arms, equipment and intelligence to accelerate ending the insurgency,
is offered. A clear shopping list is helpful and a pointer to an
appropriate desk officer to serve as a clearing house should be
determined. We should neither play the subservient with a begging nor
our protocol laced meeting of equal sovereigns, friends don’t ask who is
bigger. They know.
We miss much running around at the
highest levels with much concerns when the ambassador can court the
right desk officer and get things moving. If President Buhari can convey
the warmth of friendship, passion, and selfless giving of self for the
good of a country that has been unfairly treated, he could get a useful
nod from President Barack Obama that his people can work with. He needs
to have a few of those critical people with him. He must not leave the
impression the ones before him left, that there is no capacity or
interest in making promises bear fruit. Our failure to profit from the
African Growth and Opportunities Act is a case in point.
In that sense, an opportunity to thank
Obama for the Power Up Africa initiative with specific requests for how
it can help reduce the darkness of our patch of earth at night and put
many to work, so Boko Haram will find it harder to find recruits should
be clearly stated. Here, it will be nice to nicely apologise for our
tardiness with AGOA, and pledge that in the spirit of change and new
beginnings in Nigeria, the economy of Nigeria will be more engaged with
an AGOA extension.
President Buhari will profit much from
elevating the tone by showing resolve to wholeheartedly fight
corruption. America helps with tracking and repatriating money stolen
from the Nigerian people. This should be requested.
If change is to result in dividends for
the Nigerian people, President Buhari’s visit to Washington must not be a
visit from the leftovers. It must be worked at so it becomes a journey
into a welcoming mat for a strategic partner. When President Jimmy
Carter’s 1977 world tour that would have brought him from Europe into
Africa was terminated in Europe, due to urgent developments at home, a
rescheduling was done. On resumption in 1978, the visit to Nigeria was
dubbed, by one of America’s newsmagazines, as “Carter’s journey to the
leftovers.” We owe it to our children that this visit to Washington not
to be seen as another visit from the leftovers.
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