Nigeria must address its domestic issues before looking for int’l solutions- Akinyemi

Nigeria must address its domestic issues before looking for int’l solutions– Akinyemi

A former Minister of External Affairs, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, says African Union (AU) needs reforms and restructuring that will pave the way for more inclusive programmes for citizens of the continent, in this interview on Arise Television ‘Good Morning Show’, monitored by David Lawani

Kenyan President, William Ruto, recently called on AU for the continent to be self-reliant, saying there was a need for all countries in the continent to harmonise and avoid duplication of commissions. How urgent do you think this reform should be?

Before I address the issue that you have raised, let me say this as a background. During the campaign for the election in Nigeria, scholars in the field tried to get the candidates to have a debate or individual presentation on foreign policy matters, and all of them ignored it. I remember someone saying look, they don’t have the time for foreign policy. Even when they get to the office domestic affair is going to take most of their time, and I said you don’t go looking for Foreign Affairs. Foreign Affairs comes looking for you, and you could say between these 40 days of President Bola Tinubu being in office, he has been to Paris, Guinea Bissau, now he is in Kenya, and the G20 is just around the corner, Nigeria has been invited to the meeting. So, you could see even if he wants to concentrate on domestic affairs, the foreign affair is dragging him to the global scene, and this will continue to happen. I recall that when Gen Olusegun Obasanjo (retd) got into office in 1999, he sent a special nomination to the National Assembly at that time to the foreign minister saying he needed a team because he needed to do a lot of travelling. I hope President Tinubu knows that he cannot go going around the world without a functioning Foreign Affairs Minister. He cannot be using the Permanent Secretary of the ministry as a standby for the Foreign Affairs Minister. The issue you have raised is an issue that some of us have been raising for donkey years. When you look at people representing the AU at this summit, you will ask who these people are. Who are they? What is the status of their country on the global team? How is the world going to pay attention to African Union? Yet you continue to operate. The syndrome that you were operating in the 1960s when all African countries, by and large, came to the scene- the world has moved on. Global affairs have moved on since then. India is sending rockets to the moon, the same as Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, and major players on the international scene. Riding in the back of AU, African countries are still doing this thing of one African country being equal to another African country and what have you, and 60 per cent of them don’t pay their dues.

Why does it appear that African leaders are not willing to do the best for their countries despite the population and the market? Why does the Western world see us as a dumping ground?

There is an urgent need for internal reform and restructuring of the AU. You cannot have a multiplicity of Commission just to ensure that every African country or region in Africa whether they pay their dues or has a commission to head. You have to revisit the fundamentals of the African Union. You got to have somebody to press this, just like Gadhafi pressed the transmutation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the AU. If he had not pressed it, that would not have taken place. I was impressed by the take points from the two presentations that President Tinubu made at this conference. His reference to the fact that Africa would have to be proactive if he wants to be taken seriously. It has to identify the issues it wants to pursue in the global scene, its sole rejection of the scramble for Africa. Southern Africans have not forgotten what they suffered under colonialism and he is committed to if you like push home back to the so-called scramblers for Africa identifying the agenda for the African Union in terms of the fight for democracy, the fight against coups, and the fight against terrorism. You can begin to imagine the core issues of foreign policies that a leader is going to push in Africa. He has moved from what he said in Guinea Bissau to what he said in Nairobi. In Guinea Bissau, the emphasis was on the coup. ECOWAS must stand firm against coups. He got pushback from what I will call the democrats in Africa.  You simply cannot say you are against a coup if you are not going to fight for democracy, and that it is the lack of democracy that leads to a coup. So, in Nairobi, he has now anchored anti-coup with his pro-democracy anti-terrorism.

Are you concerned that it appears African countries do not do business with each other in terms of the way it ought to be?

Quite apt. It didn’t click in my brain when they did it. He told the gathering that a common border institution has been established between Nigeria and Cameroon, and that it is now functioning- that marks a link between ECOWAS, the Central African Community. We are not merging, but linking to regional groupings. We have to deal with the issues of interconnectivity, I recalled he mentioned road links, and he identified the countries in West Africa where the road links have not only been identified but that action was in progress. I think he was calling for more of these road links that will be the engine of growth for this interconnectivity. You got to also deal with the issue which he identified as the e-Visa transmission for all Africans so that you will be able to go from one African area to another without having the problem of bureaucratic issues that you have. It is rather strange that this will be coming a week after Seychelles has just banned people with Nigerian passports from coming into their country because in the past few weeks, they have been carrying drugs into Seychelles and it was found to be carrying Nigerian passports. That is an issue that you will have to address because no country is going to allow free running to that country if they are going there to be faced with drug issues or currency issues without them having to push back against the countries where these drug and currency malfeasances are emanating from.

Don’t you think all these talks by African Presidents are hypocritical while their citizens suffer massively because of their greed? Is it not time to look within?

Some issues have been identified. African leaders must face this squarely. I agree that we need to pay attention to the standard of living GDP of our citizens. It cannot be at the level of $2000 or $3000 that is why we have GDP that needs to be addressed. I agree with you that the scandalous behaviour that has even been shown by our new representatives in the National Assembly is scandalous. This is not the time it should be happening. This is not the time they should be voting for this big money for themselves while the citizens are groaning in pain and frustration. The allowances are too big. I agree that the state of our economy needs to be addressed. But where I disagree is that no country in the world finishes addressing its domestic issues before it plays a global role on the global scene. It is probably a question of balancing and percentages. But given the American economy, it is scandalous the percentage of Americans who are below the poverty level in the United States- that is no justification but for us ignoring our people if we can do better we should. The principle that I am adumbrating is that no country in the world finishes solving its domestic problems. It is scandalous the level at which we are operating domestically if we want the rest of the world to pay attention to us. That is a work in progress. I believe we should address it if we want to be taken seriously internationally, we should not ignore our domestic issues while we go prancing around the rest of the world.