Nigeria’s foreign policy in 100 years

By PAUL ARHEWE

L-R: Awolowo, Abubakar, Bello, Azikiwe at a function in Lagos

Before the amalgamation of Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914, agricultural commodities were exported to Europe and totally controlled by the British Empire. This showed the level of foreign bilateral trade between the colony and the outside world, where cocoa, groundnuts, palm oil and palm kernels were exported and chemicals, machines, transportation equipment and other manufactured products were imported. This level of bilateral trade extended until the 1950s.

The dual mandate adopted by the Europeans, whereby African countries will receive Europe’s civilization in exchange for unrestricted access to the continent resources prevailed during that era.

Britain stood as Nigeria’s major trading partner, even as 70 percent of her exports, as late as 1955 went to Britain and another 47 percent of import came from that country to Nigeria.

However, this bilateral trade changed from 1976, when British dominance of Nigeria’s economy began to wane. The United States then took over as Nigeria leading trade partner. By this time, exports to Britain dropped to 38 percent while import from the country to Nigeria dropped to 32 percent.

At post independence and for decades, Nigeria’s fore

The West and hypocrisy in pushing gay practice to Africa

Anti-gay protest in Paris, France, recently

By Paul Arhewe

What will the western world gain when the whole of Africa continent adopt an alien culture of sodomy and gay life styles? Many advocates of anti-gay practices are asking with fewer responses to this question.  The fierceness in which western countries are pushing for the adoption of gay practices in all parts of the world, especially in cultures that abhor it, makes it looks as if the world’s existence depends on a practice that is known to have sent many to their untimely graves.  Homosexuals are known to be among those who had first contracted the Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which took a rapid spread among same-sex partners. Initially, the terminal disease was referred to as homosexual ailment, where it was called Gay-related immune deficiency (GRID). Some commentators have argued that the move of the West remains sinister, as they continue in pushing the wide recognition of gay lifestyle when it brings no positive contribution to humankind and the society, but diseases and deaths.

President Goodluck Jonathan drew the annoyance of some western nations, recently, when he signed the prohibition act against same-sex marriage in Nigeria.

Antagonists of the anti-gay law have described it as obnoxious and draconian. Some Western governments, including the United States and Britain say the enactment of the law is a direct encroachment on the rights of gay people in Nigeria. The views of these opponents are that the law will make the country a barbaric state and relegate it to be slave to tradition, morality and religion.

In its reaction recently, the Nigerian Federal Government said the Western nations are playing double standard with their crying foul of the new law. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Viola Onwuliri, recently, in her trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, told reporters that the president signed the bill into law as a way of protecting Nigerians and democracy. She did not fail in adding that the criticisms of the West are based on “double standards”.

Why Nigerians are comfortable in foreign prisons

 About 10,000 Nigerians are in jail in foreign countries, especially in Europe and Asia. PAUL ARHEWE reports that these citizens who ran away to be free from the economic misfortune at home before they were caught on the wrong side of the law, are, however, rejecting government’s move to bring them back home.

The number of Nigerians serving prison terms in foreign countries continues to rise.
It is estimated that about 9,000 Nigerians are in jail overseas, mostly in Europe and Asian countries.
These Nigerians who have run afoul of the laws of their host countries include the millions who have left the country in droves since the economy nose-dived.
In the 80s and 90s, the exodus of Nigerians to overseas was embarked upon by professionals and intellectuals, in what has come to be known as “


brain drain.” These were class of people that were uncomfortable with the military regimes or those who were being hounded by the military dictatorship of the era.
Since returning to civilian rule over 14 years ago and still without a change in the economic fortune of citizens, the next set of Nigerians “checking out” are mostly youths, who get involved in crimes, especially drug trafficking with a view to amassing wealth fast. In the process, they get caught by the law and are jailed or in some countries, executed.
Investigations have also revealed that among Nigerians in prisons abroad, many are incarcerated because of immigration misdemeanors.

Efforts to transform Nigeria through economic diplomacy

 Cross section of participants at the 13^th Brainstorming Session 

of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs 

on the Plight of Nigerians in

 Foreign Prisons held recently at the Institute.

 By Paul Arhewe
The scorecard for Nigerian foreign policy in harnessing and contributing positively to government’s transformational agenda, since 2011, is adjudged by stakeholders that more impetus is required to garner more dividends in comparative to what is achieved. Identified challenges need to be addressed to make the policy more effective and result oriented.
Economic diplomacy which forms the centrepiece of Nigerian foreign policy is a foremost instrument used by the current administration to propel the attainment of a robust economy.
The President Goodluck Jonathan administration’s agenda which is anchored on attaining specific targets in its vision 20:2020 policy; foremost among these are job creation, poverty alleviation, and the creation of a robust economic growth for the country.

My NUJ Award

Paul Arhewe, Winner of Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) Best Foreign / Diplomatic Reporter of the Year ( 2012), in March 2013.

Gloom, pageantry mark 2012 at international scene

By Paul Arhewe

The outgoing year, like previous ones, witnessed its share of awful and gloomy moments and some instances for jubilation, merriment and pageantry.

Syrian war

The Arab spring crisis which began in December 2010 in Tunisia continued in Syria war as a full blown war that has claimed more than 44,000 lives. The conflict began in this Arab country in March 2011 with peaceful protests, before degenerating into a large-scale deadly conflict.

The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad tenaciously held on to power, even when some of his generals had fled to the rebel side. Many efforts to bring peace to the country has failed, as world powers divided over what has become an majorly sectarian strife between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi'ite-rooted Alawite minority.

By December 12, United States and other western countries like United Kingdom, France, Turkey and some Gulf states recognised the opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

US Presidential election

The United States’ 2012 general election, no doubt was one remarkable event at the international for the outgoing year.

President, Barack Obama, beats his Republican presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, to clench his second term for another four years as leader of the world’s leading economy in the November 6 general polls. Obama won 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.

The 2012 election was adjudged to be the most expensive in US electoral history.

Obama and Biden and their families celebrating

Candidates flooded the airwaves with relentless attacks on each other, with accusations of lying, deceit, fabrications and other chicanery — even renewed charges over the long discredited claims over whether Obama had been born in this country — which flew for almost a year.

Obama questioned Romney’s lack of a specific plan for reviving the economy while branding the challenger a candidate who changed his positions to suit the shifting political winds.

Egyptians’ angst over Morsi’s power grab

By Paul Arhewe

Morsi

Six month after his election, Egypt’s democratic leader, President Mohammed Morsi has attracted the denouncement of his people, with the sudden attempt to conduct a referendum on the country’s constitution; in his latest moves to grab more power and clip the wings of the opposition.
If Morsi succeed in this manoeuvring, he may be on the path to acquiring more power and consolidating on his Islamist party’s dominance in Egypt. This is likely to split opposition and make them weak.
The autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak, spanning three decades, was brought to an abrupt end in 11 February 2011, with the vigorous and unrelenting protests of millions of people in Tahrir Square in Cairo, and across other major Egyptian cities. The emergency law operated by Mubarak’s administration where a supposedly heir successor was groomed, no doubt is one epoch the Egyptians would never want to replay.
The victorious feat spurred by the revolution, making Egypt the second country after Tunisia to have a change of government, fallout from the Arab Spring, provided room for a democratic process which brought Morsi to power.

How Nigerian foreign missions frustrate investors, tourists





L-R: Hillary Clinton, Olugbega Ashiru and President Goodluck Jonathan



Nigerian Embassies abroad are not driving the Federal Government’s economic development policies as PAUL ARHEWE reports that the Missions are still operating archaic information system that makes them inaccessible and traumatise Nigerians in the Diaspora.

Nigeria’s quest to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and boost tourism revenue will remain mere sloganeering until Nigerian Embassies abroad upgrade their information system and make their Missions accessible.

National Mirror investigations have exposed the rot in Nigerian Missions abroad, especially the trauma Nigerians in the Diaspora and others willing to do businesses in the country face while trying to access the embassies.
The President Goodluck Jonathan administration has adopted economic diplomacy as part of its foreign policy thrust. To this end, the country’s embassies are seen as gateways for attracting investors and tourists to Nigeria.
But stakeholders have expressed concern that the objectives of the economic development diplomacy would not be realised because of the archaic information systems Nigerian missions abroad still operate, which make them not able to meet the yearnings and aspiration of Nigerians resident in such countries and also frustrate genuine investors and tourists from coming to Nigeria.

Expectations from Obama’s second term

By Paul Arhewe

Obama

There was global jubilation when United States President Barack Obama emerged victorious on Wednesday and was re-elected for a second term. However, there are high expectations as the American leader takes control of the world’s leading economy for another four year.

The unemployment rate in US is still very high with 7.9 percent, which nearly marred his chances of retaining the seat in White House. His second term administration is expected to provide millions of decent paying jobs for Americans.

Also, China that is jubilant at the defeat of Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, may have enjoyed a less or non-confrontational foreign policy from Obama’s regime, resulting in the Asian country’s rising global profile.

Obama’s second term will need to formulate policy that will address Chinese ‘cut-corners’ trades, in order to win over the large supporters of Romney’s intended confrontational policy on China’s trade.

For Africa, Obama , who only visited the continent just once; seven months after his inauguration in January 2009, flew to Ghana and delivered a ‘non-commitment’ policy; urging Africans to fend for themselves. He said Africa didn’t need interference and that the continent’s future should be built by Africans.

Dead: Repulsive replay of violent South Africa

By Paul Arhewe

The killings of 34 protesting South African miners penultimate Thursday quite unfortunately amplified the global perception of Africans still ruminating in the Stone Age, in spite of the privilege of co-existing among people of civilised parts of the world where the value for human lives is inestimably cherished and protected. The apartheid era in South Africa was a blight in world civilisation because of the callous indifference of the minority white rulers to the rights of black Africans and the regime’s dehumanising and discriminatory practices against them, especially treating them as second class citizens and subjecting them to all kinds of cruelties.

The massacre of the 34 miners by South African police at the Marikana platinum mine, Rustenburg, Johannesburg brings back memories of the ugly affairs of the apartheid state.