CHAPTER FOUR
4.6 Conclusion - Where is the Citizen in Nigeria’s Afro-centrism?
Shelpidi
16. Maj. Gen. G.
Mujakpero
ECOWAS ECOMOG 1999 Liberia
17. Maj. Gen. G.
Kpambe
ECOWAS ECOMOG 1999-2000 Liberia
18. Maj. Gen. S. Iliya UN UNMONUC 2003-2005 Congo (Zaire) 19. Maj. Gen. J.O.
Owonibi
UN UNMIL 2003-2005 Liberia
20. Maj. Gen. F.
Okonkwo
AU AMIS 2005-2006 Sudan
21. Maj. Gen. C.
Ihekire
AU AMIS 2006-2007 Sudan
22. Maj. Gen. C.
Obiakor
UN UNMIL 2006-2009 Liberia
23. Maj. Gen. M.L.
Agwai
UN/AU UNAMIS 2007-2009 Sudan
Source: Compiled by the Author.
* Chief Military Observer
** Chief Military Observer and later Force Commander
(Oluyemi-Kusa, 2007:140). Nigeria also prides itself on its current global record of having the highest involvement of female peacekeepers that have been deployed to serve in several peacekeeping missions; the country has consistently ranked fourth out of a total of 118 UN troop contributing countries in the world (Oluyemi-Kusa, 2007:140). However, the question that arises is; what has been the cost of all these interventions for Nigeria and its people?
According to reports emanating from the Nigerian Ministry of Defense in 2011, the country lost more than 2,000 officers while trying to bring peace to a people it probably never had any historical or geographical contiguity with. This is asides the incalculable financial and material costs of participating in these missions. This is the price Nigeria has paid for freedom, peace and the dignity of the human race. More importantly, all of these interventions have been premised on the dictates of the country‟s Africa-centered ideology and its foreign policy postulation unwavering commitment to peace, stability and a just world order.
Notwithstanding Nigeria‟s commitment to peace keeping and conflict resolution in Africa, it remains to be seen how well this has protected the interests of Nigerians both at home and abroad. There is need for the Nigerian government to realize that having spent the larger part of its 52 year history for Africa, the country needs to begin to attach socio-economic considerations to its peace keeping missions. For instance, there is no law which says the Nigerian business community cannot benefit from the supply of humanitarian aid Nigeria provides to war-torn nations. It may also not be out of place if Nigerians get the necessary political support from the government with regards to taking up key positions in supra- national institutions such as ECOWAS and the AU. Two key organizations, Nigeria has been actively involved with.
In ECOWAS for example, an institution Nigeria hosts and substantially funds, it is doubtful if its citizens get a fair share in terms of the employment opportunities available. One scholar sums up the above scenario in this way:
…..not only did the country (Nigeria) donate substantially towards ECOWAS, set up costs including the Secretariat, it regularity paid its annual contribution of approximately 32.5% of the Community’s budget which was subsequently revised upwards to 40%. In the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice only 7 percent of the staff are Nigerians, and it
is situated here in Abuja. At the African Union since 2003 when Obasanjo fielded two femalecandidates from Nigeria for the same post, making the country look unserious, no Nigerian hasbeen elected in the AU Commission for the last six years. A nation that has the largest populationin Africa is not represented in the African Union Commission. Burkina Faso defeated Nigeria in 2007! Really, what manner of citizen diplomacy is it when the citizens lack representation? (Onyearu 2009 cited in Monday, (2010:8).
Another case in point was that of Dr Ngozi Ugo, who was nominated for the position of UN Ombudsman and the deputy special representative of the Secretary-General in 2007. This position required the diplomatic endorsement of her home government - Nigeria. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which should ordinarily be at the vanguard of this good news and the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation kept foot dragging until she eventually lost the post (Monday, 2010: 8). This calls into question the manner of the citizen diplomacy Nigeria claims to be practicing when it cannot defend the interest of its citizens.
As Mahmood (2009:4) observed:
Dr. Ugo’s presence in the UN System would have enhanced Nigeria’s position for the UN permanent seat. Other more serious countries campaign for their citizens and that is why the highest ranking African in the UN system is a Tanzanian woman. Go to the Commonwealth Secretariat in London you may think you are in India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs because of the number of Indians there. And this is where our own Chief Anyaoku served for almost four decades. When is Nigeria going to stand and recognize its own?
It is sad, unfortunate and indeed painful! (Mahmood 2009:4).
These are just instances of the kind of citizen diplomacy the Nigerian government is making available to its people. A people who perhaps do not really understand the meaning of real governance until general elections are approaching, and politicians swarm around them, sweet talking them for votes through the instrumentalities of their possibly ill-gotten wealth and empty promises. In view of the forgoing, it is doubtful if the Nigerian government has ever been more concerned about its people, notwithstanding the take-off of its much “politicized”
citizen diplomacy drive. Ever since its conception in year 2007, Nigerians at home and abroad
are continually been subjected to all forms of discrimination and hate in their host countries and even at the home front.
The cases of the xenophobic attacks on its citizens by a section of the South-African population (in 2009) are sharp reminders of the agony its people face just by being citizens of the most populous Black nation in the world. At both the Lagos and Abuja offices of the High Commissions and Embassies of the major countries in Europe and in America, Nigerians are treated with disdain and disrespect, for merely wanting to visit to some of these countries.
Including being beaten up by security agencies for what the “officers” (who incidentally are also Nigerians) call non-compliance with protocol, yet the Nigerian government has not in the recent time, particularly after the commencement of the citizen diplomacy approach, risen up to strongly condemn these attacks on its people or taken any diplomatic measure to stem this tide.
It is doubtful if the American, British or any other government committed to the well-being and the protection of the larger interest of its people will allow that type of treatment to be meted out to its citizens anywhere in the world. Sad enough, this is happening in Nigeria, worse still, on the people‟s home soil. The only thing the Nigerian government has done is to watch with rapt attention, while its citizens continue to bear the brunt of this maltreatment and their governments‟ ineptitude. The neccesary question that may arise out of these occurencies may be; what manner of citizen diplomacy has the Nigerian government adopted in the last five years (2007-2012), when it can not use the same to resolve the multiplicity of home grown economic and diplomacy related issues confronting its people?
Another case in point is the plight of Nigerians who are still resident in the Bakkassi peninsula, an area which used to be part of Nigeria, but was ceded to Cameroon following the verdict of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which awarded the oil rich region to that country (Cameroon). Following this development, it has been reported in some quarters that some Nigerians who have not fully left the region are being treated by the Cameroonian authorities in a manner that is not befitting of a people whose government has been more than cooperative, particularly judging by the way it accepted the ruling of the ICJ (The Punch, December 11, 2012)). These are just a few examples of the way the Nigerian government pursues its citizen diplomacy drive.
In the concluding chapter, attempts shall be made towards providing a way forward on the path Nigeria could follow, if it is to achieve a balance between its national interests, its hegemonic aspirations and how it can effectively articulate the widely proclaimed citizen diplomacy approach for the betterment of its people and Nigeria as a whole.