The foundations holding
International Diplomacy are like the fault lines beneath the earth's surface,
they are usually in constant motion but appear calm on the surface until they
gather enough momentum to bring about earthquakes, tsunamis, etc, etc. These
natural disasters can be equated to Changes in governments, the rise and fall
of leaders and or leadership ideologies, etc, etc. Votes at the UN Assembly are
neither influenced by date nor time nor morality - the west only employs
morality when dealing along petty alliances - they are influenced first
foremost by economic self interest, secondly by the balance of power and then
by individual abilities of spokespersons. And these factors are considered by
nations mostly in the present but mid and long term considerations play a part
for nations who can afford to envision.
The vote in support of
a Palestinian state by our President should not be adjudged an act of bravery
or foresight; it is at best, neither here nor there as there are veto votes
already lined up by the permanent member states, in the case of an eventuality.
It appears to me that in the present circumstances, it is in the interest of
the President, given the religious undertone of our current battle with Boko
Haram, to vote in favour of a Palestinian state and hope that it would help
dowse the embers of disintegration which their actions are fanning, especially,
if it continues unabated. The United States have risen against it because it
would tilt the balance of power in that region. Russia, China and the rest of
the Permanent Members of the UN would vote for or against it for varied
reasons, which I can assure you, would be far from morality or love.
The point made by my
friend and ardent President Jonathan supporter that " a lot of folks out
there have not yet come to terms... with the fact that a man from a minority
tribe particularly an Ijaw man is now the president of this great
country....", is rather unfortunate and in my view is one of the major
centrifugal forces tearing this country apart; it has at various instances
manifested as nepotism, ethnicity, tribalism or all of the above. The
criticisms our President receive is neither based on his ethnicity, nor his
religious inclination nor his complexion, it is based on his performance level,
his service delivery, his lack of fidelity to his electoral contract with
Nigeria and Nigerians. Going by our President's utterances, what are
indications that he has a good grasp of the issues behind the problems
bedevilling us as a nation? What are the indicators that he has both a tactical
and strategic response mapped out for our redemption? Each and every community
must have outlaws, Britain had Robin Hood, Ireland had Michael Collins, The
world had Adolf Hitler. The common denominator is that Britain, Ireland, and
the world found the courage and insight to develop a strategy to contain the
rise of these individuals and asphyxiate institutions/ machinery they invented
and deployed to commit their atrocities. Talk is cheap. It's easy and lame to
abdicate responsibility. Our President should rise with the strength of all his
constitutional powers and "crush" these growing menace to our
corporate existence as a nation and stop snivelling, he is the
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for crying out loud!!!
On another spectrum,
taking excerpts from our President's recent Speech at the pre- Independent day
celebrations “prayer session”, and given that the man has his background in
zoology, it’s not surprising that he made allusions to animals
while describing his leadership style, hence his relationship with Nigeria and
Nigerians. However, what I'm surprised at is that a President, who
constitutionally is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, would say he is
not a General and denigrates his position by commenting to the effect that he
should not be expected to act like a "Chief of Army Staff leading his
troops in war". This raises serious questions; if President Jonathan says
that he is not, who then is the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed
Forces?
