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?
You nailed it, John! Direct, well composed and on point. Sad aspect is, these guys don't read.
ReplyDeleteWe have to conclude African states do not have bad leaders; they are completely leaderless, managed by the invisible hand of "aid agencies".
ReplyDeletehttp://twitter.com/#!/Grimot August 27 2011
Akpunwa, Goodluck Jonathan's remark has confirmed what many have known for ages; Nigerian head of a state is and has always been a neo-colonial stooge. I must say that it is still a surprise that he said from his own lips so decisively, so openly. Whether it was said deliberately or naively I take it as an utterly good omen for future leadership in Nigeria. Perhaps, it was a cry for help considering the insidious pressure he gets from the custodians of the Dan Fodio Project and international debt collectors. Let us hold this debate diligently and trace the causality of the president's remark to it logical conclusion.
ReplyDeleteDear Grimotnane,
ReplyDeleteI find your perspective a la "perhaps, it was a cry for help considering the insidious pressure he gets from custodians of the 'Dan Fodio Project' and international debt collectors". It would be good to hang on and decipher the many if's of your perspective, except that the world can't wait on us. It would also add value to wait and determine if his grovelling would be elevated to a cry for help, but I find it worrisome that the entire procedure for crying for help requires that the "cryer" makes a paradigm shift in readiness for receiving the requested help and deploying the benefits of that help to positively affect his or her state. The case of our President seems to be that he is content with remaining in suspended animation pre, during and post - crying-for-help. One of the things he would have done is to appoint aides who have ability, who are knowledgeable first foremost, then by demanding and implementing accountability, will instill morality in them. The new advocacy in governance is efficiency plus morality; "a man with efficiency but without morals may be the greatest menace to the society" - Martin Luther King Jr. (What manner of man). That is why Olusegun Aganga would grovel in the floor of the senate and lamido Sanusi would not, that is why Ngozi Okonjo Iweala would facilitate a contract of $50 million USD for his brother without following Due Process, as wiki leaks have revealed. The LCM (Lowest Common Multiple) is, where do we stand in the divide between good and evil? between merit and mediocrity? between profligacy and thrift? and what are we prepared to do to defend our position besides to yab?
Onwa, I agree with you entirely. Before I start I must make it clear - I am a political atheist. Crying for help in an oblique manner is all-consuming exercise. Many believe Richard Nixon's "confession" concerning Watergate was a cry for help; he had had enough. Many see Martin Luther King's embrace of death as a cry for help; some things are burdensome they are more important than life itself. It took considerable mental penetration to identify these highly elusive cries and their causes / effects. I am not usually a man of ifs but I just do not understand the logic of the president's remark...yet. But I do know that a head of state held in public contempt as an "undeserving fisherman" is not having an easy time. I have always seen a minority president in Nigeria a bad idea, for implicit reasons. I doubt if anyone who understands Nigeria's history of governance will doubt neo-colonial influences or international finance has far more power in the country than any president. Thanks to wikileaks - but on record I had written quite a lot of what wikileaks is exposing years before they did. Team building is a mark of leadership but we should have been able to see the pressures at work the selection of his cabinet. Do we have to wait for wikileaks or similar to tell us the nature of interference dogging Goodluck Jonathan's helmsmanship? And there is no Okene or Kaduna mafia fighting untiringly for him even when he errs badly; what an easy target. So I want to know if the president's remark is a cry for help or not. Then I would like to to know the cause of it. I have spent the past four years to make morality a persuasive virtue in this neoliberal world of ours. It is not easy but I am smiling.
ReplyDeleteDear John, I must sincerely say, to the best of my knowledge, that besides "acts of God" the only method known to effectively overthrow corruption, tyranny, misrule, learned helplessness etc. with consistent effectiveness (assuming the preparation is thorough, enlightened, appropriate, selfless) is "organisation". I ask are we ready to organise? Onwa, what say you?
ReplyDelete@ Grimotnane, I am on all fours with your position that "organisation" is one sure path out of the morass of misrule. In that sense, I ask, can you sincerely remain a "political atheist", can we not make our services, and our skills available to the service of our fatherland and hope that things would become better?
ReplyDeleteWe have to not only ask the right questions but we must arrive at the right answers and beyond the answers make ourselves willing participants in ensuring they are judiciously implemented. When the saints go marching in, Lord I want to be in their number...