Nigeria has become the butt of comedians and jokes and drama shows. -- Carrignton
From Laolu Akande, New York
Three former American Ambassadors to Nigeria abandoned diplomatese and attempted calling a spade a spade regarding Nigeria's current global status, and their conclusions are not flattering at all: Nigeria's so called strategic importance to the US can no longer be taken for granted.
Speaking one after the other at the Achebe Colloquium on Nigerian elections held all day Friday at Brown University, Providence, a US ivy school, Ambassadors Princeton Lyman, Walter Carrington and John Campbell in different words, clearly warning that Nigeria's glorious days in global estimation and the feeling of its invulnerability is now being progressively diminished.
Intervening, The Guardian's Managing Director, Mr. Emeka Izeze, who also spoke at the all-day forum, proposed that in order to secure better US-Nigeria relationship, the Americans should change their priority concern on Nigeria from trade and economic and peace and security matters to building democracy and good governance.
However, Special Adviser to the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa at the US State Department, Eric Silla noted that the US "is not about to turn its back on Nigeria." Silla is the official representative of the US government at the Colloquium.
Other eminent Nigerians at the Colloquium specially focusing on next year's Anambra election and the 2011 general elections are Prof. Chinua Achebe, the convener, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel laureate for Literature, Dim Emeka Ojukwu, APGA leader, Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, Nigeria's Consul General at the New York Consulate, Ibrahim Auwalu and several others.
Speaking on the topic the Nigerian State and US Strategic Interests, former US Ambassador and currently leading member of the US influential think tank, Council for Foreign Relations, Lyman deconstructed the feeling of Nigeria's invulnerability, arguing that the country's so-called strategic importance to the US is no longer as tenable as it used to be.
He warned that Nigeria clearly runs the risk of losing its importance to the US if the country continues its declining fortunes in global perceptions. He asked "is Nigeria really playing a major role today in Africa or elsewhere?
Regarding the strength of the country's population, Lyman said "power comes not just from the population, but in harnessing the resources and potential" of the country.
According to him, new oil discoveries elsewhere in Africa and new energy policies will make the US less dependent on Nigeria's oil and oil generally. He even expressed concern that instead of a steady economic growth, economically Nigeria is witnessing what he called "de-industrialization" as factories are closing, but import increasing.
Warning of the possibility of collapse of the country itself, Lyman stated that Nigeria can steadily become worthless and irrelevant to the US, stressing that this was the message being conveyed when US President Barack Obama visited Ghana instead of Nigeria earlier this year.
In his own contribution on the same discussion, former US Ambassador Walter Carrington noted that the argument for Nigeria as an ally of the US has now been lessened in recent years.
He cited the example of the expansion of the G8 into G20 without Nigeria, adding that instead Nigeria has become the butt of comedians and jokes and drama shows.
According to him, Nigeria stood the risk of becoming a security concern to the US in a way that may not be in the interest of the country, listing the Niger Delta as a possible terrain for such a development.
Besides, Carrington said "something has to be done dramatically in Nigeria to address the corruption issue." He called for reforms in the political system so that "politics does not become the preserve of members of Any Government in Power, AGIP," saying one way to do this is for the convocation of a National Dialogue in Nigeria.
Speaking on the same panel with the two envoys, Mr. Izeze noted that Nigeria may indeed be failing now, but "it has not always been like that."
According to him, "Nigeria's affairs need to be put together in order for West Africa to function properly," insisting that the fact that there is a global interest in Nigeria as evidenced by the turnout at the Achebe Colloquium.
He said US interests had always been ordered with trade and economic matters on top of the list followed by peace and security matters, before democracy and good governance. But he said clearly this is not working, and called for a reordering of the US priorities by putting democracy and good governance first.
Once that is done, he stated that both economic and security concerns will fall into place. Besides, Emeka Izeze said the significance of the Nigerians in Diaspora has not been factored into US-Nigerian relationship, stressing that the US-based Nigerians actually constitute "a powerful lobby in the US and ought to be seen as contributing to Us development.
In addition, Izeze called on the US government to give Nigeria the kind of attention and focus it is giving countries like India and Pakistan instead of merely treating Nigeria only within the context of Africa.
In a similar vein with his other colleagues, the most recent former Ambassador to Nigeria at the event, Mr. John Campbell who spoke on the topic Monitoring Nigerian Elections, regretted that it was already too late for Nigeria to implement any fundamental change for the 2011 elections, "but not too late to reverse the downward spiral of the 2003 and 2007 elections."
He disclosed that the US government actually did not congratulate President Umaru Yaradua during his election in 2007 because of the problems with that election, except that once the Nigerian people recognized him as the head of government the US was also left with no choice than to "recognize him as Chief of State."
Campbell insisted that a free and fair election can only be achieved in Nigeria, first by Nigerians and not by a foreign government, which can only support the Nigerian effort.
Commenting on behalf of the US government, Mr Eric Silla, the Special Adviser to the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa at the US State Department noted that Nigeria still remains important to the US, a point he noted has been made both by President Barack Obama's administration and Secretary Hillary Clinton.
According to him, the US will continue to see Nigeria as a partner, saying the US government "is not about to turn its back on Nigeria."
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