Edward Snowden , the American whistle blower on spying was like a traitor when the news broke on the internet that he had exposed intelligence on the US government spying on its allies. Last week however there was serious talk that he was being considered for the Nobel prize for transparency. In Europe , the EU court ruled this week, that Africans asking for asylum in Europe on grounds of persecution in nations where gay marriages and homosexuality are banned, can be considered for asylum in Europe. In Nigeria, at long last , the president of the Republic finally met with University teachers who have been on strike for four months , asking that funds be provided to make infrastructure available to teach in the nation’s university environment for which the Coordinating Minister of Finance had earlier said the striking lecturers were asking for the moon. In Italy the Catholic Pope Francis called a conference on what he called modern slavery including child labor and prostitution to save the world’s poor and fight global poverty. In similar mood the World Bank and the EU pledged $8bn in aid to develop the Sahel from where Al Qada and Boko Haram have sprung to threaten the political stability of not only Nigeria but the entire ECOWAS sub region and indeed Africa as a continent.
The news items and issues I have highlighted today look interesting and innocuous enough, but they are deceptively so, as they concern matters that I have labeled as ‘changing cultures’ but which are in reality – culture shocks – that are highly polemical as my analysis will show. Let us first dwell on the amazing and unbelievable situations that these news items have thrown up at least this week alone . In Britain , the security chiefs of Britain’s spy industry were summoned to open questioning by Parliament and these were the bosses of M5 , MI6 and GHCQ, powerful institutions which have been the stuff of James Bond and other spy films that one once thought that such institutions were the stuff of fiction and do not really exist. Again, who could have thought that the same EU providing money for African nations to fight a security threat in the Sahel they don’t see yet, let alone appreciate, is also giving asylum to African gays and lesbians who are just aberrants against the way of life and culture of the people amongst which they live? Also who could have thought that a president – whose wife went to S Korea to receive an honorary degree whilst the universities in her husband’s nation were closed on strike by lecturers-could have compunction and decide to talk directly to the striking lecturers that the nations funds minister had earlier branded as unreasonable? Similarly, one had been used to Catholic Popes living in Palaces in the Vatican and being chosen as, ’the best dressed’ men in the world, but now we have the pleasant and humane surprise of a Pope planning how to stop children and prostitutes drifting into a life of crime, drugs and terrorism. Really it is a new day and dawn in terms of the changing cultures of our times and the expectations and import of that for world peace, security and economic development. Yet as we will soon see, it is not all that glitters that is gold.
Let us start our journey again by looking at the cold facts of the issues raised today and see the lessons to learn to improve our world and ease the tensions of international relations and diplomacy .First the downside of the Snowden revelations is that it has endangered international relations and introduced conflict and suspicion amongst friends and allies spying on each others citizens and institutions not to talk of incumbent leaders. But as one of the spy bosses told British parliamentarians, spying involves getting information from other nations that they may not want to give and protecting information that are vital to national interests and security.
The comforting side is that Snowden or not, both the British and American legislatures were impressed with the response of their spy bosses to the questions prompted by the Snowden revelations and that was apparent in the hushed reverence with which the spy bosses were treated, in spite of the hullaballoo that accompanied their summons to the two legislatures. Which shows again that where security is concerned, transparency has a limited flight of fancy and accountability, and that is a lesson indeed for developing nations adopting democracy hook, line and sinker as the panacea or solution to every problem of governance, economic management and environmental equilibrium in the real world.
In effect then, the Snowden revelations have blown the cover of Western intelligence and spy bosses but the governments are adopting a response strategy of crisis management that I have called ‘dog does not eat dog’ – which is another way of allowing sleeping dogs to lie in the overall security interest of all friends, stakeholders and parties concerned. That to me is a sensible response to an embarrassing intelligence quagmire that Snowden willfully created to bring the security roof down albeit unsuccessfully in the western hemisphere.
I shall take the three issues of asylum for gays fleeing homosexuality ban in Africa, the EU and World Bank fund to develop the Sahel and the Pope’s devotion to help children and prostitutes escape modern slavery as he put it, together. Again the issues that bind the three developments together are cultural and humanitarian with a tinge of ethnocentrism and urgent security need. I see ethnocentrism in the European court ruling in a case brought from Holland on Africans alleging persecution on account of being gays. Though the European Court has ruled that such Africans can be considered for asylum which is binding on all EU nations, the court also asserted that the existence of a ban is not sufficient ground for granting asylum as evidence of persecution has to be shown. Which is what brings in the issue of ethnocentrism. The EU Court has deemed European culture superior to those of nations like Nigeria and Uganda where homosexuality is banned, and that is a sociological blunder as no culture is really superior to the other. Indeed the implementation of the ban in the nations concerned is not a problem as that is the African way of life. The implication of the EU ruling is to provide cheap opportunities for those Africans fleeing from other problems to cash in on the persecution proviso when indeed they cannot really stand up to be counted on their sexual disposition in such societies.
On the massive $8bn aid to the Sahel , I see the hand of the World Bank boss Jim Yong Kim at play . This new Group MD of the World Bank has committed himself and the global bank to poverty alleviation by 2030 and is pursuing that goal. He deserves commendation for bringing the EU on board. The EU is contributing $ 6.75 bn – 5bn euros and the World Bank, $1.5bn . But, again, the EU is investing in its security as it knows that the Sahel has been the new home of militant terrorism especially Al Qada that fled Afghanistan only to show up in Islamic Maghreb and North Africa and has resurrected in Boko Haram in Nigeria’s North East and lately the Syrian crisis.
That was why France had to intervene militarily in Mali to stop the invasion of that nation when ECOWAS was getting too slow to act. The rationale for the World Bank and EU aid is to provide infrastructure, jobs and security for the nations bordering the north of west Africa which is called the Sahel in the hope that that would reduce ready recruits for Al Qada from the jobless, roaming and idle millions of Africans youths looking for ways to make ends meet and make a future for themselves. By strengthening the Sahel economically and sustaining its growth the EU hopes to reduce terrorism targeted at the European mainland by Al Qada and militant groups recruiting African youths effortlessly by giving them training and ammunition to disrupt the stability of African nations in the Sahel on religious grounds and excuses. That really is a promising venture and one expects the EU and World Bank to have enough monitoring skills to ensure that the funds are used for the desired purposes and not high jacked for selfish ends by politicians and thieving bureaucrats very active in the Sahel environment.
It is in such light that I look at the never too late intervention of the Nigerian president in the ASUU strike and pray that it is concluded positively and the students return to their schools.
Inevitably such idle students have drifted to prostitution, drugs, terrorism and crime from which the EU, World Bank, and the Pope are trying to help out. One expects this president not to yield to pressure from the owners of the private universities who think they cannot prosper except they kill the public universities by making sure that they encourage government to starve them of funds. It is not in the interest of such private universities as the environment will be so charged that sooner than later they too will not function on security grounds. That is the stark truth to face on the urgent need to resuscitate university education in Nigeria in the best interest of the future and security of our nation. What is good for the goose should surely be sauce for the gander.