Category: Dayo Sobowale

Chest  beating is a natural human impulse  when evidence shows that a leader has performed well in his appointed  or elected role. You would   expect admission  of failure too would be a normal reaction   when  performance is proven to have fallen short of expectation  for any leader.   This however is not always the case as failure  is always treated like an orphan   by world leaders.  How leaders in various political and economic systems perceive and react to failure and success as incumbents is our focus today. In addition we look at the role of   coming  elections in some polities to see what type of shadow they cast on the performance of these incumbents  as they try to implement policies they promised in their election campaigns. Lastly we examine how incumbents  view  criticism  of their policies especially when they think they have paid their dues to those criticizing them.

It  is not very difficult to decipher what I have in mind if you followed the global network news closely in the last one week. In  Britain the main economic news was that the Olympics and Para Olympics that the nation hosted recently  had  helped it to achieve a growth rate of 1%  which means it is at last getting out of the recession;  a fact which made Prime Minister David Cameron to quip quite wisely that  ‘we are on the right track ‘. In  Nigeria  the main political event  this week  was the Ondo State gubernatorial elections  won by incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko of the Labor party who gave the elections a pass mark as free and fair because it was an isolated event while the party that came second the ruling party – PDP – has sworn it is going to court to contest  the validity of the results.

 In  the US,  last Monday  night,  President Barak Obama was hard put to defend his performance before his rival,  Mitt  Romney   of the Republican Party, who  switched positions on most issues on debate night, to the consternation of the incumbent president of the US, who many thought did enough to defend his policies especially the foreign one with regard to global security    in the third and last  debate before the US presidential election of November 6. In S Africa an  Inquiry on the 34 miners shot at Marakana Platinum mine  was told that  it would receive evidence that  14  of them were shot in the back by the Police – a development that could jeorpadise the relection  next   year of S African President  Jacob Zuma who was  also criticized recently  for   using state funds to renovate his village house.

Aside from elections the use of  poison to truncate presidential incumbency was enacted in the Benin Republic where AU President Boni Yayi escaped assassination by poisoning involving his niece and his doctor  at the behest  of an  aggrieved business man who nursed a grudge over a lost cotton import license. To round up we look at the threat of the  incumbent President of Uganda, the long serving  Yoweri   Museveni  to pull Ugandan troops out of the UN contingent serving in Somalia because of a UN report that criticized Uganda’s role as supporting rebels  in the upheaval in   the  Democratic Republic of Congo – DRC.

In terms of size and length therefore we have a big menu list for consumption,  but the ingredients  that grill  and combine them into a delicious mix  of analysis are simple enough. David  Cameron and Segun Mimiko fall  into the same category in terms of chest beating over  unexpected economic growth by the former and an election victory by the latter. In  the US, Obama  is fighting for his political    life  and performance in office and has had to amass and flaunt the whole weight of his incumbency before a dogged and determined  challenger – Mitt Romney – who  is said to be one of the few  presidential candidates  to have  made a presidential debate matter in the race for the US presidency  reaching a climax just less than two weeks away.

In S Africa the application of apartheid-  like violence on miners in a post apartheid S  Africa  with the ANC in power is simply outrageous and unacceptable. Just  as  the shooting of the miners in the back is a horrendous shot in the back for S Africa’s democracy  and a betrayal of trust  of the people   of S Africa  by the leadership of that nation. Boni  Yayi’s escape of assassination from poison shows the vulnerability of security arrangements that thrive on  nepotism and cronyism in high places given the personal relationship of the Benin Republic president with those who would have had  him for dinner had their plot been successful. Similarly Yoweri Museveni’s  threat or blackmail of the UN  on Somalia  is no more than a fake indignation that should be ignored by the world body because it is  no more   than  a mark of aaffliction of power and sheer tenacity of office . Let me now      dilate at length  on each event.

Really no   one can blame David Cameron for  being happy with the growth figures from the National Office of Statistics in the UK. Coming at  time of   government spending cuts,   high school fees  and withdrawal of benefits for the British masses by the government,  it has provided a  much needed staff of support for the ruling government coalition on the slippery path of  rapid erosion of public support that got the coalition parties into power in the first instance. In  addition some have argued that life in Britain is so difficult today that the growth means nothing to the common man in terms of bread and butter as well as an improved quality of life.

Yet, whether one likes the Coalition or not, one cannot take away  the fact that it has the admiration of a global audience not to talk of that of a passionate and patriotic British one,  for the way it conducted a flawless Olympics that  can now be aptly dubbed a beneficial and growth inducing one . I grudgingly agree that David Cameron’s  incumbency is in its finest hour and it is difficult to argue when he said – we are on the right track!

In similar vein the Ondo State newly elected governor can be congratulated on his reelection given the fact that he admitted that the isolation of the election made it successful. But would he have said that if he had lost? The isolation of the election gave a boost to his incumbency  and candidacy as the Chief Security Officer  of the State in charge of the elections and to whom all federal officers must pay obeisance. Could that swayed events and voters in his direction?

Certainly performance as incumbent played a major part in his relection but he will be the first to admit he met first rate competition for power that must have taxed the immense aura of his incumbency tremendously. Given the fact that the PDP  has threatened to go to court it may be too early to celebrate victory yet because of  the experience   of recent guber elections in neighboring states where incumbencies have been overturned by court decisions based on fresh facts as expected in any democracy.

I  think  I have really said enough on the US presidential elections for now as well as on the poison issue in Benin Republic. I  will therefore go to the S  African police shooting next. At  a government hearing on the Lonmin Marikana Platinum massacre of August 6 this year  lawyers of the victims claimed that there was no evidence that any police officer was killed although there was evidence that 14 miners were shot in the back. The Police had said in their opening statement that the miners were planning a bloodbath. Initially after the shooting  prosecutors charged about  300 miners that survived the attack to court in a bizarre application of an apartheid law  based on a purported ‘common law‘ that seemed  crazily to charge the miners for surviving police shooting  on the day  in question.

Although President Zuma sympathized with the miners family after the shootings,  he was slow in ordering government investigation of the killings. He  faces a reelection bid as President of the ANC  later this year and the miners shootings could cost him the presidency of the ANC meaning he would not be eligible to contest for reelection as President of S Africa  in next year’s presidential elections. Whether Zuma loses his incumbency or not the shooting of black miners by a pack of white gun totting white policemen is a racist issue that is repugnant in any nation especially one liberated from such oppression recently and being ruled by blacks who were imprisoned before by such racist policemen. It is very disgusting.

Lastly, Yoweri Museveni’s threat to the UN on withdrawing his troops from the UN Somali contingent is not diplomacy but banal horse trading. Is  the Ugandan strongman saying that because he has been a  good man in Somalia,  the UN should turn  a blind eye to his disruptive behavior in the DRC where thousands are being slaughtered by the rebels, said to be supported by Uganda and Rwanda?  Is Museveni  not  reading the same script drafted in Kigali, the capital of Uganda which has made a similar threat on contribution to regional security, when  similarly  indicted by a UN report on the DRC? The  UN should stick to its guns  and ignore Uganda’s bluster as  there are enough nations in the world willing to ignore sit tight bullies like him who have mastered the art of using democracy and elections to perpetuate their incumbency. Since they are mortal, there is no need to lose  any sleep on when their incumbency will inevitably end, which  invariably, is sooner than later.

Last  Thursday, Greeks went on the streets for the 20th demonstration against austerity measures aimed at making Greece capable of meeting its debt obligations  under the auspices of the EU which  has just won the Nobel Prize for the way it has handled the euro zone debt crisis.  The demonstrations came on the day EU financial czars were to meet in Brussels over Greece and its bail out progress report. A Greek woman in an interview  shouted that Greece should pay its peoples salaries and hospital bills and stop paying the creditors. An  economist mused that Europe should pool  sovereignties which is something the British never want to hear. In a BBC Hard talk programme a French  Minister said  achieving social justice is at the heart of France’s  new government policy of taxing the rich  massively  to fund revenue generation,  pay Frances huge debts and  reduce its  spiraling  deficits.

From  China came the news that the country’s growth rate has stalled  from 7.6%  to  7.4 %  because  of the decreased demand for its products especially from the huge market of the euro zone in  now dire economic straits;  and from  nearby Ghana came the news that a court in Accra has ordered the seizure of an Argentine ship because of Argentina’s debt default of  2001.

Unfortunately,  Greece  has replaced Argentina   nowadays as the wayward  or  prodigal  son of the global financial community and the   painful  human side of that opprobrium is what the Greek woman has uttered in blind fury at austerity and  economic solutions that create more human misery  and do not have a human face. But  then Greece has  to  pay her  creditors  and honor its sovereign  debt obligations to remain a credible member of the global financial system. No  one  or nation on earth  wants to be like  Greece  today and that was very aptly  and succinctly put at the expense of incumbent President Barak  Obama by his opponent at the last town hall  presidential debate  last Tuesday in the US.

Mitt  Romney, the Republican presidential candidate put a dagger at the heart of Obamanomics, the   economic policy of the US government in the last four years, when he said that the US  could not afford another four years of Obama’s presidency as that would create a debt crisis for the US  similar to the euro debt crisis.  According to Romney – ‘We ‘ve gone from   $ 10tn   national debt to $16tn   of national debt. If  the president were reelected   we ‘d go to $20tn of national debt. This  puts us on   a road to Greece.‘ Given events in Greece and the sovereign reputation of that nation nowadays, Mitt Romney has laid a grievous charge and painted a dire figure of Obama’s economic policies that cannot be easily waived off especially as the Greek demonstrations took off almost after the debate that many thought Obama had won this time around.

Although there is a third debate on October 22 there is no denying that Obama has found his mettle to defend his policies but there is not much he can do to deny high unemployment figures as well as the glaring deficits. More importantly he must find  a quick advert or campaign message to counter the ‘road to Greece message‘ of Mitt  Romney as  the satellite pictures of the austerity demonstrations in Greece on the global media are bound to be exploited by  the Mitt Romney campaign team in influencing the electorate in the November 6 presidential elections.

In  reality what Romney and the Greek woman have said separately are two sides of the same coin. The woman reply is personal  anguish while Romney’s categorization is sovereign and is being used to get a political advantage and win power from Obama. Both are allowed in politics and in any democracy and both have taken a step further. You can bet the Greek woman will be in the forefront of the  demonstrations on the street of Athens and will  predictably be dealt with by the police. With regard to Romney it is up to Obama to allow his opponent to trick him out of the White House.

At  the first debate Obama looked like a king who forgot his clothes at home  and almost danced naked. At  that  first debate Obama allowed Romney to  look,  as his supporters said,  dynamic and radiant while Obama looked professorial and stuck  on issues. The town hall debate has equaled matters a bit but there is no denying that the aura of incumbency has been badly damaged by the challenger  who has become bolder and like a lone wolf  that has   smelt blood,  now knows that the this president can be mortally rattled in this close presidential race. It  is my considered opinion that the Obama campaign team must be more aggressive than hitherto and the best opportunity  for now is to counter  ‘the Road  to Greece‘  message as it affects  Obama’s  domestic economic policy. This is because for once an incumbent president in the US  presidential campaign has allowed an opponent to successfully make a mockery of his existing economic policy using an example of a very economically sick  foreign nation – Greece. That  really is unfortunate for the Obama campaign team.

On  the suggestion that the EU members must find a way to pool sovereignties  I  think that is   an idea   that is easier  said than done. What part of individual member nations will go into the sovereignty common pool and which will not? Is  it security, finance, banking, political parties, or tourism? Given the  unique culture,  chequered  history and peculiarities of each nation,   who will bell the cat and cast the first stone   in surrendering sovereignty? Can  Germany  with its history  of fiscal discipline and prudence  ever come to accept Greece’s profligacy as a way of life to be condoned or tolerated?

Can any EU nation other than France tax its rich citizens that high and take compliance   for granted as  a fait accompli? Can any other nation in Europe respect its monarchy like the British do and how are the British going to put that in a common European sovereignty pool when it is the basis of their political stability? And  how many EU nations can put up with the sex and fun loving lifestyle of Italy‘s former PM Silvio Berlusconi the owner of the AC Milan  football club and the most popular Italian leader of our time? Really pooling sovereignties in the EU  will involve so much horse trading and bargains that Europe may not be able to recognize itself at the end of the exercise.

However the cheering news on the global economic scene was the news from the Chinese of a reduction in their growth rate,  albeit minimal. To  those who think  that Chinese economic growth was going to burst, the slow pace is good news. To  the Chinese who have planned their economic progress with the Chinese Communist Party holding the reins and its high officials firmly in the saddle, the small reduction is a sign of economic stability. This is because China‘s growth has been based on exports and manufacturing with credit financed investment directed by the Chinese government.

So  China has never claimed that its economy  is unregulated or that the blind forces of the market are in control and competition is there for the taking by all stake holders. It  follows therefore that since purchasing power from its customers overseas especially the euro zone is diminishing because of the global financial crisis  its economic performance results must  reflect such shortcoming hence the slight reduction in the growth rate as reported for the quarter under consideration.

There is no denying that China will eventually take over the world economy given its huge resources and the discipline of its political leadership in providing what has been called guided democracy in  most of the mock democracies littering the globe .

What is not too certain is for how long the Chinese government which is financing  the production  of communication gadgets and  IT equipment at an unprecedented rate at its massive computer villages  in China is going to be able to monitor the flow and use of the information  in and out of China and still be able to keep power within an elite group of party members who still run China as at now.

China  was rattled by the North African  street revolutions and thought it could not happen in China. It  has been emboldened in this frame of mind by events  in  Libya where it felt cheated by the French and English who ditched Gaddafi, an age long  ally of Russia and China,  both long communist friends. China is using events unfolding in Syria to consolidate its official view that strong governments must not give in to popular uprising such as those  that removed Mubarak in Egypt and later Gaddafi  in Libya.

That is at the heart of  its seeming solidarity with Russia in not allowing the no fly zone in Syria as it knows that the masses of its people are watching on the internet and pondering why what is sauce  for the goose in foreign lands cannot be good for the Chinese   masses  at home.

The world was awash with warnings, threats and signals either wrong or right, matched by nuances and body languages from statesmen, powerful technocrats and heads of states this week. It was not only at the UN General Assembly, the annual talk shop of the world body held this week, that this was so. This is because the verbal ritual of rhetoric started well before this at the a most expected place – Teheran, Iran at the revived Non Aligned Movement meeting during which Egypt stole the thunder of leadership of the Arab world from the host Iran. That really was the first round or sparring session for a global ‘rumble in the jungle’ of sorts in New York at the UN General Assembly – (UN-GA); after which US President Barak Obama could not wait for the usual UN dinner – leaving little to the imagination as to why he became the first US president in six years to allow re – election jitters to make him bolt from New York to Washington after addressing the world body.

Let me attempt to catalogue the pot-pourri of ‘threats ‘and ‘wrong signals’ first before weighing them on a scale of deterrence to see if and how they can have the desired effect of leaving the world at peace. Which is another way of finding out that they are not, as Shakespeare said in Macbeth – a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

I start from the financial world where no less a person than the MD of the world body Christine Lagarde was blowing hot and cold this week first against her employers – the western world-and next against a nation that is widely regarded as the whipping boy of the international financial community – Argentina. Lagarde told the world, and a stunned Europe – or the euro zone in short, that the poor growth of their economies and high budget deficits together with the huge spending of the US economy pose a great threat to the peace of mind of the international financial community.

This really was unheard of, given that Lagarde’s appointment as IMF MD was because the Americans and Europeans have ceded the top positions of the World Bank and IMF to themselves and Lagarde recently clinched her position because she is from the euro zone- France for that matter. On the positive side though that really showed she is brave and bold at her job. But it could also put her job on the line in a week during which there were huge protests and riots in Spain and Greece against new austerity measures of the governments there to shore their finances by cutting their high deficits. As for the Americans ,the Obama campaign team and administration would just conclude that Lagarde has just decided to campaign for Mitt Romney in the presidential election slated for November 6 and that puts her second term as IMF MD in immediate jeorpady if Obama wins reelection – and vice versa.

However, it was in the way that Lagarde handled her warning to Argentina on that nation’s poor growth rate and unacceptably high inflation that she was at her imaginative best – although most unexpectedly, she met her match grit for verbal grit in the response of the Argentine President Kristina Fernandez Kirchener. Lagarde played soccer with Argentina’s sovereign fiscal and economic woes when she said she was giving Argentina a yellow card to wake up from fiscal non- performance because she knows the Argentine nation would understand because her citizens love soccer. If there was no improvement before December 17, Lagarde said she would give Argentina the red card which may include suspension from the IMF which really is a tall order for Argentina. But then the Argentine president Kristina Fernandez – Kirchener a woman of susbstance in her own right, who succeeded her husband as president, rose to the occasion at least rhetorically.

Kirchener said- the rich nations don’t want to be friends or partners they want only destitute and subordinates. Argentina is a proud nation with dignity and pride. Which may not be an empty statement considering that Argentina has just found oil and may not be as financially vulnerable as she was a decade ago when she threatened to default on her debt and earned a negative reputation in the comity of nations. Either way Lagarde has made her point and it is for Argentina to perform before December 17 or face the music which really is the crux of the matter.

In similar fashion World leaders in New York at the UN-GA spoke their minds on real and perceived global threats. Obama spoke up against violence and intolerance and condemned those that killed the US envoy in Libya. He stood by American right to freedom of speech and proclaimed democracy as the best ideology to move the world forward. The French president Francois Holland identified three global threats namely fanaticism, global financial crisis, and the environment.

In addition Hollande identified the Sahel in sub Saharan Africa as a grave danger to global peace and asked the UN to intervene in Mali where fanatics have seized the northern part of the nation and have subjected it to Sharia law. This should be particularly helpful to the Nigeria ‘s President Goodluck Jonathan who has been given the responsibility by ECOWAS to bring sanity to Mali. Rapprochment with France post-Ivory Coast Crisis can start from the new French president ‘s concern voiced on such an important global platform as the UN- GA.

Before the UN-GA three issues were touted to dominate discussion and these were Syria, Iran and its feared nuclear power acquisition, and the riots in the Middle East over a provocative video in the US and later parts of Europe on Islam. The billing however did not live up to expectation. On Syria the big powers were hamstrung by the no – fly-zone hangover over Libya and were not united on what to do in Syria as the daily slaughter of innocent civilians by the Assad government continued in Allepo and Damascus. It was left to Britain’s PM David Cameron to blame the UN for inaction, hypocritically though, when he knew it was the Russians and Chinese that had made the world body impotent for a decisive intervention in Syria to remove the murderous reign of the Assad dynasty in that unfortunate nation.

On Iran there was no show down as expected between the well known combatants namely Iran, Israel the US and Europe. Even the Iranian President Ahmedinejad was a bit subdued as he addressed his last UN-GA as he is expected to leave office next year. Before that however Iran had been dealt a diplomatic below the belt blow by Egypt and the UN at the Non Aligned Movement – NAM -meeting hosted by Iran before the UN -GA this week. Iran had hosted the NAM to orchestrate views different from what the US and Europe had been propagating about its decision to make electricity from nuclear fossil and garner support for its ally, the Assad regime in Syria.

Indeed, Iran wanted the meeting to be its signal of the regional leadership of the Arab world and the Middle East. Things however did not turn out as the Iranians expected. Egypt’s new President Mohammed Mursi condemned the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad for murdering its own people – a view widely shared by the millions of Sunni Muslims in the Middle East who are in the majority against the minority Shiite Muslims led by Iran. In addition the UN Secretary General unexpectedly railed against Iran’s president well known and widely condemned views on Israel. In the presence of the Iranian president, the UN scribe told the NAM audience in Teheran that the UN would not condone statements that called for the annihilation of member states of the UN or those that say that the holocaust did not happen – which to me was like holding brief for Israel before Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president who had preached the opposite universally before.

On the violence in the Middle East Obama spoke his mind and stood by American values on free speech ostensibly because he knew Mitt Romney was listening to make hay out of any mistake or misspeak on his part. Especially as Obama has always said on the presidential campaign trail that the Republican candidate is an ignoramus on diplomacy which too is an understatement given Mitt Romney’s track record of discordant tones on Israel, the Palestinians and the Middle East. But then, Obama could have granted audience to the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as is customary for US presidents visiting the UN at such occasions.

All Netanyahu was asking for was assurance that the US president be more forth coming that Iran will not be allowed to have nuclear power and thus wipe out Israel as promised by the Iranian president. By snubbing Netanyahu, Obama risks losing the endorsement of the powerful Jewish lobby in the US. More importantly the snub of Israel in New York sends a cheering signal to Iran to proceed on what it has consistently denied but which Obama has also consistently vowed not to allow to happen by all means.Which boils down to the fact that on Iran it is not clear whether Obama is sending a red light or a green or amber one to the global community and on a balance of deterrence for global peace and stability that cannot be good enough.

In William Shakespeare’s ‘As  You Like It‘, the exiled

Duke Senior famously said –  ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity, which like the toad, ugly and venomous,  bears yet a precious jewel on its head.‘ Global adversity  therefore, and reactions to it in the political and economic lives of some nations  and the lessons   there from,   for the rest of us    in   the    global community, form the basis of my analyses today. I start in France where the Socialist regime that has just been elected is fulfilling its campaign promise of taxing the rich to cut France’s  huge budget  deficit and some business men are fleeing France to do business in other parts of Europe. We  move next to the US  where the  president, Barak Obama had to remind his opponent in November’s presidential elections that a president must be father of all and not just a few. We  look  at  a part  of the world – Latin America- where  the  global financial crisis  has had no adverse effect  at a nation called  Chile, which has managed growth  positively  in a largely mono product economy like Nigeria. We  examine all   these three   situations and  events  meticulously  to  see how the issues they throw up affect the way nations manage both their economic and political systems as well as their regional and global environment at large.

Let  us go back to France  where the Socialist government of President Francois Hollande  is poised this month to tax any rich person 75%  of earnings in excess of 1m euros  which is $ 1.3 m. Since this was not a secret agenda but a campaign issue, French businessmen bolting from France into safer tax havens in other European capitals know what they are  doing since they know it will be suicidal for the new government not to fulfill its electoral and campaign promise for which it was elected. Such businessmen must be commended for their commercial pragmatism as he who runs today  can still fight tomorrow. Indeed this may be a right operational strategy for such people as the new tax regime will be for only two years and will be in force for that long to wipe out France’s budget deficit and return it to 3% of GDP  as required by EU standards. Which to me is a new way of fighting budgets ,most different from the IMF and World Bank  budget deficit solutions of retrenchments, austerity and layoffs leading to social discontentment in such environments. I  could not but wonder at the  French Socialist government’ s ingenuity and boldness  in taking this step and not creating social  resentment and upheaval led by the rich who are so massively taxed and seem to have taken it in their stride. A  radio program I listened to later convinced me that it is French history and political culture that is responsible for the rich accepting such high tax as a fait accompli by a government that won an election on such a campaign  promise.

One  of the business men affected who said he will not flee France because of the 75% tax gave his reason and it is that , that I find most fascinating   and educative as  a Nigerian. He  said  French business men would get by in the two years of the high taxes for a number  of reasons. France, he said, has good infrastructure, high levels of education and productivity  and the energy prices and affordability are reasonable enough for businesses  to survive the two year period of the high taxes. That to me is wonderful and I wish I could say the same for my country Nigeria. Another businessman  though was not so optimistic saying that the taxes targeted rich young entrepreneurs  and some   will  bolt abroad  and never return to France which is a sort of brain drain or  flight  from  which no nation can  recover. But it  is the reason that the French  rich have become used to bridging inequalities that I find most fascinating  as it reminded me about the French revolution of 1789  when the rich were murdered en masse and  a unique murder equipment was made for the operation called the guillotine. Really I suppose that memory more than anything else made the rich resigned to their fate on the 75%  tax as the historical alternative or its dark memory  in France’s revolutionary history is not a fate to be contemplated or wished on French businessmen of today. Yet,  it was from the same French Revolution that brutalized and murdered the rich and mighty in France that the cry  of liberty, equality, and freedom rose to make democracy the ascendant ideology of our time. Really, sweet indeed  and in  very bloody terms,  are  the ‘uses of adversity‘ for the rich and poor in France.

Next  is the US where  I have decided to start with Barak Obama’s rather patronizing response to his opponent’s testy gaffes  on US politics  and diplomacy. Mitt  Romney  at  rich men fund raisers of the Republican party – at  $50000 per head-reportedly told his audience that Americans who rely on government hand outs like health care, who rely on government for food and   housing-about 47%  of them – will rather vote for Obama and will never vote for him in the November US presidential elections. He  called such people – victims. In another video he said  the Palestinians are not at all interested in peace with Israel judging from their utterances and actions. The two incidents center on US domestic politics and Middle East or world politics  and Mitt Romney has not been politic on either.

In the victims categorization he displayed a billionaire’s arrogance   and contempt for lesser opportuned human beings  not to talk of the poor. He could count himself lucky he was not born and living in France during the French revolution. Yet  even in the US he  seemed to have committed political hara kiri since he assumed that if the 47% victims don’t vote for him the remaining 53% would; which is very faulty arithmetic as his  disrespectful statement   will diminish that phantom  53%  faster than he can ever contemplate. Romney  has ridiculed adversity in  American politics and would rue the day he made those two statements come November 6. The  bitter sweet thing about his utterances  though is that he has firmly put the mark of the unbending rich on a Republican party that is trying to portray itself as having the common touch  and has created an electoral liability and burden for the party in its run off to the presidential elections.

On the Palestinians   not wanting peace he needs to be educated not to say such things since the US is the major peace broker in the Israeli –Palestinian debacle -which is a major threat to world peace given its  global religious and socio political ramifications. He  should be asked to look at events in the China Sea where Japan, a US ally, is at dispute with China, a foremost US trade partner,  over the sale of some Islands to Japan and note that the US cannot be seen to be taking sides as he did when he condemned the Palestinians and seem to be favoring Israel as striving for peace in the Middle East.

In  effect then, these   two examples  of socio  political values and political cultures in both the  US  and France  provide   lessons from which Nigeria can draw lessons,  analogies and inspiration. Our attempt at making power constant and available even as the performing power minister is rusticated;  as well as the publication of  the names  of those who received fuel  subsidy without delivery of anything are  similar at least to Greece’s ‘name and shame‘ tactics of making the rich pay tax and contain Greece’s budget  deficit – just as the French taxed their rich astronomically  to   achieve the same effect. The  recent debate  on the introduction of the 5000 naira bill is  a democratic exercise but it needs to take place in a constitutional milieu  and not just because the CBN has the approval of the presidency to do it and this is where the example of Chile comes in handy for the rule of law.

I  listened to a BBC Hard talk program involving  a Chilean Minister on Development and I was impressed by the level of economic management and respect for the rule of law in Chile . Chile according to the Minister has long realized that high debts, high deficits, nervous markets and high interest rates are the symptoms of economic malfunctioning and financial mismanagement and Chile has grown  economically on its major product, copper,   while trying to avoid these pitfalls stringently. Chile is the largest  global exporter of copper and China is the biggest importer and the two are doing brisk and mutually beneficial business but the Chinese economy has slowed down and the Minister admitted this too will affect Chile’s growth which is one of the highest in the world at 6%  just like that of India. Chile, the Minister said will decelerate but in a planned way that will not affect jobs but  still attract foreign investment while accelerating diversification to reduce its dependence on copper. When challenged that certain important projects  like power and hydro electric plants approved by the Chilean governments have met obstacles in terms of operations from court rulings on environmental breaches the Minister replied that the government respects the judiciary which he said is quite independent in Chile. Which means that Chiles prosperity has not gone into the head of its leaders in such a way as to make a mockery of the rule of law. Which makes one to conclude easily  that in Chile’s case -sweet are the uses of prosperity-when it is not allowed to be high jacked by adversity in the midst of plenty;   just  as the fuel subsidy beneficiaries did recently with Nigeria’s oil revenue- right before our eyes.