There is an unwritten rule in International Relations and Diplomacy . It says that there are no permanent friends but permanent interests in the relations amongst nations . That is the dictum in sovereign relations amongst nations , big or small . However the opposite is true in human relations where the morals , norms , mores and societal culture , govern human relations and habits . Today I want to dwell on human relations in politics and will use the ambitions and leadership style of some leaders in Nigeria , Britain and France as well as the nature of their political culture , to illustrate the topic of the day . In these three nations elections loom on the horizon and political ambition and the quest for power and authority show how human nature reveals itself most unexpectedly and unbelievably when political power is at stake and is the big prize to be won .
In Nigeria I look at the emergence of presidential candidates in the ruling APC and the declaration of the Vice President that he intends to contest the presidential election in 2023 . In Britain I examine the call for British PM to resign because he broke the Covid health laws set by his government as well as his obsession with the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in spite of his personal domestic political problems . In France I screen the French president’s diplomatic dilettante with the invader of Ukraine on the eve of the French presidential election such that even the French president himself acknowledged that he was late into the campaign and the consequences of that for him politically .
With Nigeria the context and nature of the declaration of the Vice President needs to be seen in the light of how he became the Vice President in the first instance . He was handpicked to represent the former governor of Lagos state he had served loyally as Attorney General because that former governor could not take that post because of some political arrangement in the politics of the party formed then by him and others from the North . That leader , the Jagaban has already declared his intention to contest for the presidency and has publicly told the outgoing president , the leader of the party that he intends to succeed him . Now the political ward of the Jagaban for so long has also declared he wants to be president . That to me is treachery and political betrayal . There is no other name for it in Yoruba culture and tradition , and both leaders are full blooded Yorubas Of course this political development is going to heat the political environment in the South west more than other parts of the nation . It is not necessary to go into history yet but this development is more than a mere leadership or presidential competition . Painfully it reminds one of the Awolowo/ Akintola leadership tussle that led to the 1962 AG crisis that culminated in the first military Nigerian coup of Jan 15 1966 and the Nigerian Civil war later . It is not necessary to say more than that for now although history has a way of repeating itself without anyone’s approval , pleasure or anger .
In the UK , the PM Boris Johnson has become the Houdini of both EU and British politics in the way he has diverted attention from his domestic political problems by taking great strides in international relations and outpacing and outshining the EU on the handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine . In a way as the architect of Brexit one can say he has reaped where he has sown . He has given more military and logistical support to Ukraine far more than the EU .Surely this would not have been possible if there was no Brexit . I once teased him of wanting to be a war PM , a role that the Ukraine President has played so brilliantly like a round peg in a round hole but Boris was not to be outdone . He risked his life and went to war ravaged Ukraine capital Kiev and boldly took a walk with the Ukranian president and went back home .At home there were calls for him to resign over Partigate ,the name of the scandal that he had parties in 10 Downing St when the rest of Britain was locked down over Covid lockdown protocols , but he refused to resign after being fined by the Metropolitan Police for the covid breaches . His Machiavellian reply was that he intends to carry out the huge responsibility of his election mandate which shows the vintage confidence and love of power of a successful politician . And that has my admiration . albeit grudgingly of his arrogant leadership in weathering political storms effortlessly and quite successfully .
Compare Boris Johnson with the French President Emmanuel Macron who visited Russia to talk in vain with the Russian president who invaded Ukraine anyway inspite of Macron’s many futile visits .Macron was personally insulted as an unwanted visitor by the Russian president who discussed with him on a long table almost the length of a room because of covid distance protocols .This was said to be because the French president on arrival in Russia had refused to take covid tests at the Airport . Obviously he was a most unwanted visitor of the Russian president . While in Russia however the French presidential election had gathered steam in France and Macron’s main opponent in the last presidential election Marie Le Pen closed the gap between them and the two will meet in the run off election later this month . Unlike the British PM the French president allowed international relations to adversely affect his reelection chances and he has nobody but himself to blame . Even the Polish PM made a mockery of Macron’s several failed visits to Putin in Russia when he asked what the French President has achieved with his many Russian visits when Russia invaded Ukraine so decisively and bloodily in spite of Macron’s many visits . Surely if the French president is not reelected as expected , he has no one but himself to blame for allowing diplomacy to stand extravagantly in the way of his reelection chances .
Overall then whilst we judge these three leaders on their moral diligence or lack of it on the way they have performed in their various political cultures , we can judge Russia on the way it has treated the French president . Putin clearly showed France that in International Relations there are no permanent friends but permanent interests .Macron was scarcely out of Russia before Putin invaded Ukraine in spite of Macron’s diplomatic shuttle to prevent the Invasion by Russia . It is poor judgement on the part of the French president that he did not read Putin’s body language as well as the disrespect and contempt for both France and its President , inherent in the long table discussion at the Kremlin which made a laughing stock of the French president when the picture was shown to a global audience . The Russian president knew what he was about to do and would not be deterred by a French president trying to show the world that France was important when that fact was lost on the invader who wanted France out of his way when his mind was fixed on invading Ukraine at all cost , anyway .That is the nature of morals amongst nations and it is indeed very different from morals in human relations .