I have been travelling through Europe and North America for the past few weeks so it was with pleasure that I watched our president deliver his speech at this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). I have some sentimental memories of my being a member of Nigeria’s delegation to UNGA beginning from 1988 to 1993 and again in 2005 before finally bowing out.
I remember those years we spent under our foreign minister, General Ike Nwachukwu (retired) crafting our statements at the United Nations. When the late General Joseph Garba was our our ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, we used to debate every word in the president’s speech before a final text was given to the president, vice president or foreign minister for delivery at the podium of the UN. It was usually a lively scene of arguments sometimes deteriorating into rude retorts before we settled down to a clean text. Even after that, someone close to the leader of the delegation may sneak in a sentence or two even after the advance copy had gone to the UN secretariat. This was why every UN speech had at the back – “check against delivery”.
By the time I stopped going to the UN, it was no longer customary for speeches to be printed since this was made available on UN website. It was also customary for the president to host a reception for other delegates on the day of the national statement at the UN. The Nigerian delegation was always bloated. No amount of effort made by the ministry of foreign affairs to control the size of the delegation worked. People came from every ministry tangentially related to UN affairs wanting to be delegates. The people in the ministry of finance who had to provide the money for the operations and their colleagues in the Central Bank would insist on attending. The various line ministries, cabinet office or the presidency as it is now called would have its own list. The ministry of foreign affairs always had a long list. The media also had to be invited so that one would have adequate coverage.
During civilian administrations of Shehu Shagari and since 1999 post-military civilian regime, members of parliament and even state governors showed up as delegates in what had by then become a charade. The effect of this was that Nigeria’s delegation was usually embarrassingly large. But the work was done by only a few who were the best brains available or shall I say, who were invited. I hope Nigeria under Buhari will ensure that the size of its delegation is not too large and that people will not continue to show up until Christmas carrying letters from home to the permanent mission wanting to be registered as delegates.
One also hopes that the Nigeria House in New York will continue to be maintained so that several of its floors can be rented out to service our diplomatic operations in North America and elsewhere. That was the purpose of building the imposing edifice in the first place. I say so because I was involved.
President Muhammadu Buhari acquitted himself well in his performance at the UN. He was confident and had poise in his carriage and delivered a well crafted speech clearly. He covered all areas of the world where there are problems such as the Middle East particularly Palestine and Israel. He called for a just settlement of the Palestinian problem on the basis of a two states solution and according to the innumerable UN resolutions going back decades. Any one waiting for condemnation of the USA’s movement of its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv would be disappointed. Nigeria cannot be expected to face an approaching train of Trump’s America. The president spoke sympathetically on Syria calling for peaceful solution to the civil war while praising Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Germany for taking in Syrian refugees. He also called for peace in Yemen without getting involved in the struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East. He then spent an unnecessarily long time on the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar praising Bangladesh for its humanitarian assistance to the refugees. One wonders whether the time spent on the perennial problems of the Middle East could not have been better spent on African and Nigerian problems while just mentioning the Middle East in one or two sentences.
The president paid adequate and encouraging tribute to Eritrea and Ethiopia for signing a peace treaty between the two countries and ending the state of belligerency which had unhappily existed between the two countries for decades. He said South Sudan and Djibouti had also resolved their internal problems that have led to the loss of lives and displacement of their people. He said no problem was too deep-rooted that it cannot be solved. He mentioned the situation in the Sahel and the threat posed by terrorists to West Africa following the collapse of Libya. He linked the proliferation of weapons and light arms in our sub region with the collapse of Libya but said nothing about those who killed Ghadafi to contribute to the solution.
His call on the international community to help us restore the waters of Lake Chad and thereby the livelihood to 45 million people is likely to fall on deaf ears. His acknowledgement of the help of France, Germany, the USA and Norway in this regard is spot on. Boko Haram and the rehabilitation of our people in the northeast of Nigeria can only be resolved within bilateral relations with friendly nations. I will like discrete moves made to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the states in the Gulf where our rich people carry our money to for assistance in our situation of desperation. The president also linked the desiccation of Lake Chad to climate change and its deleterious effect in the bitter and deadly struggle for land between farmers and herders in Nigeria indirectly calling for all countries including the United States to take the issue of climate change seriously. He did not say this but it is implied. He finally called for international effort to stamp out corruption and illegal transfer of billions of dollars by nationals of under developed countries to the developed countries. He added that without repatriation of such funds, resources available to government will be considerably reduced. He said we will not have the resources to provide employment for our youths at home instead of their dying miserably in the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea.
The president should have mentioned what his government was doing to tackle all these problems.
On the whole it was a good speech which also was well delivered. Unfortunately it was delivered to a virtually empty chamber. Nigeria has no control who listens to its president’s speech at the UN. Thank God, we were not laughed at. But the lack of audience is a manifestation of how far down Africa and Nigeria has sunk in international reckoning. Our continent has become a synonym for disease, poverty underdevelopment and civil strife and there is no glimmer of hope that our continent will soon join the rest of humanity in the march for development. This is the challenge before all of us and particularly before Nigeria’s leaders ruling over a country that the UN says by 2050 will harbour 40% of the poorest people in the world.