In 2015, China’s President Xi Jinping went on an authentic world shuttle diplomacy. He travelled to the far-flung continents of the world to help change the global image of China as the world’s producer – of substandard goods which it forces down the world’s throat!
My reading of his new message was that China was a willing and able world development partner.
And so from the United Kingdom to the United Nations, Mr. Xi was given royal treatment, and his message was received with universal acceptance (the result: in 2017 the respected American journal Time called Xi the world’s most powerful man).
Specifically, the capstone of the 1 year diplomatic shuttle was the 2015 Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCON) in South Africa.
That meeting was actually a summit in which 50 African Leaders including President Buhari met with the Chinese President and his top officials. There, President Xi doled out 60 billion US dollars across the African Countries in far-reaching development aid different from classical aid handouts. Recall that during his UNGA address same year, President Xi had offered $100m to the AU for a standby force against any emergencies in Africa.
During the CGTN (then CCTV) coverage of FOCON, I watched with my two little eyes where the presenter of a discussion panel expressed has dismay at how Africans spend all day dancing in the streets when at ‘home’ they ‘lived under trees’. His sentiment was shared by other discussants; they all feared for the judicious use or otherwise of the funds from China to the African countries.
That Chinese presenter’s description of Africans living under trees is effectively a signpost of the failure of Nigeria’s ex-president’s shuttle diplomacy junkets. I daresay it not only gives a global voice to a universally held nation, but it actually makes Mr. Trump’s assertion very charitable: that Nigerians live in huts; and why do Americans want all these Africans over there.
It is just that Mr. Trump has become to Africans, The Man To Hate by his graphic description of African countries (sh—holes); I’d rather call them hell holes, here!
This TrumpHate Cause I call it was further strengthened a fortnight ago when a new book Fire & Fury was released which seeks to question Mr. Trump’s mental health. But it turns out that the book was filled with detected lies and inaccuracies. The writer Michael Wolf was interviewed recently on CNN. The man came across as a mumbling, bumbling off beat and quirky fellow; seemingly unstable himself!
Donald Trump on the other hand is a universal icon and an international brand. The American presidency is simply an additional feather to his cap-NOT his introduction to the world stage. And so it is a given that whatever Trump says will ALWAYS receive international attention, so, his ‘hellhole comment’ needs to examined without sentiment and in its context for its merits as well as its demerits; for the sake of correction, and action.
First off, on the level of diplomacy the statement could be taken as a faux pas. But MIGRATION THE WORLD OVER HAS FAR OUTPACED DIPLOMACY! IT IS WAY PAST TIME FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER!!
In any case for the purpose of this topic the lingo is Love The Message, Not The Messenger.
I got a whatsapp post recently titled Donald J. Trump’s Definition for a Sh—hole Country. It listed 11 qualities, I will sight just the first 2.
(1) Your leaders steal your money and hide it in other countries.
(2) Your children can’t find jobs so they cross the desert, get sold as slaves or make it to the Ocean and cross in dinghies to Europe to do menial jobs…
Nigerians: does THAT SOUND FAMILIAR?
Mr. Trump’s actions on Immigration might surprise a casual observer but he is in fact guided by statistical data from his Domestic Policy Adviser. It is no wonder that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, after his time as Nigeria president said that he had a battery of advisers – who had all the while given him useless advice.
Well, when people who could have been included in positions of political appointment are overlooked, the ‘useless ones’ appointed can only give a President what they have!
Mr. Trump also works with the U.S Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration of the State Department.
All this talk of America one might say: yes, that’s because at some point we Nigerians need to recall that we are practicing the American Presidential system of Government.
May I ask, does the Nigerian Ministry of the Interior have ANYTHING on migration?
Nigeria is CURRENTLY flooded by Cameroonian migrants – is anything being done about that beyond one head count, months after their arrival? Nope, I know because I live right by them!
Can the Interior Minister tell us our current population figure? You guessed right again – Nope!
Please note that these questions are not being raised to put any minister on the spot, far be it from me; it just that I believe that even a working figure of the number of jobless youths would help in knowing how to tackle the ongoing Libya desert Nigerian migration and consequent African slave trade.
Prof. Timothy Nubi, a lecturer in Housing says in Nigeria, the slum population is about 70%. The Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun says the housing deficit is 17 million (To put that in perspective, that’s about the size of 5 other African countries).
Shouldn’t we in Nigeria be terribly bothered about the awful way we live in Nigeria? What is being done to ameliorate the housing deficit?
This column did say it a long time ago that with the astronomical national housing deficit, there is a burning need to split up the current Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
Criss-crossing Nigeria back during the last presidential campaigns, I was privileged once to be one of the speakers to campaign on a podium where the current Sports Minister; Mallam Shehu Sani (now Senator Sani) and myself all spoke for the then presidential hopeful Muhammadu Buhari. On Tuesday on the Senate floor, Senator Sani said Senators won’t say anything because they were only after their re-election (speaking on the Benue Killings).
But all of this should constitute cause for concern not cause for pouncing on an American President who is taking whatever steps that are needed to protect his own country.
