Tag: Nigeria

Like her or hate her – and opinion may vary about her – Margaret Thatcher’s place in British history is assured as one of the most controversial, if not greatest, prime ministers the country has ever had – the greatest perhaps since Winston Churchill.

How ironic that it was an African country, Nigeria, that taught her first bitter lesson in foreign affairs when she became Prime Minister in 1979. It was at the height of Nigeria’s “dynamic foreign policy” when, demonstrating that it was truly “The Giant of Africa”, it took everyone unawares and surprisingly nationalised the Nigerian assets of British Petroleum (BP) and paid every dime of the worth of the international oil company in Nigeria back to its Brittanic House headquarters in the city of London. As if to thumb its finger on the eye of its former colonial master, Nigeria renamed British Petroleum as African Petroleum (AP).

The British establishment reacted with astonishment.

It was a deliberate move by General Olusegun Obasanjo, the Head of State then, to punish Britain for breaking United Nations (UN) sanctions to supply oil to apartheid South Africa – although the true reason for the action was to force Thatcher, famous then as “the Lady who is not for turning” to reach a compromise on the issue of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.

Nigeria’s BP masterstroke came unexpectedly on the eve of the Commonwealth Summit in Lusaka, Zambia. The Iron Lady was so dazed, wrong footed and embarrassed as the news from Nigeria filtered through the garden of the presidential villa in Lusaka where a reception was going on for visiting Heads of Government.

UK’s Foreign Secretary, ever so pleasant, usually a very well polished technocrat and highly respected, Lord Carrington, did not know when he lost his diplomatic calm as he approached Nigeria’s External Affairs Minister, Major-General Henry Adefope, who was the leader of the Nigerian delegation, and swore that UK would make Nigeria regret the action. Prior to the nationalisation of BP, the view of Nigeria at No. 10 Downing Street was that it could “only bark but not bite”.

That move by General Obasanjo set the tone for Anglo-Nigerian relations in the late ’70s and up to the early and mid ’80s. Things were so bad then between both counties, so much so that it was under Thatcher’s premiership that Nigeria even broke her diplomatic ties with the UK over the issue of the kidnapping in broad day light on London streets of former Nigerian Transport Minister Umaru Dikko.

But due credit must be given to Mrs Thatcher that she later on mended fences with Nigeria, struck a good pragmatic partnership with President Babangida whom she famously described on seizing power from General Buhari as “a man we can do business with”. She lived up to that statement by visiting Nigeria not once but twice when Babangida was president. In one of the visits she came with her husband, Denis. It is important to note that Nigeria was the only African country she officially visited twice as British prime minister. And that speaks volume. For someone who as British Prime Minister was not really a friend of Africa, her coming to Nigeria twice despite the frequent diplomatic rows between the two countries showed the esteem with which she later held Nigeria. Not only that, under her premiership she increased the number of Nigerian students admitted into British universities on British scholarship under a scheme administered then by her education secretary Dr. Rhode Boyson because statistics had shown that Nigerian students had consistently outperformed their peers from the rest of the world. Shortly before this, she had in a year when Nigeria’s total spend on student on government scholarship in the UK was about £80milllion, jacked up school fees for foreign students. It was an unpopular move that made countries like Nigeria and Malaysia affected by it to consider cheaper climes like America to send the bulk of their students to. Britain’s loss was thus America’s gain.

Again Thatcher came head-to-head with Nigeria when a new Commonwealth Secretary-General was to be elected. She had pitched her tent in support of Malcolm Fraser, the former Australian prime minister, who was the opponent of Nigerian Chief Emeka Anyaoku. To be fair to her on this particular occasion, it was not Thatcher’s fault that she was against the Nigerian candidate. Chief Anyaoku, who was then deputy secretary-general, entered the race very late – long after Fraser had almost completed his campaign tour of the Commonwealth seeking support. Interestingly, Thatcher was not the only key ally of Nigeria who was against Anyaoku, even President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia was in support of Fraser based on principle that the former Australian premier had been to him first to seek his and Zambia’s support at the election and he had been given his word to the affirmative before Anyaoku came calling.

And, by the way, if Anyaoku had not decided to contest Nigeria too would have backed Fraser in appreciation of his unflinching support to Nigeria and Africa’s stance on issues of Rhodesia and South Africa when he was premier of Australia. Chief Anyaoku, had done the honourable thing by waiting patiently to get the nod from his boss, Sir Shridath Ramphal, that he would not contest for another term before putting his hat in the ring. In the end, however, it did not matter anymore as Nigeria succeeded in getting enough support for Anyaoku who was elected the first African Secretary-General of the Commonwealth despite Thatcher’s and Kaunda’s support for Fraser. And finally, it must be said: Mrs. Thatcher was again surprisingly generous in her praise of Nigeria in her memoirs in which she described Nigeria as a very complex country to rule.

In Britain she will be remembered for her social and economic reforms (most especially her controversial poll tax) considered by many Britons to be inhuman – left to her, the social security system of the welfare state would have been scrapped because she did not believe that “the state should do it all” for its citizens. On this her position she was considered too insensitive. Don’t forget that she was also the notorious “Margaret Thatcher the milk snatcher” – reference to her stopping the distribution of free milk at school when she was education secretary. Besides, she will also be remembered for taking on the powerful trade unions and breaking their influence for good. In Europe she will be remembered as the British prime minister who was always the odd man out and ensured that the UK did not join the single currency – the Euro, and the exchange rate mechanism. And in the world, Margaret Thatcher will be remembered for taking Britain to war against Argentina in far away Falkland Island; for her unflinching support for Ian Smith in Rhodesia and P. W. Botha in apartheid South Africa.

May her soul rest in peace.

•Soyinka, publisher, The Africa Today, wrote from London.