It was yet another busy week for President Bola Tinubu as he continued the drive to better both the economic and diplomatic images of the country. Just like the week before it, the President spent virtually the entire week abroad, this time around, attending the 78th United Nations’ General Assembly in New York, as well as several other bilateral and business meetings. Remember he was in the capital of India, New Delhi, the week before to participate in the G-20 Leaders’ Summit, as well as attending other critical engagements that were targeted at bettering the economy.
Although he was involved in several activities at various levels, including a town hall meeting Diaspora Nigerians from across the United States, diplomatic bilateral and business roundtable with global captains of industry, the one tipped as the most significant of the Jagaba’s outing in ‘the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave’ was his 46-paragraphed National Statement to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, September 19.
To many Nigerians, just as applicable to other coloured peoples in different parts of the world, the Nigerian President took the UN rostrum to speak the truth to power, speaking on behalf of all the struggling and oppressed nations, those sacrificing everything just to claim a place among those who have forever employed all manners of cunning and force to take all without yielding anything. That outing, in the view of many who have over the years served as the voice for Justice and Equality, was a bold venture for the President of one of the most endowed, but repressed potential powers in parts other than the Global West.
In such reviews, President Tinubu knew it was a risk to speak out, pointing to the hypocrisy of the big economies, those most of the ‘rest’ of the world are patronising just to be allowed to take steps that will make them count, yet he summoned the courage to say it the way it is, pointing to how corporations and businesses from the developed world pillage African resources, a representation of the struggling economies of the Americas and those in Asia, and such actors never get sanctioned, but protected by their mother-countries through hypocritical technicalities.
He summarised his truth-poking statement in the closing, saying “as I close, let me emphasize that Nigeria’s objectives accord with the guiding principles of this world body: peace, security, human rights and development. In fundamental ways, nature has been kind to Africa, giving abundant land, resources and creative and industrious people. Yet, man has too often been unkind to his fellow man and this sad tendency has brought sustained hardship to Africa’s doorstep.
“To keep faith with the tenets of this world body and the theme of this year’s Assembly, the poverty of nations must end. The pillage of one nation’s resources by the overreach of firms and people of stronger nations must end. The will of the people must be respected. This beauty, generous and forgiving planet must be protected.
“As for Africa, we seek to be neither appendage nor patron. We do not wish to replace old shackles with new one. Instead, we hope to walk the rich African soil and live under the magnificent African sky free of the wrongs of the past and clear of their associated encumbrances. We desire a prosperous, vibrant democratic living space for our people. To the rest of the world, I say walk with us as true friends and partners. Africa is not a problem to be avoided nor is it to be pitied. Africa is nothing less than the key to the world’s future”, he said.
In another forum, specifically his meeting with the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, Baba told the world that Nigeria and African will no longer fall for the gimmick of the West; collaborating with their rogue corporations and nationals who come to these parts to steal resources, flood our lands with lethal substances like firearms, ammunition, drugs, toxic wastes and other such inhuman practices, then turning back to invoke ‘human rights’ to gain clemency through the back door.
“We are facing the great challenge of scavengers ravaging our lands and oppressing our people on illegal mines—taking our gold and mineral wealth back to developed economies by stealth and violence against Nigerians. Where one’s human right ends, the rights of another begin, most especially for self-protection. If we fight, they say ‘human rights,’ but we will now be aggressive and we will question motives. We will stop what is happening in our land. We require your effective collaboration”, Baba had told Guterres.
However, reviews have rated the President’s outing most successful. Starting with the truth-telling on the floors of the General Assembly on Tuesday, opinions across the world have put President Tinubu’s speech among the best ever delivered by leaders of developing countries to the rest of the world.
A legal luminary and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr Olisa Agbakoba, who many will not call “an everyday friend of President Tinubu, in his review of the President’s National Statement, described it as “a well-received statement at UNGA”.
Agbakoba, who is never known for praise-singing, dropped a message on his verified X handle, @oagbakoba commending the President for his message to the world, saying “never in the history of UNGA has an African President spoken for the entire African continent, asserting that we are not beggars but equal partners with the geopolitical blocs of the world.
“Not since Kwame Nkrumah and his vision for a pan-African agenda for development has any African leader delivered a speech on behalf of the 54 nations of Africa. Africa has only itself to blame if it fails to build upon the significant policy speech delivered by President Tinubu at the United Nations General Assembly. Let all of us in Africa rally our collective energies and declare to the world that we are awake and not beggars but partners”, he said.
Also, a senior media practitioner and former Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, in his summation of the President’s outing said he (Tinubu) was apt in locating the escalating crisis of development in Nigeria and other African countries in the crippling unemployment across the regions, lauding him for the foresight and expressing optimism that sorting this crisis out will help to speed up development.
“Over the years political and economic analysts in Nigeria have had cause to express grave concern over youth unemployment in the country. Some of them have described lack of job opportunities for Nigerian youths as a ticking time bomb.
“In cognisance of this national crisis, President Tinubu, during his speech at the Union Nations rightly emphasised that for Nigeria and other African countries to fulfil their duties to their people must create jobs. There is no doubt that one of the socio-economic problems facing Nigeria today is unemployment. And the President has clearly pointed out that creating more and better quality jobs is key to boosting growth, reducing poverty and increasing social cohesion.
“To this end, I consider President Tinubu’s assertion that Africa’s largest economy is open for business, aimed at attracting foreign direct investment, as most commendable. Nigeria stands to benefit immensely from foreign direct investment through technology transfer, human capital development, job creation, stem insecurity, increased competitiveness, and improve export. This will, no doubt, help to further develop the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nigeria”, Ebiri said.
Besides the outing at the UNGA, the President also took part in a number of other engagements targeted at economic growth and development, even the meeting with the Diaspora Nigerians in across the US was still devoted to asking them to bring their resources home for investment. These engagements have also been weighed and sized as steps in the right direction for a President desperate to bring a comatose system back to life.
One of such reviews was by the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu, who spoke to journalists after the Jagaba rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ.
“Today is extremely symbolic for us as Nigerians, we should be very proud to see our President come to New York, we have had many Presidents in the past who come for UNGA, but they didn’t pay this kind of attention to coming to a place like this. This is symbolic, it helps people to know that our leader is ready for business, he supports business and he will create the enabling environment for businesses to succeed.
“There’s so much private global capital looking for the right investment destination and this capital will go to where it’s most welcomed. Seeing the President of Nigeria, come to New York, coming to NASDAQ to ring the closing bell says a lot, that he’s a man that’s pro-business. We need a pro-business leadership to take Nigeria to the next level, it’s all about confidence and trust.
“If people have confidence in the Nigeria’s economy, if people have confidence in our leadership, the money we need in Nigeria to develop our economy, to drive infrastructure, to even improve our foreign exchange reserve will come to the country. So I’m very happy and that’s why personally I cancelled some engagements to be here with Mr President
“Also, when we go back home, they should match it with actions to make sure that the promises we made to foreign investors is sustained. What is good for foreign investor is good for local investor. We want to see a vibrant economy in Nigeria and to achieve that, we need to create the enabling environment”, Elumelu said.
Well, another week of offshore victories ended in America on Thursday evening as the Jagaban headed out of that country, en rout France, back home, for another week of activities. What those activities will be, we will have to wait to see.
