By Alade Fawole
Nigeria’s President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has over the years cultivated a reputation for steely resolve even in the face of adversity. He comes across as highly informed, experienced, and quite knowledgeable about politics and governance in Nigeria, having been a major player since the aborted Third Republic. From several accounts of him in the public domain, it is apparent he is neither easy to sway by blandishments nor is he discouraged by adversity, however daunting. These, no doubt, are sterling qualities required for effective leadership.
But being human, and a new leader from whom Nigerians are already expecting so much, himself eager to turn things around quickly for the good of the country, he definitely needs to be on his guard and be mindful especially of the army of foreign saboteurs who masquerade as economic experts and advisers. These are often highly trained professionals, well-credentialed, with cultivated urbanity and smooth manners, engaging eloquence and persuasive diplomatic skills, whose core assignment is to traverse the Global South, smooth-talking and cajoling governments to subscribe to their sinister economic agenda. Their first and main targets are mostly presidents, after which they seek out, identify and recruit their seemingly opportunistic and easily corruptible close aides and advisers to the bargain.
Here at home, the full results of the February 25, 2023 presidential election had hardly been released, and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared the winner and president-elect, when all manner of local columnists and commentators, pundits, ubiquitous ‘public affairs analysts’, political job-seekers, both serious-minded scholars and pseudo-public intellectuals, began to set their own agenda for the incoming administration. Even yours truly was contacted by a journalist for an agenda-setting interview but the request was declined. This is simply because such would be a grand fatuity. The President-elect had won the election on the strength of his own manifesto, so trying to set a “new agenda” for him, outside of what he has laid out for himself to do, however well-intentioned, is for me completely out of the question.
All we need to do is study his manifesto carefully so we would later be able to hold him accountable to his own promises, rather than expect him to fulfill other peoples’ desires and agenda he never signed on to in the first place. In my view, no leader should be held to account for promises he/she never made.
This write-up therefore isn’t about agenda-setting nor is it a proposal for his consideration. It is only a piece of advice, one that is relevant and useful for every new administration in the countries of the Global South because of their susceptibility to foreign blandishments, interference and diktats that are usually cleverly devised to subjugate them to the whims and caprices of foreign powers and special interests. These foreign interests always have ready-made evil schemes and proposals, waiting for a new administration to be inaugurated to pounce on it. They are known simply as “economic hit men,” much like the fabled mafia hit men or enforcers you will say.
“Economic Hit Men” is a nomenclature popularised by John Perkins, formerly an intrepid economic hit man himself, by the title of his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It describes the army of highly trained subversive economic agents in the service of corporate America who employ subterfuge and cajolery to hoodwink national leaders in the Global South to adopt economic proposals that look fantastic on the surface but are actually intended to destroy their national economies and subjugate them to US diktat. Governments are by these turned into puppets dancing on strings being manipulated by invisible foreign hands. As described by Perkins, they must rank by far the most diabolical and satanic enslavement stratagems ever designed by the evillest minds to subjugate whole nations to the whims of the rulers and capitalist oligarchs of the American empire.
Is America an empire? Yes, America is an empire, unquestionably the most vicious empire ever seen. What distinguishes it from other past empires, as the late renowned African political scientist, Professor Ali Mazrui has noted, is that it is an empire of control and manipulation rather than one of physical occupation and domination. It rarely seeks to physically dominate other countries but instead exercises invisible control over them through cleverly devised strategies, one of which is to ensure their complete subjugation through surreptitious economic manipulation. Even when physical measures are required for its objective, it merely sends its military forces to invade a country, destroy it, change the regime, and then leave it in ruins —— Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya readily come to mind.
According to John Perkins, the ex-economic hit man, it is a graduated process: only when subtle economic manipulations by the economic hit men fail to yield expected subjugation of a country are the ‘jackals’, i.e., CIA operatives, called in to stir up socio-political destabilisation campaigns and unrests, sometimes involving assassination of leaders, for the ultimate purpose of regime change so the US can surreptitiously impose puppets ready to do Washington’s bidding. When all these fail, the White House would then wield the big stick by sending in an expeditionary force to “shock and awe” and teach such a country a vital lesson. The graduated employment and deployment of these sinister tactics is what makes the American empire deadlier and much more menacing than any other in the history of the world.
John Perkins Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is one book I sincerely recommend for the attention of President-elect Tinubu to study before his inauguration, and if possible, to be made a compulsory reading for all his incoming ministers and senior advisers as a subject for a high-level retreat immediately after the composition of his cabinet. It will surely open their eyes to the ever-present dangers of the ubiquitous foreign subversive agents.
Again, this calls for the President-elect, if he truly wants to succeed, to exercise absolute caution and discretion in the choice of people for his cabinet, supervise them effectively to prevent them from being used by foreign economic saboteurs who would sell seemingly credible but dangerous proposals through them to the President. This will necessitate broad consultations with relevant stakeholders, engaging in research and study, subjecting proposals to critical review and evaluation before they are adopted for implementation, and effective supervision at all stages of implementation.
Right now, there would be all manner of local and foreign ‘experts’ who have already perfected their nefarious proposals on all manner of topics and issues they will push for the government’s adoption through the ministers and the President’s closest aides and advisers, including his family members. Family members and close confidants are often the softest targets for subversion.
If I have any personal advice for the incoming President, it will be that he should not emulate outgoing President Buhari’s penchant for ignoring Nigerians, especially on matters of critical national importance. As elected leader, he must endeavor to speak directly and truthfully to Nigerians from time to time on critical national issues, and not leave matters to unelected media aides. A leader’s words carry weight, they give hope and reassure even in seemingly hopeless situations.
•Fawole, fawolew@yahoo.com