G7, AU visits: The controversy after

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari’s visits to the G7 summit in Germany and the African Union meeting in South Africa is generating controversy in the country, Fisayo Falodi writes

President Muhammadu Buhari, since he assumed office on May 29, 2015, has visited neighbouring Chad and Niger Republic to seek regional collaboration

on how to tackle the activities of the Boko Haram sect. He had also attended the G7 summit in Bavaria, Germany, and the 25th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union meeting in South Africa.

The President’s visit to Germany, based on the invitation by a group of seven industrialised countries, a few days after the inauguration of his administration, might not be an indication of good things to come as some observers have said.

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The G7’s gesture was demonstrated by its willingness to support the President’s determination to put Nigeria on the path of progress and channel his energy towards tackling the challenges confronting the country, many of which former leaders before him had failed to address. The President also repeated the issues in a speech he delivered at the AU meeting in South Africa where he said the continent of Africa was under siege.

According to him, the challenges lie in the political, economic, peace and security spheres.

The group of seven industrialised democracies – the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom- meet annually to discuss issues such as global economic governance, international security and energy policy.

Though reputed for its interest in global peace and security, the G7 was said to have extended the gesture to Buhari in acknowledgment of the manner in which he emerged as the president and the tremendous challenges his administration inherited.

The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Mallam Garba Shehu, stressed this point in a statement where he had said that the G7 recognised Buhari’s massive amount of confidence and expectations of Nigerians from his government.

The statement read, “They (G7) acknowledged him as having emerged from an election adjudged to be the freest in the country’s electoral history but regretted the severe handicaps his new administration has to face from the outset.

“They told President Buhari that they took cognizance of the fact of the several handicaps, including the lack of resources, leaving him with a government over-stretched in capacity, itself riddled with mismanagement.

“The group noted that the country’s army lacked training and equipment with little or no will to engage.

“In recognition of the fact that the security threat of the Boko Haram had gone beyond Nigeria, equally affecting other countries in the region, the G7 conceded that no one country could tackle it alone.

“They expressed warm sentiments towards the Nigerian leader and praised him for reaching out to the country’s neighbours and the group of industrialised nations within a week of his takeover of government.”

The G7 therefore asked Buhari to come up with his demands and assured him of its readiness to study them either individually or collectively and offer help. The group also demanded to know the nature and the scale of the problems in order to know the nature and the scale of the assistance to provide.

The President grabbed the offer as he named insecurity, corruption and power problem on his wish list as the most critical areas that demanded attention. Even before the G7 summit, Garba said the President had used every opportunity at his disposal to discuss the country’s needs with specific reference to terrorism and development needs at person-to-person meetings and telephone conversations with some of these leaders.”

As sound as the offer appears to be, some observers doubted the sincerity of the G7. They expressed the belief that Buhari’s attendance of the group’s summit would not result into any gains for Nigeria.

A rights activist and lawyer, Mr. Femi Aborisade, said if the President relied on the G7 for solution to Nigeria’s socio-economic problems, then his administration might fail on the long run.

The activist asked the President to draw necessary lessons from the attendance of past G7 summits by past Nigeria’s leaders in recent history.

He said, “President Buhari does not need the G7 to solve any of Nigeria’s problems. Buhari should not be enslaved to the failed economic programme of successive regimes, which had always been hinged on export orientation that has brought Nigeria to its knees. Buhari was brought into power on the basis of a programme of change. That change should also be reflected in economic perspectives devoid of following the failed economic programmes of past governments.

“Several studies have shown that reliance on the imperialist world in the attempt to attract foreign direct investment and solve socio-economic problems usually leaves developing countries to be net exporter of capital or net creditor to the rest of the world due to issues of capital flight, tax evasion, and so on.”

Buttressing his point on why assistance by the G7 will not be of any socio-political benefit to Nigeria, Aborisade said, “The economic history of the relationship between the centres of world imperialism (represented by the G7) and the Third World (including Nigeria) shows that the Third World or the developing countries have always been the losers.

“The fundamental reason is that international politics and relations are informed by the desire of interacting countries to maximise political influence or control as well as economic gains in favour of individual countries, and there is no sentiment and pretence about the goals. Whatever assistance the G7 renders will be based on arrangements and conditions that will leave Nigeria worse off, in the final analysis.”

He therefore asked the President to remain committed to the objectives of his administration, which he reiterated at his recent meeting with the Nigerian community in South Africa.

A poet and social analyst, Mr. Odia Ofeimu, also believes that Nigeria might not benefit anything tangible from the President’s visit to the G7 summit. In his view, Buhari only went to the G7 summit to show Nigeria’s flag, notwithstanding the wish list he was requested by the group to present.

According to him, Buhari ought to be very careful in relating with the group of the seven industrialised countries.

Ofeimu said, “Honestly, a government that has not taken a strong position on everything ought to be careful about presenting a wish list. Whatever wish list Buhari was able to present, properly speaking, was not properly examined by his own team.

“I think that he ought to simply sit down in Nigeria and not try to engage all those powers until he had worked out what he wishes to do. If he tries to do that, he may be entangling himself in issues that he wished he did not get involved in.”

He also expressed confidence that Nigerians are capable of solving the country’s ravaging problems if Buhari should endeavour to task them with such responsibility.

Ofeimu said, “There are problems to solve and there are Nigerians who are in good positions to help solve the problems. The President should sit down and get the clear map of the problems on the ground before relating with the rest of the world. If he does not want to do so, the world will push him in the direction that will undermine the goals he had promised Nigerians.”

The poet equally expressed doubt in the sincerity of the G7, saying, “The G7 invited him and he had presented his wish list to the group. What we knew were generalised wishes. We did not know the specific of what he had asked for. And we also did not know the specific of the demands the G7 is asking from him because if you present a wish list, people are very likely to give you conditions under which they will perform.

“We don’t know what those conditions are. Even if we know the conditions, I am saying that Buhari just needs to draw up a map to articulate a strategy before he entangles himself in the ritual of international politics because his body language might create wrong impression.

“Let him sit down with Nigerians and draw up a solid position on the basis on which he plans to solve Nigeria’s problems. In that way, he will know the countries to relate with and those he should keep abreast.”

But Prof. Dauda Saleh of the Department of Political Science, University of Abuja, thinks otherwise. He is of the opinion that the G7 will assist Nigeria based on the fact that insecurity caused by terrorism has become a global concern. According to him, the peculiarity of the current Nigeria’s situation may compel the seven industrialised countries to act on the wish list.

One other thing that Saleh believes may work for Nigeria is the President’s credential. He said Buhari’s antecedent as a non-corrupt person might draw the G7’s attention towards the President’s developmental drive.

“Terrorism has become a global issue. Once there is terrorism in one part of the world, there is tendency that it can spread to other parts. So, the G7 will realise this point and assist Nigeria,” he said.

The Professor of Political Science, however, asked the President not to rely solely on the G7 for assistance, but should be bold enough to reject peanuts from the group.

He also warned that the G7 would not part with its resources until Buhari met certain criteria of which is the ability of the President to prudently manage the public resources.

Saleh said, “The G7 has its own criteria for offering assistance. If the group sees commitment in terms of the anti-corruption drive and the fight against the Boko Haram sect; improvement in the power sector and ray of development in the economy generally, I am sure that the G7 will want to provide assistance. But in case the G7 is not satisfied with the performance of Nigeria, my fear is that it will not like its money or resources to end in private pockets.”

He equally said Nigerians would not welcome anything less than the actualisation of the objectives of Buhari’s administration which the President himself outlined in South Africa.

Saleh said, “My own understanding of change is that there must be a clear-cut difference between what was obtainable in the past and what the situation is now. If there is no difference, it means the change has not come.

“So, when we talk about change, we are talking about policies that will affect the lives of the people positively in the areas of power, education, health care delivery and conducive environment for social and economic activities to thrive.”

A lawyer cum analyst, Mr. Rasheed Bamisile, backed Saleh’s view. He sees Buhari’s presentation of the wish list to the G7 as justifiable. “What is Buhari’s responsibility other than to negotiate on behalf of Nigeria?” Bamisile asked, adding that Nigeria cannot develop without the assistance of the G7.

He said, “After God, the next is the G7. Nigeria is a developing country, it needs assistance of the G7 countries to develop, especially when it does not have diplomatic problem with them.

“If Buhari, on behalf of Nigeria, presented the wish list and the course of giving us what we requested for, the G7 is now demanding unfavourable conditions, will Buhari not come back home and say this is what the group is demanding from him?

“Can he act alone; can he sign any pact with the G7 without the inputs of relevant stakeholders in Nigeria? In essence, there is nothing bad for Buhari to make request from the G7. In fact, his attendance of the G7 summit presented him the opportunity to present Nigeria’s challenges to those who could offer one assistance or the other.

“The President also has the right to tell Nigerians the conditions the G7 might likely place the country under before it could assist. There must be an undertaking and the President is not daft to signing a pact that will not be favourable to Nigeria.

“Nigeria cannot get out of the woods without the input of the G7. Are you now saying that Buhari should go to Gabon for assistance?”