In making this public intervention, I seek to highlight the benefit of global relationships and cooperation in a world that is changing daily as a result of globalization and transborder economics, social and even criminal activities where no one is safe, except all are safe, and to leave the dispassionate observer his opinion after deep reflection on the value, or lack of it, of the President’s foreign trips.
This way I hope every Nigerian who cares about our country will have some information about what their President is doing about the things that concern them. First I will start with context. Barely 2 decades ago (between 1994 and 1998) we would not have quarreled with the description that we were a pariah nation. We were ostracized from global events because of bad governance. We had lost the respect accorded Nations like ours were they well-led and well-run. I recall that not a few Nigerians complained that the green passport was becoming, if it had not already become, a burden. That was at the height of the dictatorial government that broke the rules of international relations. It was from there that we started to heal. Investors entered our country. Many brands that we sought after abroad started coming to set up shop in our country. The tourist footfalls in our country increased slowly but surely, but again we began to slide.
That was when Buhari declared at a meeting in Lagos during his campaign in 2015, that if elected, he would make us proud about our country again. Proud to be Nigerian again. That is the context in which I view his foreign trips and the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Foreign Relations which promised to: Make the Nigerian national interest the overriding factor in its foreign policy and international relations. Work to reform global governance in multilateral institutions and agencies. Work to strengthen the African Union to become a more effective organization on global affairs. Engage the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) on the basis of equality. Play a leadership role to develop a MINT (Mexico, India, Nigeria, and Turkey) as a counterforce to BRICS. I will limit my takeaways to 4 (Four) trips that I attended with the President namely: the G7 Summit in Germany, the Oil and Gas Summit in Iran, the Renewable Energy Conference in Abu Dhabi and the State visit and Business Forum in China; and 2 (Two) trips that I did not attend, but whose deliberations I followed, namely: Paris for the COP 21 and USA for the Nuclear Energy Summit. G7 in Germany This is a club of eight of the most industrialized, economic and technologically advanced nations. For the benefit of those who do not follow international politics it was originally the G8 comprising the USA, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Italy, and Russia, who were later suspended and had sanctions imposed on them to make it G7 as a result. It was formed in 1975 as a club of 6 (Six) before Canada and Russia were admitted. They look after each other, and the rest of the world to put it simply. They have gone to war together if you remember Iraq and Libya in recent memory and they are all largely collaborating to fight terror. (Most recently the FBI was rendering assistance to Belgium in the aftermath of the terror attacks in that Country). Why G7 one might then ask? Answer: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as host, invited PMB on his inauguration to be their guest along with some three or four other African countries.
Their agenda was global security, global economy and global health in the aftermath of Ebola, which was still raging in some African countries. Apart from the personal aides of the President, Governor Shettima of Borno, General Dambazau and myself were the only ones who accompanied PMB. I
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