Nigerian Relations With US Must Be Based on Respect – Ambassador Joe Keshi
July 20, 2015
By Hugo Odiogor, Foreign Affairs Editor
Nigerian Vanguard
As President Muhammadu Buhari meets with his US counterpart, Mr. Barack Obama in Washington, today former Permanent Secretary in Foreign Affairs Ministry and Chairman of UBA, Ambassador Joe Keshi in this interview with Vanguard said that we must insist on being treated with mutual respect.
What is your perspective on the invitational visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to the US, against the background of Washington’s cold disposition to our anti terrorism war?
First of all, let me say, since the return of democracy in Nigeria, America has always shown interest in maintaining cordial relationship.
There have been ups and downs along the way and sometimes this has resulted in some kinds of frustrations. But every now and then, we have the opportunity to bring things back on track. I disagree with those who say that it is condescending for President Buhari to visit Obama.
I can recall that in 1999, when Obasanjo came to power, he also visited the US, not once or twice and he stayed at Blair House. Former President Goodluck Jonathan was also invited. He also stayed in the Blair House. So it is not true as reported in some newspapers that President Obama was breaking tradition to put President Buhari in Blair House. Former President Goodluck Jonathan was also invited.
Let me say that Buhari’s election has renewed interest in our foreign relations and will provide us the opportunity to look at some of the critical issues that America has put its focus on, such issues will be on the table.
When Madam Clinton came to Nigeria at the early stage of the Jonathan administration, before things fell apart between his administration and the U.S, she focused on three main issues. Security was one of them, the militancy in the Niger Delta was key.
The two other issues were corruption and investment..
Of course, corruption featured strongly in the theme of President Obama speeches during his visit to various African countries. He spoke against corruption in Africa, not in Nigeria.
The third point was investment and you will recall that throughout the campaign of President Buhari, these were basically the key issues that he focused on.
For me, there is a convergence of views right now, we are interested in the twin issue of Boko Haram and terrorism, which has become a global challenge to the world today.
As we speak, US remains the most challenged country in the world on the issue of terrorism. It has not been able to degrade the fighting capacity of ISIS. Only last week we had a domestic terrorist attack at a military base in Chitaagona in Tennessee.
The two countries have opportunity for a new beginning. I sincerely hope that we will deal with each other from a position of mutual respect that recognises the commitment of the new president to tackle these issues and to get the support of the United States, that means that if our president insists that we require some assistance. We should be able to resolve the issue of military relationship.
I can confidently predict that before the end of his tenure in 2016, President Barack Obama will visit Nigeria. I will not be surprised if this will be one of the outcome of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit.
How would you look at the issue that the US stopped sale of weapons to Nigeria because of human rights concern?
I have always made the point that in a war of this nature, you cannot close your eyes to the challenges that face the military around the world.
There is no military that is confronted with the same situation as our troops found itself that it would not do something that is abnormal.
We are fighting a bunch of people you don’t know, who do not follow conventional rules of war fare. They have no formation and structured command, they have no rules of engagement, they just hit soft targets and kill innocent children, women and men and commit other atrocities. One thing that annoys soldiers is for them to see their colleagues being killed in defenceless situations.
Most armies in the world would react violently to such a situation, I expected that the US which has gone through similar experiences several times, should be in a better position to understand the challenges faced by other countries in such military situation, that we were faced with in combating Boko Haram terrorists. You do not spend time condemning us or raising human rights issues and deny sale of arms to contain terrorist because there is going to be human rights abuses.
This was contradictory to a country that has made global commitment to fighting terrorism.
I sincerely hope that this new engagement should be built on mutual trust, better understanding. In spite of the challenges that we face, this country is big enough and we still have a lot of international credibility to be able to lead the continent.
What should be the position of Nigeria in this meeting where American officials are saying that Washington will pressurize President Buhari to review the Same-Sex Prohibition law?
For me it is not an issue, it is a legal issue, it has been enacted into law and it has the support of over 99% of Nigerians and that is where I go back to the issue of mutual respect. There are certain things Americans would not accept from us and there are certain things we would not accept from them.
They should not compel us to accept what we do not want. If they decide to live in a certain way that they chose, they cannot tell us we should go the same way with them. They must recognise the cultural differences between the two people and nations. So let us focus on the more critical issues of security and investment.
If President Obama gives a signal that there is a new beginning in the relationship between Nigeria and US, if Americans turn down on the issues of corruption, not because corruption is not there, but because President Buhari will live up to expectation in the anti-corruption war, you will see that this will provide encouragement to American investment. We need massive US investment in agriculture, power, solid mineral sector etc. We need the US investment to diversify the economy.
With the Iran oil coming into the market, we need to get other sources, manufacturing industry, these are some of the issues, we should focus on, we need to begin to engage on the use of other social issues like education. In the past, there were a lot of educational exchanges which have collapsed, for instance we used to have crop of American university lecturers who were doing their sabbaticals in Nigeria.
Apart from the American university in Adamawa, I don’t know where else you will find American professors and lecturers. These are some of the areas we need to focus on.
What is your view on the new Iran nuclear deal with world power?
Let me say that I am happy that President Buhari has expressed support for this deal during the visit of an Iranian Minister to his office in Abuja.
I sincerely hope that our president will express this support when he meets with President Obama. I have always said that we need to speak out on world issues because at the end of the day, some of these global issues have a way of affecting us. We should not look at them and say we are not involved.
If you look at what is going on in the Middle East, today especially, the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria, you will find a lot of correlation, especially in the influence of ISIS. You could see that when ISIS began to hoist flags in the areas that they controlled, Boko Haram in Nigeria, began to do the same thing in the North East.
When ISIS began to destroy historical sites and monumental, Boko Haram began to do the same thing here, when they began to capture women and children and took them hostage, Boko Haram imitated them. When ISIS began to behead their victims, it was copied by Boko Haram. These are some of the things we have seen in the Middle East.
The point here is that this agreement is an audacious gamble by the Obama administration, in the hope that it will result in a rapprochement with Iran and enable them to deal with a number of other issues, like restoration of diplomatic ties between both countries.
It will have impact in dealing with the situation in Syria. As long as there is crisis in the Middle East, we will continue to have this pockets of insurgencies as we have in Yemen, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, etc.
You could see that occasionally we have cases of domestic terrorism in the US and European countries. It is the best thing anybody can get for now and as President Obama said, those who are opposed to the deal should provide a better alternative.
I have listened to most of the Republicans especially Mr. Donald Trump on their views on the deal. I can tell you that if he were to bring those views to the negotiation table, the Iranians would walk away. We must bear in mind that this agreement has taken three to four years to hammer out. As at today nobody in that negotiations had the capacity to dictate to each other. I believe that the deal will lead to an improvement in relations and help to normalise other things in the whole of Middle East.
For Nigeria, how can we can manage the impact of this deal?
Look, the problem is that we have not invested our oil resources very well, the crisis we have now should provide an opportunity for us to focus on other areas like agriculture, solid mineral and so on. When you look at the cultural industries and improve on their capacity to produce some of these items that are exportable, we can maximise our foreign exchange earning power.
My fear is that it require tenacity and courage to start. We can lead by example to make us focus our attention. We are trying to encourage the governors of South South to go back to plant millions of plan trees to recreate the economic scenario that we have in the area during the First Republic.
Imagine what could have happened if South West replicate similar effort in Cocoa farming and the Northern states go back to production of cotton. This will boost agriculture and spin off in creation of employment for millions of people. We need investors in the solid mineral sector.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/our-relations-with-us-must-based-on-mutual-respect-amb-joe-keshi/#sthash.vdzs5ZUD.dpuf
By Hugo Odiogor, Foreign Affairs Editor
Nigerian Vanguard
As President Muhammadu Buhari meets with his US counterpart, Mr. Barack Obama in Washington, today former Permanent Secretary in Foreign Affairs Ministry and Chairman of UBA, Ambassador Joe Keshi in this interview with Vanguard said that we must insist on being treated with mutual respect.
What is your perspective on the invitational visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to the US, against the background of Washington’s cold disposition to our anti terrorism war?
First of all, let me say, since the return of democracy in Nigeria, America has always shown interest in maintaining cordial relationship.
There have been ups and downs along the way and sometimes this has resulted in some kinds of frustrations. But every now and then, we have the opportunity to bring things back on track. I disagree with those who say that it is condescending for President Buhari to visit Obama.
I can recall that in 1999, when Obasanjo came to power, he also visited the US, not once or twice and he stayed at Blair House. Former President Goodluck Jonathan was also invited. He also stayed in the Blair House. So it is not true as reported in some newspapers that President Obama was breaking tradition to put President Buhari in Blair House. Former President Goodluck Jonathan was also invited.
Let me say that Buhari’s election has renewed interest in our foreign relations and will provide us the opportunity to look at some of the critical issues that America has put its focus on, such issues will be on the table.
When Madam Clinton came to Nigeria at the early stage of the Jonathan administration, before things fell apart between his administration and the U.S, she focused on three main issues. Security was one of them, the militancy in the Niger Delta was key.
The two other issues were corruption and investment..
Of course, corruption featured strongly in the theme of President Obama speeches during his visit to various African countries. He spoke against corruption in Africa, not in Nigeria.
The third point was investment and you will recall that throughout the campaign of President Buhari, these were basically the key issues that he focused on.
For me, there is a convergence of views right now, we are interested in the twin issue of Boko Haram and terrorism, which has become a global challenge to the world today.
As we speak, US remains the most challenged country in the world on the issue of terrorism. It has not been able to degrade the fighting capacity of ISIS. Only last week we had a domestic terrorist attack at a military base in Chitaagona in Tennessee.
The two countries have opportunity for a new beginning. I sincerely hope that we will deal with each other from a position of mutual respect that recognises the commitment of the new president to tackle these issues and to get the support of the United States, that means that if our president insists that we require some assistance. We should be able to resolve the issue of military relationship.
I can confidently predict that before the end of his tenure in 2016, President Barack Obama will visit Nigeria. I will not be surprised if this will be one of the outcome of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit.
How would you look at the issue that the US stopped sale of weapons to Nigeria because of human rights concern?
I have always made the point that in a war of this nature, you cannot close your eyes to the challenges that face the military around the world.
There is no military that is confronted with the same situation as our troops found itself that it would not do something that is abnormal.
We are fighting a bunch of people you don’t know, who do not follow conventional rules of war fare. They have no formation and structured command, they have no rules of engagement, they just hit soft targets and kill innocent children, women and men and commit other atrocities. One thing that annoys soldiers is for them to see their colleagues being killed in defenceless situations.
Most armies in the world would react violently to such a situation, I expected that the US which has gone through similar experiences several times, should be in a better position to understand the challenges faced by other countries in such military situation, that we were faced with in combating Boko Haram terrorists. You do not spend time condemning us or raising human rights issues and deny sale of arms to contain terrorist because there is going to be human rights abuses.
This was contradictory to a country that has made global commitment to fighting terrorism.
I sincerely hope that this new engagement should be built on mutual trust, better understanding. In spite of the challenges that we face, this country is big enough and we still have a lot of international credibility to be able to lead the continent.
What should be the position of Nigeria in this meeting where American officials are saying that Washington will pressurize President Buhari to review the Same-Sex Prohibition law?
For me it is not an issue, it is a legal issue, it has been enacted into law and it has the support of over 99% of Nigerians and that is where I go back to the issue of mutual respect. There are certain things Americans would not accept from us and there are certain things we would not accept from them.
They should not compel us to accept what we do not want. If they decide to live in a certain way that they chose, they cannot tell us we should go the same way with them. They must recognise the cultural differences between the two people and nations. So let us focus on the more critical issues of security and investment.
If President Obama gives a signal that there is a new beginning in the relationship between Nigeria and US, if Americans turn down on the issues of corruption, not because corruption is not there, but because President Buhari will live up to expectation in the anti-corruption war, you will see that this will provide encouragement to American investment. We need massive US investment in agriculture, power, solid mineral sector etc. We need the US investment to diversify the economy.
With the Iran oil coming into the market, we need to get other sources, manufacturing industry, these are some of the issues, we should focus on, we need to begin to engage on the use of other social issues like education. In the past, there were a lot of educational exchanges which have collapsed, for instance we used to have crop of American university lecturers who were doing their sabbaticals in Nigeria.
Apart from the American university in Adamawa, I don’t know where else you will find American professors and lecturers. These are some of the areas we need to focus on.
What is your view on the new Iran nuclear deal with world power?
Let me say that I am happy that President Buhari has expressed support for this deal during the visit of an Iranian Minister to his office in Abuja.
I sincerely hope that our president will express this support when he meets with President Obama. I have always said that we need to speak out on world issues because at the end of the day, some of these global issues have a way of affecting us. We should not look at them and say we are not involved.
If you look at what is going on in the Middle East, today especially, the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria, you will find a lot of correlation, especially in the influence of ISIS. You could see that when ISIS began to hoist flags in the areas that they controlled, Boko Haram in Nigeria, began to do the same thing in the North East.
When ISIS began to destroy historical sites and monumental, Boko Haram began to do the same thing here, when they began to capture women and children and took them hostage, Boko Haram imitated them. When ISIS began to behead their victims, it was copied by Boko Haram. These are some of the things we have seen in the Middle East.
The point here is that this agreement is an audacious gamble by the Obama administration, in the hope that it will result in a rapprochement with Iran and enable them to deal with a number of other issues, like restoration of diplomatic ties between both countries.
It will have impact in dealing with the situation in Syria. As long as there is crisis in the Middle East, we will continue to have this pockets of insurgencies as we have in Yemen, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, etc.
You could see that occasionally we have cases of domestic terrorism in the US and European countries. It is the best thing anybody can get for now and as President Obama said, those who are opposed to the deal should provide a better alternative.
I have listened to most of the Republicans especially Mr. Donald Trump on their views on the deal. I can tell you that if he were to bring those views to the negotiation table, the Iranians would walk away. We must bear in mind that this agreement has taken three to four years to hammer out. As at today nobody in that negotiations had the capacity to dictate to each other. I believe that the deal will lead to an improvement in relations and help to normalise other things in the whole of Middle East.
For Nigeria, how can we can manage the impact of this deal?
Look, the problem is that we have not invested our oil resources very well, the crisis we have now should provide an opportunity for us to focus on other areas like agriculture, solid mineral and so on. When you look at the cultural industries and improve on their capacity to produce some of these items that are exportable, we can maximise our foreign exchange earning power.
My fear is that it require tenacity and courage to start. We can lead by example to make us focus our attention. We are trying to encourage the governors of South South to go back to plant millions of plan trees to recreate the economic scenario that we have in the area during the First Republic.
Imagine what could have happened if South West replicate similar effort in Cocoa farming and the Northern states go back to production of cotton. This will boost agriculture and spin off in creation of employment for millions of people. We need investors in the solid mineral sector.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/our-relations-with-us-must-based-on-mutual-respect-amb-joe-keshi/#sthash.vdzs5ZUD.dpuf
No comments:
Post a Comment