Buhari meets Obama

At the inception of his administration, he had travelled to Cairo, Egypt, to deliver one of the most referenced and conciliatory speeches directed at Muslim audiences. In his childhood, Obama had witnessed the warmth and friendship a Muslim community could offer growing kids during his mother’s marriage to an Indonesian man, and in his adult […]

At the inception of his administration, he had travelled to Cairo, Egypt, to deliver one of the most referenced and conciliatory speeches directed at Muslim audiences. In his childhood, Obama had witnessed the warmth and friendship a Muslim community could offer growing kids during his mother’s marriage to an Indonesian man, and in his adult life – and even now with the turn of events – Obama is a witness to America’s relentless oppression and dehumanisation of people of colour, particularly the Black people. Despite being an American therefore, Obama, because of his own exposure and personal experience, is acutely aware of the place of Nigeria in securing a respectable and proud home base for Africans, nay the Black people all over the world. It is important that Nigeria develops into a peaceful, prosperous and progressive home where Black people all over the world can look up to and Black Americans in particular and run to in order to take off the heat from the humiliation they occasionally suffer in their country.
In his one and a half years remaining, Obama needs to engage with perhaps what is Nigeria’s last chance, in terms of leadership, to help fix Africa; for when you fix Nigeria, you’ve fixed Africa. This is why President Obama’s invitation to President Muhammadu Buhari to visit the United States of America on July 20 is very significant.
President Buhari should begin now to take proper and comprehensive briefings on all aspects of Nigeria-US relations from the Foreign Ministry officials and even veterans of that diplomatic front. For a start, Buhari should put up one of his best acts while meeting a top most foreign dignitary on foreign soil. Buhari should also cut down on his heavy Hausa accent while holding bilateral talks with Obama so that the American President will hear and understand him well. Like Mobil would say, both Buhari and Nigeria have a proud past and a prosperous future, Buhari must therefore project tremendous stateliness in the course of his interaction with American President and other officials; he must not repeat or say anything near President Umar Yar’adua’s “this is the best moment in my life” or some ridiculous thing like that he was said to have uttered when he met President Bush in the White House in 2007.
Obviously, Buhari will have another shopping list with him along the lines of the earlier one he took to G-7 in Germany. Top of the list is, without doubt, the fight against Boko Haram. Buhari should impress it upon Obama that $5 million contribution so far pledged by America is to fight this menace is too little. Buhari should therefore ask for the amount to be quadrupled. Now that Boko Haram has internationalised this terrorism, including the pledge of allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, concerted efforts must be made Nigeria and all its friends at home and abroad to defeat them so that our society can regain peace. The restoration of security remains Buhari’s top priority and in this regard, America will have to also help Nigeria to retrain its soldiers and also develop an Intelligence Corps to sharpen the war on Boko Haram. Buhari should also secure Obama’s support for a meaningful American role in the rehabilitation of displaced people and reconstruction of infrastructure in the North East which has suffered the brunt of these senseless massacres.
More importantly, President Obama can assist Nigeria if he fulfils his promise to trace and repatriate the huge amount of national resources stashed in his country by our thieving elite. It’s a known secret that over the course of many years, state officials from Nigeria have bought houses and operated bank accounts from money they stole while claiming to serve citizens; if this money can be returned home, there’s no doubt Buhari’s cash-strapped government can deploy it to the provision of social services and revive our collapsed infrastructure.
Buhari should also convince Obama to get American companies to re-establish shop in Nigeria to revive our energy sector. American companies can invest in agriculture, the oil and gas industry, electricity and communication. We can benefit from technology transfer as well as employment; we have a large amount of workforce made up of young people who are willing to work. 
It is hoped that before he undertakes this visit to the United States, President Buhari will have formed his cabinet, after all, Obama has said in his invitation that he looks forward to having Buhari’s advisers sitting down with their American counterparts to discuss broad aspects of Nigeria-US relations. Therefore, Nigeria can only derive maximum benefits from this visit if the Nigeria-US Bi-National Commission goes into full scale talks.
Buhari should also make a firm offer and get Obama to accept invitation to visit Nigeria. He Buhari shouldn’t hesitate to disprove to Obama that in some African countries, state institutions are not destroyed by strongmen but by pseudo-democrats. He should be briefed and also come and see for himself what Goodluck Jonathan has made of our civil aviation agency that recalled flights mid-air (how dangerous!) because they were undertaken by political opponents, and how our Army, Police, SSS, state media, etc, were all falling over one and breaking the rules to perpetuate a government that had lost the confidence of the people.
This is a lifetime opportunity; Buhari and Obama must seize it to help restore Nigeria so it can look after its citizens and fulfil its manifest destiny. Only Obama, not another US President, in part, because of the colour of his eyes can assist Nigeria at this time.
Twitter:@Comrade Abubakar