Buhari’s visit to USA
President Muhammadu Buhari recently visited the United States of America at the invitation of that country’s President Donald Trump. The two-day state visit proved to be a landmark development for both Buhari and his host Donald Trump. In a geopolitically active global environment where a visit by any country’s leader to the US qualifies as […]
President Muhammadu Buhari recently visited the United States of America at the invitation of that country’s President Donald Trump. The two-day state visit proved to be a landmark development for both Buhari and his host Donald Trump. In a geopolitically active global environment where a visit by any country’s leader to the US qualifies as a testimonial of credibility by the civilized world, Buhari’s trip even as the first Sub Saharan African Head of State to visit Trump since the latter’s ascendancy to the Presidency of the United States enhanced Nigeria’s position among other countries on the continent. Just as well for Trump, the visit by Buhari offered an opportunity to warm up to the African continent whose nations were among countries he was reported to have disparaged by referring to them as ‘shithole countries.’
Nevertheless, the deeper significance of the visit rested more on the issues the two leaders brought to the table which were highlighted at the joint press conference which both leaders addressed at the end of their talks. At the conference, the US President expressed the concern of his country over the disturbing development captured in the reports of incessant killings associated with armed herdsmen. Mr. Trump wrongly presented the problem as “the killing of Christians in Nigeria,” which is not the real picture of our internal security problems since people of all faiths have been killed by bandits.
In his response Buhari addressed the crisis by highlighting its essentially regional dimensions with particular reference to the unintended fallouts from the collapse of the Gadhafi regime in Libya with attendant proliferation of uncontrolled proliferation of illegal arms across the Sahel and beyond. Incidentally Buhari’s response to the US concern captures to a large extent, at least one aspect of the crisis, even if such is the issue of the source of arms to the killer gangs. This is just as other aspects to the crisis also linger leading to the Nigerian government hosting a regional conference under the aegis of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to address the problem given its trans-border implications. It is significant that the ECOWAS trans-border security conference addressed itself to the breach of a decades-old protocol on movement of persons and animals across the region, and which is believed to be at the root of the herdsmen/farmers clashes in the country.
Buhari also expressed gratitude to the USA for the guarantee of supply of military hardware and associated facilities as well as technical support to Nigeria in the fight against terrorism which has its ugly face in Nigeria as the Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s North East. In particular, he emphasized the need for us to acquire the Super Tucano planes that will help to eradicate the insurgency. Nevertheless, beyond the foregoing is the issue of trade between the two countries which without emphasis remains at the heart of the concern of Trump and America. Until recently the trade between these two countries featured the US as Nigeria’s most important oil market which bought as much as 75% of Nigeria’s crude. With the rise of the US shale oil production that country cut down its oil imports and this led to loss of market and revenue for Nigeria. In the same vein Nigeria’s foreign trade has in recent times shifted focus to China with attendant loss of business for American interests. The situation therefore suggests that Nigeria develops more than a passing interest on how the USA will be reviewing trade relations between it and other countries.
The foregoing is strongly advised given the ultra-nationalistic posture of Donald Trump with his ‘America First’ mantra. It will not be surprising that in the course of time certain aspects of Nigeria-USA trade may undergo some adjustments, given the ongoing wide-ranging review of US trade with the rest of the world under the Trump administration. It is hoped that whenever such happens, Nigeria’s interests will not be unduly jeopardized.