Send special envoy to Trump, Amb. Jidda tells Tinubu

As reactions continue to trail the threat of invading Nigeria by American President Donald Trump, the immediate past Nigerian Ambassador to China, Baba Ahmad Jidda, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to deploy special envoy to the US to resolve the misconception about the alleged genocide against Christians in Nigeria. In an exclusive interview […]

As reactions continue to trail the threat of invading Nigeria by American President Donald Trump, the immediate past Nigerian Ambassador to China, Baba Ahmad Jidda, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to deploy special envoy to the US to resolve the misconception about the alleged genocide against Christians in Nigeria.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust yesterday, Ambassador Jidda, who served as permanent secretary and thereafter secretary to the Borno State government under different administrations, also advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately appoint ambassadors to the G20 and countries like the US, China, Japan, India, among others.

Ambassador Jidda said he was not surprised that China was the first country to express solidarity with Nigeria, noting that the recently signed agreement to upgrade China’s relationship with Nigeria to a comprehensive strategic partnership had placed Nigeria highly on the priority list of the Asian giant. Excerpt:

 

What is your take on the designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern by the Trump administration?

America has always been a good friend of Nigeria, and I want to believe that the president of the United States of America has been rather harsh towards a friendly country like Nigeria to the United States. So, it is unfortunate that the issues raised were done by the president himself, because I thought some of these issues would have been handled by those in charge of foreign policy, like the Secretary of State in the United States and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria.

But since President Trump decided to personally make some very implicative statements, I must say that it is unfortunate. It is very unfortunate because when the president talks, it means you have no other avenue because the buck stops with him.

 

What steps should Nigeria take now?

Nigeria should have sent a special envoy to the US to meet with President Trump. A person with requisite calibre, such as Professor Bolaji Akinyemi or Professor Ibrahim Gambari or Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, who are all former foreign ministers of Nigeria and veteran foreign policy experts. Or even the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria should have been sent with a special letter from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria to explain the situation that actually exists in Nigeria regarding the accusation of genocide against Christians. This has not been done yet, to my knowledge, and I believe it should be done if the government considers this important.

A special envoy, rather than a delegation, is an acceptable norm in diplomatic activity.

 

Do you believe there is Christians’ genocide in Nigeria?

I would be the last person to believe that kind of atrocious accusation. I am from Borno State, where the Boko Haram really started in the year 2009, and I think they literally killed all Muslims.

Everybody who was killed was a Muslim, whether a politician or ordinary person or a civil servant. They were just targeting all the elites. They were targeting all the ordinary people. They burnt mosques. They killed people while praying. In the morning, I attended burial ceremonies in Konduga, in Marte, in many local government areas of Muslims.

So, we know that between Borno and Yobe, for example, 99% of victims were Muslims. So, I don’t see any substance in the allegation that there was a genocide. You know the word genocide itself is weighty. Genocide is a deliberate, planned action to exterminate or eliminate a particular religion or a particular ethnic group. But this has not ever happened. In Nigeria, we all live together in one family, Muslims and Christians. Even our president, his wife is a pastor. So, you can see that Nigeria is a different country, and that accusation is totally unfounded, and it’s unfortunate. In my house here, my driver is a Christian, my cook is a Christian and even the person that brought you in is a Christian.

 

Are you comfortable with the government’s response so far?

To be honest with you, I am not happy with the response from, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I have seen and read a statement by a spokesperson in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This matter is a very serious matter. And we wanted to hear from the foreign minister of Nigeria on this particular issue. Not even the statement from the presidency would have served as a normal, legal, procedural way of responding to diplomatic issues. It should have been the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

And if we had  an ambassador in Washington, for example, these are where these issues, the initial responses, should have started. But so far, the response has been lukewarm. I am expecting to see a more tangible, concrete response to the accusation made by President Trump, with documentary evidence of the number of people killed, especially by Boko Haram, the number of Muslims killed, and the Christians who have lost their lives and some churches that were burned.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should have been up and doing. And like I said, it should have been a special envoy of the president by now, you know, meeting President Trump and conveying the feelings, the concerns, the worries, you know, the disappointment of the President of the Republic of Nigeria.

 

Could this issue of religion be an alibi to attack Nigeria?

There must be initial failures on the part of diplomatic relationship between Nigeria and the United States of America. Not having a substantive ambassador for two years in a strategic country like US or China is unfortunate because these issues would have been handled at initial when people complained on certain issues.

But unfortunately, people, especially some Nigerians, are also involved in propagating all this theory of genocide, extermination of Christians.

The Nigerian Intelligence Agency with our embassy in Washington, and to some extent, our permanent mission in New York, with proper leadership, would have handled this issue before it reached this level.

That is the purpose of diplomacy. Because you don’t allow issues to reach this level unless you have done little. There was nothing.

 

Are you saying that there are people that should be held responsible for not doing their homework?

The embassies are supposed to work. The embassies are supposed to have leadership. What I am saying is that we should have an experienced substantive ambassador in the US or a permanent representative in New York.

We have NIA support staff; we have experienced career diplomats attached to the embassies and to the permanent mission in New York. They would have sent correspondence and supportive facts and so on. This is their job anyway. That’s why they are in Washington. That’s why they are in New York.

If they have not done much, then it will now come to the level of our president. It shouldn’t be an issue between President Trump and President Obama. It shouldn’t. They have a structure that is supposed to support them. And what I am saying is that the structure within the context of our own system in Washington and in New York has not been able to protect our president from this issue.

 

The government always says there is no money to appoint ambassadors. Do you think the government has an excuse about money?

Yes, it is a prerogative of the president to appoint ambassadors and if the president in his own wisdom thinks that the resources available to government are not enough to support appointment of ambassadors to about 100 embassies all over the world, so be it.

But then, the Minister of Foreign Affairs also should look inwards. You do not have to appoint all 108 or so ambassadors and consulates at the same time. You can prioritise. If you appoint ambassadors to the G20, for example, you have achieved a lot.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs has tried to appoint consuls general, but a consul general is not an ambassador. The real diplomacy is done in the diplomatic mission, and that’s the embassy. So, if the ambassadors are not there for too long, especially in strategic countries like the United States, Europe, and Asia, China, and so on, then obviously you will pay the price. I think the government has to try and get the money.

 

 There have been allegations that the US, through USAID, was sponsoring the insurgency in Nigeria. Do you think it has a basis to deploy soldiers to fight the same insurgency they allegedly created?

There was a Boko Haram committee set up by the Jonathan administration. I was a member of that committee representing Borno State, and we have done a lot of work. We worked for about six months and went around prisons, interviewing Boko Haram convicts. We did a lot of work and submitted a very good report to the government. But up to today, our recommendations have not been implemented. We got information from some villagers and some Boko Haram elements that they got supplies from helicopters at night, they got supplies of arms and ammunition.  I personally thought they were French, because Borno State has borders with Niger, Chad and Cameroon, all French former colonies.

There were mercenaries, and there were people who were not known to us. Even as a committee, we couldn’t pin down the nationality of those engaged, but the allegations were there.

But it is the responsibility of the security agencies in Nigeria, for goodness sake, to know, because the National Intelligence Agency is there, the military intelligence department is there, the DSS is there. They should know whether or not these people are illegally operating within the confines of the Boko Haram area.

 

Would you link the genocide allegation to the breakdown in diplomatic relations between Nigeria and the US in recent times?

I wouldn’t know exactly who was feeding President Trump with information about Nigeria, but I know that some Nigerians are involved.

But then foreign policy sometimes is a very interesting exercise because some people are insinuating that because the Nigerian government got involved in BRICS, for instance, with South Africa, they’re active in BRICS. Obviously, BRICS is led by China, Russia, Brazil, and India. They are a body that is trying to have economic block against the dollar, and so on.

Some are saying America is not happy with that, and therefore, they want to find a way of making things difficult for our president and for our government. That is one insinuation.

Two, they think that we are too close to China in many respects, especially having signed the comprehensive strategic partnership between Nigeria and China, which I was involved.

So, we are very good friends with China. It is, therefore, not a surprise that China would talk on behalf of its friend. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

 

 With China coming out to stand for Nigeria, how does it affect the situation on the ground?

It is up to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to evaluate the involvement or support expected from a good friend like China, especially a rival to the United States.

As the ambassador of Nigeria to China for six years, I can tell you that China doesn’t interfere in the internal affairs of any country. It’s a policy. It can support you in several ways, but direct intervention, the way America or Americans are doing, is never the policy of China.

China will support you with infrastructure and development, and whatever and so on but to get militarily involved is not their style. Their foreign policy clearly states that they don’t interfere in the internal affairs of friendly countries.

So, I don’t see China coming in with arms and ammunition to fight the United States in Nigeria, but they will do a lot of diplomatic work to dissuade the United States from taking action that it is thinking of taking. And I can assure you that it will work.

 

Can we say that Nigeria is strategically not correct in showing preference to dealing with China?

Foreign policy serves interests. Whatever serves your interests and the interests of your people, you go for it. China has been supporting Nigeria with many infrastructure projects. I served there for six years and I can tell you that China has given us a lot of military support. China, even in the middle of COVID-19, has sent engineers to support the construction of the Dangote refinery. In the middle of COVID-19, they sent about 2,000 Chinese engineers to help. China has a deep legacy of support by the Chinese. The railway between Abuja and Kaduna was built by the Chinese. They were trying to support us for the AKK project, the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas project. So, what do you expect?