Why Buhari’s foreign trips are necessary – Onyeama
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, in a chat with journalists, gave an insight into the foreign policy direction of the present administration and how the foreign trips of President Muhammadu Buhari will impact on Nigerians. How is the ministry faring since you assume office? Last year when the government was formed, we undertook, with […]
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, in a chat with journalists, gave an insight into the foreign policy direction of the present administration and how the foreign trips of President Muhammadu Buhari will impact on Nigerians.
How is the ministry faring since you assume office?
Last year when the government was formed, we undertook, with President Muhammadu Buhari, a number of foreign trips. We made strategic visits to France, South Africa, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, among others, to push Nigeria’s foreign policy and shore up support for Nigeria and Africa. First of all, it is important to situate our foreign policy direction in the context of the vision of President Buhari. Ordinarily, your foreign policy is an extension of your domestic objectives. Mr President has articulated, very clearly, his vision which is focused on security, economy, and tackling corruption. The foreign policy aspect has to fit into the three pillars. So all the trips of Mr President and all our engagements are really anchored on achieving what we have identified as our domestic priorities. Africa has always been the centre piece of our foreign policy.
So our foreign policy vis-à-vis Africa also has to reflect that position of Nigeria in Africa. So, what have we done in that context? We have, in terms of security, ensured that our immediate neighbours are cooperating with us in building a secured environment. Since the President come on board, there has been an active and direct engagement with the neighbouring countries to tackle the insurgency. The president started to strengthen the multinational joint task force to engage our neighbouring countries to fight with us in curbing terrorism. Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Benin came together, and it was successful.
That coalition of countries in the framework of MNJTF has been able to completely reverse the situation in the North East. This was a result of direct foreign policy drive to engage our immediate neighbours. In the larger context with our immediate neighbours in West Africa – ECOWAS – Mr President has focused on not just ensuring security within the sub-region but also promoting democratic governance. We are at the forefront of promoting the reform of ECOWAS and over the next two years, we hope to have a recalibrated ECOWAS that will really bring a meaningful economic integration. In Africa at large, there has been a major outreach also. This has shown in the visit Mr President has undertaken to Egypt, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea and the visit of South African president to Nigeria. It is absolutely important that we have a united Africa and Nigeria is tuned to playing a role in that.
At the AU meeting in Addis Ababa in January, one of the areas President Buhari focused on was peace and security. Nigeria is at the forefront of promoting the establishment of a rapid deployment force. At the moment, our peace-keeping mission in Africa, the large part of it is funded through external sources, and it is clear that we in Africa have to play an important role in securing and ensuring peace on our continent. This is an area Mr President particularly focused on – Nigeria’s drive to have a rapid deployment force that can go to any troubled spot in Africa. And in promoting greater economic integration in Africa, we know that the level of intra-Africa trade is extremely low. Movement within the continent is also extremely difficult. We, as part of our foreign policy drive, are working hard to promoting greater ease of movement and doing business among Africans, so that we can move away from oil as our main source of earning. We also have to be taking the economic advantage of African countries. We need to encourage investment within the continent and promoting development through trade engagement amongst ourselves. This is another important plan of our foreign policy drive and Mr President has made strategic visits to African countries to shore this up.
Beyond Africa, we also engaged with other countries of the world on bilateral level. His strategic visits to the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were meant to stabilise the falling oil prices. The fact that President Buhari has been engaging with a lot of these leaders has earned him a privileged position in the negotiating process. The petroleum exporting countries are now looking onto our president to take the lead, mediate, and, with his gentle diplomacy, to try and build consensus on global oil strategy.
Also, Nigeria is working closely with international agencies to have a reformed United Nations. We are very keen to be a representative of Africa as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. A lot of our foreign engagements is really geared towards ensuring that Nigeria is at the top table to be able to speak on behalf of Africa.
In recovering stolen funds, authorities in the countries where the money are stashed often give the pre-conditions for the repatriation and equally dictate what the money should be used for. Why this, since the money is ours?
The fact that Nigerian loots were identified in the foreign countries took place some years back, before this administration came on board. That was the agreement they reached, with the World Bank serving as oversight. Obviously, one of the reasons then may be that the government might be in doubt as to the application of the money, whether it may end up in people’s pocket. In the case of the 300 million dollars we are trying to recover from the Swiss government, they claimed that it is part of their laws that there has to be mechanism for repatriation of funds stashed in their country. Though, we have a problem with that but they pointed out that if we don’t comply or object to that procedure, then it could not be certain that we will be able to get back the money. We are mindful of that, and as fast as possible we are trying to ensure what we have a say in the way the money will be returned and spent. However, the impression is not that they are dictating the application of the money. It is a monitoring mechanism to ensure that the money is spent on what we say it will be used. And if Nigerians are the beneficiaries, we can probably live with that.
In January, the federal government signed a Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement with the United Arab Emirates. And of recent, there were reports that the EFCC chairman and the Attorney-General of the Federation went to Dubai in the pursuit of looted funds. How much are we expecting to be repatriated from the UAE?
Yes, there are Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements signed by the UAE and other countries to facilitate dealings with stolen funds. UAE is one of the countries we are clearly looking at in terms of repatriating Nigeria’s resources, but how much we are looking at, we don’t have any figure in respect of that. But hopefully, it would be significant because we really need it. Oil prices being where they are, we really need to get as much of our stolen funds back as possible.
Where are we with the many bilateral agreements we signed with other countries aimed at boosting our economy?
These are really trade promotion agreements which will put in place a framework for investors to come into Nigeria. There are some investors who may not wish to come into the country unless there are some existing government-to-government bilateral agreements. Signing these agreements means that the two governments are saying to their people; go ahead, we have given you the conducive environment in which you can operate.
After one year, what should Nigerians expect from the ministry?
We are faced with severe economic challenges. What can we, as a ministry, do? We decided on economic diplomacy as the framework in which we want to operate. We have identified two areas. First, we are looking at a strategy of targeting a number of African countries to have with them an agreement for the free movement of business people within Africa in order to enlarge the economic space for Nigerian businessmen. The second is to develop a matchmaking data base where Nigerian business persons can upload information about themselves, businesses and what they want to sell to the world and this would be accessible through our 119 foreign missions. We will have an officer in each country whose task will be to go into the data base to see whose products or services could have market access in that particular country. The ministry is also looking at how to use the same method to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) where potential investors could make use of the data base with less stress to identify business partners and areas of interest for investment.
What is the ministry doing about the maltreatment of Nigerians abroad?
We do not take lightly, the wellbeing of Nigerians abroad. And of course, you know, in diplomacy, it doesn’t always help your case to stand at the roof tops and shout out what you would do or criticise other governments. The most effective way to achieve this is through silent diplomacy. So I can assure Nigerians that the wellbeing of individual Nigerians is of utmost importance to this ministry and we will go to any length whatsoever to ensure the general wellbeing of Nigerians in foreign countries, including visiting prisoners to facilitate their repatriation back to Nigeria.